How to prepare for first burn

I recently got my first fire poi and have yet to use them. I remember reading a while back that the Kevlar wicks should be soaked in water for a day, then in fuel for a day, and then can be used. I couldn't find anything today about the water soaking, or anything saying how long to soak the wicks for. Again, these are NEW wicks, never been burned. Please help, or feel free to link me to another thread if I missed it. Thanks.

Also, how long does a burn usually last for? Is it shorter if it's the first time?

i had to soak my first wicks for 12-15 hours before the first burn
if you soak them in water, then the wicks will just fill up with water, and you'll have to let them dry out for hell knows how many days.

as on the burn time, i dont really know, i was a bit too hyped up about the first burn, but they did take much longer to set alight. as you use them more, they tend to be easier to light, or atleast mine are

Yeah, dont soak them in water. You wanna try and keep em as far away from water is possible really. Water only crowds the wick and leaves less room for fuel (which doesnt really mix, specially if you use oil based fuel).

As for soaking in fuel, you can do it as long as you want, however, tests have shown that soaking new wicks for 24 hours doesnt provide any real benefits over soaking them for 10 minutes so its not really necessary. A wick can only hold so much fuel and you always spin excess fuel off before lighting them so leaving them soak for long periods of time doesnt really do much. But if youre superstitious or just wanna be overly precautious, go for it.

Burn times vary depending mostly on your wick style/size and which fuel you use. If you have tube cores, youll probably only get about 4-5 mins from them with lamp oil. Cathedrals will give you about 6 - 7, and monkey fists should reach around 10+. Wicks generally will burn a tad shorter and with smaller flames for the first few burns, after 5 or so they should hit their peaks.

Ok...I'm not sure I came up with that water stuff...I guess I just imagined it. Anyway, thanks. Now all I have to do is make it through this weekend without lighting my hair on fire.

don't try any new moves with fire that you can't do blind folded and behind your back with normal poi For some reason messing up is alot easier with fire and has alot more problems when you do
Good luck and enjoy your first burn!
I still remember mine...all my friends thought I was stupid and making an ass of my self...
but then again, that hasn't changed much since then.
Man I really need more spinners around here.

I didn't soak my wicks for any longer than I do before every burn, first time out of the bag. They still work fine.

Have fun with your first burn, it took me til my SECOND to set my hair on fire so you might wanna watch out for that

Well, I made it through my first (and second) burns without any injuries. I must say it is quite a bit of fun. I finally have some motivation to learn some new moves after about 2 years of not learning anything. I'm also considering trying some other fire arts, and I was wondering about fire-breathing fuels. From what I've read it seems like blowbacks are possible with any kind of fuel, so it seems like drinking alcohols would be a good choice, since they are obviously not toxic to ingest. I certainly feel a lot more comfortable putting some high proof rum in my mouth then some potentially carcinogenic (among other things) kerosene in my mouth. What makes kerosene so good?

The fact that you don't get drunk when using it? I'd rather not be even slightly intoxicated if I'm going to be Fire Breathing. It's like trying to get in trouble instead of just asking for it.
Blowbacks are more likely with alcohol as it has a lower flashpoint than parafin does (if I remember correctly).
Read this:
http://www.homeofpoi.com/articles/FireSafety.php

Yeah, alchohol is a rather poor choice for breathing fuel actually. Aside from the alchohol absorbing through your mouth making you drunk, it has a high chance of blow back. Not to mention, you cant really get as big a flame with alchohol. Paraffin/Lamp Oil/Kerosene is really what you wanna use. But do a search, theres tons of info on Fire Breathing all over this site.

I'm not planning to do it for a performance or anything, I would just be trying it for the first time and probably only aspirating once or twice. I don't think I'd be getting very drunk, and even if I did, it wouldn't be during the five minutes I'd actually be trying to breathe fire. The flash point thing makes sense, I guess that's what I was looking for.

Those fire safety pages say to treat re-packaged (unpure) kerosene as if it was "highly toxic," and also says that pure kerosene is the safest for Fire Breathing. My question is, If I have the potentially "highly toxic" kerosene, can I use it? Is high proof drinking alcohol safer then potentially "highly toxic" kero? It seems like I am going to make a decisions between potentially poisoning myself or using a fuel that has a greater chance of lighting my face on fire. Im not sure which of those is worse.

Let's say I just put a little kerosene in my mouth and spit it out, and I do this 5 times maybe. Can I absorb enough doing that to have any ill effects?

Look, please don't use alcohol, for all of the above reasons, just don't, very low flash point, flashbacks along the vapour trial, probability of igniting clothing and or parts of face, as well as the intoxicating effects of uptake through the soft tissue linnings in the mouth.

mark

The answer to your hypothetical is no, not really. Unless of course youre highly allergic. You can swallow around 2 tbsp of kero before its really bad for you. The worst you should get from the fuel itself is irritated skin around your mouth and possibly diarrhea. If you swallow more than 2 tbsp you should see a doctor/hospital.

Alcohol is a little bit safer to have in your mouth since its not really toxic but when it comes to actually breathing fire with it, its much safer to use kero.