Burning in a staff's wicks

i heard you have to burn each wick 6 times before twirling

true?

I have never heard six times
I eat/breath and swing fire and I will tell you that I burn my wicks once to get them blackened before I even rehearse with them.
The flame tends to burn hot, bright and sometimes inconsistent on new wicks I have found so I like to burn them down before putting them near my mouth!!! That habit just carried over into poi, though I suspect that big, bright initial burn might be good for the opening to a show.
Have fun, happy burning and if I were you..I wouldn't waste burning my wicks 6 times...not when once is enough for me! Happy burning!
Pele

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Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

hey tcw :)

heh.....6 times? load of bollocks ;) hehehe

For staff, I'd say you just need to give it a little while for the flame to catch before you start spinning. Because the flames are far away from your body, you should be okay (Assuming you're not new to staff in general, in which case burn off first!). The flame might be a little different the first time, but there's no reason not to spin with it :) Just take it easy and don't do anything you're uncomfortable with.

Still, it might be worth burning off once if you want to. One thing to remember if you do this....turn the staff. I don't mean spin it...but say if you're burning off with the staff on the ground....roll it along a bit every so often, so that the wicks burn evenly.

have fun,
x