How do i weight to my staff?

My home made staff did me proud last night and the few who used it said it was real good for a first effort. I want it a tiny bit heavier though but i'm unsure how i can do this. The middle has dowelling the entire length, it does'nt have wicks on the end as i'm not going near fire for a while yet, instead it just has a few inches of pipe insulation wrapped around the ends more for protection than anything else.

What do you do to add weight? I'm not too keen on getting a thicker bar as my 3/4 inch pipe does me nicely. The only other pipe in the shop was iron, but that looked and felt a lot more bendable than what i'm using. Then again, i guess theres more chance of strain injuries with a heavy one.

Decisions decisions

Calv.

why don;t you add wicks, there's no need to light them if the time isn't right.
the benefit will be that you will be perfectly conditioned to the wieghting when the time comes to spark up. just be careful about fraying - practice with the wicks covered or over grass.

i like yoo.

my practice staffs are just made out of broomsticks of varying lengths and thicknesses, gives me a good variation of weight/length etc..... means also I can use a lighter staff for practising a new move or a heavier staff for building up stamina

Thanks for that, i'll have a think about the wicks but i know what i'm like, and the slightest bit of skill i gain, i'll be too tempted to light up! Burns unit here i come!

I may have a look at thicker and heavier pipes actualy, i like the idea of it being used as a form of fitness as well as an art.

Thanks again,

Calv.

... with fuel, my wicks were (are?) always significantly heavier than without... enough to seriously affect my spinning... is this actually not normal?

I mean, I enjoy practicing with peoples lightweight firestaffs, but I always assumed it was a bit impractical cause mine's nothing like that lit....

do i just make seriously retarded staffs?

I'm thinking of glueing a few 1p coins together and padding them out so they fit exactly into the end of my staff, that should add a fair bit of weight to it.

Calv.

regarding the fuel, paraffin weighs about .817g/ml so if your wicks hold a litre of fuel then this could be almost a kg of extra weight. More likely to hold about half a litre or less total though so this would be about 200g extra weight on each end - enough to make a noticable difference anyways.
I find that the drag caused by the flames is the most significable factor when lit tho

PS: Calv, it's not actually all that easy to hospitalise youself spinning firestaff, so long as you have 28g or so of common sense, so get yourmates together and give it a go
Just wear a hat - hair burns much much better than skin

*bump*

My current 1.5m staff could use a bit more weight for contact. I spent a lot of time with it practicing while covering the wicks with thick socks adding weight and a LOT of drag. Upon removing the socks from my staff during a practice session, it took off and nearly ended up next door.

Weighting suggestions?

My new practice double is allmost 800g each, nearly as fueled kevlar ones
Big contact staff also 800g for now.
And new big single somewhere about 3kg when fueled (uses about 2.5-3litres of kero )
I think, you should just train not to depend on staff weight too much. Anyway, when burned, it loses at leas 1/3 of it's weight when fuel goes out.

I was given a suggestion the other day for me making a practice staff and (tries to think who told her) but try wrapping cloth as if it wwere wicks and tape it up this would give nerly the same weight as wicks - maybe see thread practice staff?

Hope this hellps good luck

bicycle inner-tubes!

FREE when you go to a bike shop and ask for old ones
and it is quite dense so it carries a bit more weight than wicking,
but hey you can put as much or as little as you want on... cause its free!

I even put a length around my wicks to add extra weight and protection.

you just have to make one cut up one side and then its perfect!

did i mention its FREE!!!

woah I'm post whoring today.