How loose the wick?

so, I've been fooling around now with my nice happy new staff that I have never lit because its winter and the weather sucks, I havnt had a good spin in months because my back has been hurt (its getting better now!) and our secret spinning spot is now totally visible to the rest of the world, but anyway. have been practicing with the staff inside in the dance studio and been dropping it a lot on the nice carped floor so the wicks are taking a beating and somewhat loosening off. so how loose do i let the wicks get before i screw them back on?

Pere

I totally messed up my staff by having loose wicks and dropping it a lot on concrete. Im thinking now about canvas bags to protect my wicks when practicing. And have decided the tighter the better.

I was thinking of pre-soaking my wicks and putting them on wet. A messy bisnis ill grant you but as it drys it should get tighter yeah? Any thoughts?

Love

Nics

This is a particular problem for me until I started replacing my staffs every 4-6 months anyway.

I tend to bend them, loosen the wicks and sometimes dig sharp edges out of the ends too much.

What I've found useful when I would keep a bent staff for a long time and the wick loosened was to wrap another piece of kevlar tightly around them whenever they started getting loose.

if you do this early enough, you don't get a "bubble" of kevlar forming under the new wick and it's quick and easy.

I also have 3 practice staffs that i use without actual wick on anyway, just old t-shirt cotten wrapped around them.

This saves on me destroying my performance staffs when trying enw things (i.e constantly dropping them).

Does that help at all?

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Charles (INFERNO)

newdolbel@hotmail.com
http://juggling.co.nz

Yeah practise staffs is something i've being meaning to get together for a while now. The wicks on my staves are getting completely hammered and at about AU$60 for a set of wicks, I can't really affort to put new ones on all the time. Besides, I do the majority of my twirling unlit so practise staves makes sense.

As for loose wicks, if you can undo them and then tighten them up again, you will save them a lot of wear and tear.

You can always do what I did. My wicks are attached to my staff by an eye bolt, an "s" link, and a snap hook (like on a dog leash).
I always preferred the cathedral fold wicks and had to do some engineering to make it work. It makes it really easy to change from regular wicks to practice wicks. It also adds momentum to my staff and makes it much easier to pull off some of the more technical moves. So whenever I drop my staff I don't have to worry about loosening my wicks.

detachable wicks ey sickpup? This sounds good. Could you give more detail on how you set it up?

so, are these clip on wicks sort of wobbly on the ends of the staff? for instance if you hold the staff horizonatal do the wicks dangle from it? is it a wooden staff? I assume so if you have eyebolts on it, so how do you keep the wood from singing and loosening the eyebolts?

I'd be curious to see a picture of it..

Pere

Me too. If it's fairly stable and can handle drops, then transport of two wicks and a pole would be much easier than a big dirty fire staff.

Bring on more info please SP...

please..?

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Charles (INFERNO)

newdolbel@hotmail.com
http://juggling.co.nz

Sorry can't send a pic as both my scanner and my digital camera are elsewhere. I will however, describe it here as best I can.

This design is a little hard to do if you don't have access to a lathe or a drill press, it can still be done, just makes it much more time consumeing.
What the staff is, is a peice of five foot by 3/4 inch copper tubing, with a peice of two inch by 3/4 inch hardwood dowel held into the ends by screws through the side of the staff. Through the inside of the dowel is a 1/4 inch eye bolt held on each side by a nut, a lock washer, and a reg. washer. The nuts are frozen to the bolt with JB Weld. Then Snap hooks are attached to the eye bolt with an "s" link.

There are two problems with this design that I've found so far. First: if you don't freeze the nuts on the eye bolt, you have to constantly check them because they come loose rather easily, this is why the JB Weld is important. Secondly, having wicks that flail creates a lot more torque wich slows you down a bit, and you have to be careful because the wicks end up in diffirent places then you'd be used to with a regular staff.

On the plus side, It has more torque, making it easier to pull off some of the more technical wraps, palm spins ext.. Changing wicks is completely painless, and the body of the staff doesnt heat up because of all the things in between the body and the wick to diffuse the heat.
I've dropped the staff at least a hundred times and it has not so much as a dent. I think because the ends are plugged, doing that cool air pressure thing that makes it possible to drive a drinking straw through a potato.
I think, soon, I might dissasemble some Nunchucks for the ball bearing swivel, to get a little smoother action on the wick play, but over all this design works really well.

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If you love something, set it on fire.

[This message has been edited by SickpuPpy (edited 17 December 2001).]

*Bump*

For those of you who asked for it.
Everyone else please disregaurd

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If you love something, set it on fire.

uh it was already at the top!

picturepicturepicturepicture!

Pere

i found my wicks on a broken staff in a field 2 years ago and ive transplanted them between 5 staffs. theyre starting to look really messed up but amazingly it still works absolutely fine, they even burn longer and use les fuel than my mates brand new firestaf. but alas i dont think theyll be with me much longer