Fire poi made completely out of kevlar

quick google comparison, white spirit flash point arround 21c, paraffin anything 73c to 160c.

ie: BAAAaaaaaad idea.

it'll burn very fast, and high temp, major risk to you, and will wear out your poi.
fuel container likely to explode.

Bad idea.
You might have heard of USA people burning white GAS. Which is like butane I think, camping gas. And not a good idea unless you are in a culture that is very experienced with its use, as it is explosive. (Though some benefits are little residue on wicks and flashy flame apparently)

But white spirit, no. That is more like methylated spirits/turps... crap flame, nothing going for it.

and hey, *does double take* what's this question doing in here? Have a search for 'fuel' in the threads, fantasia, there's loads of discussion on it elsewhere. *said nicely not like telling off*

I've spent the best part of 6 hours today playing with hanle ideas, head knots etc and I think I've come up with a combination that will work for wibbles and throws.
I've been wanting (already spent about 15 minutes this afternoon fire wibbling with some lovely big flames).

Just need to get some new kevlar rope on order and I should have a set ready for Play and the ensuing festivals

cool. can you make me a pair and sell them to me at PLAY?

I'm very reluctant to sell any as I don't have any real standards for quality control or safety.

The handle I'm looking to use is basically just a large bouncy ball- it will be too big for many peoploes preferences I'm sure.

I'll happily show you how I build mine (assuming they work as well as I expect them too)- last year it was possible to buy wick at the site, but this year I guess that might not be the case- bring some rope with you?

To me it simply sounds like an awful waste of kev...

Monkey fist on kev rope = snakes with monkey heads

(interesting but still, limited moves - much like with snakes)

The whole point of making these is to not limit, and to improve feel so that basically you can play with fire in much the same way as you cansocks. The fire aspect will always restrict somewhat, but in general I think these will spin and more importantly feel better than most off the shelf fire poi.

We'll see eh?

hmm get it... One would think that burning rope rubbing at each other might hurt the kev/ that buzzsaws and wraps get incredibly challenging...

New rope arrived at my desk 5 minutes ago

Picture of the new set, unburnt, in my gallery

Testing this weekend (weather permitting):

http://www.homeofpoi.com/gallery/showpho...=500&page=1

They're rather yummy, i look forward to playing with them

whats with the black handle bits? what are they made of?

Bit of sock with a ball in- sock could be white, balls could be glowy- they're big so they are nice and predictable for wibbles- the weight alos makes them a bit more forgiving and properly offsets the weight of the soaked wick.

hmmm, but when the inevitable happens and the handle is catches fire, it'll perish pretty fast.

i like the fact with the whole kevlar ones that if a handle goes up, you can just stomp on it a couple of times then pick it up and carry on spinning. But if there are socks then they'll be a bit smouldery and falling-aparty

yehas thats true- Its been a while and i haven't played with fire for ages, though i did wibble a tester one of these the other day and didn't have any probs, despite dropping them a few times.. I guess i could always get some kevlar wrist guards and use those as the sock...

How did you drop yours BTW? I know you don't throw (at least you never used to?)

they look really nice.
when i soak them how can i stop the fuel from travelling up the rope?

I was looking into that a while ago but never got around to properly testing out my plan (using kevlar string to help stop the fuel wicking up the rope).

At the moment though, you've just got to make sure you don't soak them for ages - just long enough to fill the heads with fuel but not long enough for it to wick up the rope as well.
Obviously only dipping the heads into the fuel helps with that, although it has been known for people to throw the whole lot into the fuel bucket - you've got to watch for that or someone's going to end up with warm hands

theorising wildly here, but aren't there flame retardent solutions (that set so you don't have to do it too regulally but don't solidify like glue stopping the rope moving), you could soak carefully into handles and let it flow up the rope a bit, stopping before the head obviously.
Then the rope would have hopefully hit it's absorbency limits and not take up too much fuel.

after short google, something like : http://www.natfire.com/flamex.html or http://www.dharmatrading.com/featured_products/frtqt.html

but you'd have to have separate handles, or covers, or maybe there's a version that's less of a skin irritant out there.

Certainly worth some more research,California banned PBDE's (Poly-Brominated Diphenyl Ethers, according to 2nd link) contained in some retardant liquids, so that's worth avoiding for a start I'm sure.

It may not have to be fire retardent, simply not flammable itself, as long as it helps prevent the rope soaking up the fuel, the kevlar itself is plenty retardant enough.

I'd search more but it's time for sleep

I did look into that a while back Yakumo- my concern was that it might make the ropes properties different and thus actually weaken the material as it was exposed to heat.

In other news, I had my first burn with them last night- a bit different to what I'm used to, but they felt absolutely brilliant- wibbles and throws were predictable and beautifullly weighted with the heads dipped and lit

Video was taken, so that should be up by the end of the weekend (like I'm going to edit in the day when the weather is like this! )