Life of a kevlar wick?

is there any life span?

Always make sure you buy from reputable dealer. Ive seen one lot of "kevlar wick" die in a night. Mine are still good years on.

the more they hit the ground the shorter the life span becomes.

more like...
the more you use them, the shorter the life span.


It's like a car really - a car you buy, then keep in airtight storage will last much longer than a car you drive 100 miles every day

http://www.homeofpoi.com/articles/wick_care.php

If you do a search of the forums you can also find other tips for making them last longer. I've only had mine for a couple weeks now and they're fine, but it seems that a good set of wicks should last for quite a long time.

This question came up at the performance troupe I run, I have two of the early builds that I have been making for people over the last six years, these were the original design that I subsequently refined and been supplying to members there after.

Nothing special, standard tube poi, which are now generally used for teaching purposes, and thus have a fairly heavy usage pattern, looking at them critically last night they are a little thinnner on kevlar now, otherwise little deterioration. If the burning time was assessed, I would guess a reduction would be noticable.

I also have heavy duty performance fire staff that I have been making for a similar period and supplying, some of the early examples are still eminently usable.

mark

I generally find that my wicks last a couple of years... they are still usable after that but they become frayed and tatty and therefore not usable during a gig!

You don't want bits of flaming wick disintergrating over your audience!

It all depends on how much you use them (and that includes un-lit).

Well I rarely replace wicks more just the whole staff (I know, not eco-friendly e.t.c) but by the time they need replacing the whole thing is usually bent and messed up anyway. But about 2 years.

You can greatly increase the life of your wicks by creating some sturdy covers for the ends - for use when you're not setting them on fire. (I hope that last comment wasn't really necessary!)

I've found denim from an old pair of jeans attached using hair bands works best.

Also, you could try a beer cozee with the bottom of a gatorade bottle fitted inside.....just need the right size bottle to fit your wick.

Mine are just over a year old and have been spun every few weeks for quite a while. They are also still good.