How to light the wick with your hand???

Something kinda' cool I stumbled across the other day...

Light one end of the staff.
Balance the unlit end on your finger or thumb, with the top wick like a torch.
Drop the staff strait down.
Pinch the lit wick with your thumb and first+middle finger.
Toss the lit wick strait up.
Grab the unlit wick with your now lit finger tips.
Drop the staff and catch it with your other hand.
Extinguish the finger tips of your first hand (if you need to...).

Kinda cool to start out with. The torch balance deal can go on for a bit and grab peoples attention. Then when your happy with your crowd, do the little trick above. Trips a lot of non-spinners out. Practice unlit and all that, before. Safe=happy.

Its also fun to light one end and point that lit end towards the ground, then give the staff a quick tap on the ground, if done right, the top unlit wick will splatter some fuel down while the bottom flame stays around the center of the staff, fire passes yer hand and hits the top wick's fuel which send the top wisk ablaze.

very cool looking

I tried this thing the other day, but I was using the lamp oil... do you need to use white gas or something with a better flashpoint?

ya its possible with other fuels but way harder to get the transfers. white gas has more vapors er something

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum...but i thought I'd chime in on this as i have a fair amount of experience with hand transfers as i use them in my act (I'm a fire eater).
i hope this is all clear.

First. naphtha or white gas (or anything else really ) is gonna hurt. you're going to have to get used to the pain involved in performing a long hand transfer. I'd say to make it dramatic you would need 2 to 3 seconds of full flame. this is pushing the limit of not burning yourself (without some sort of protection). there are however alternatives.

first Houdini wrote a wonderful book on fire eating and fire resistance. check out chapter six which will give you some good ideas on how to increase your abilities to resit the "burn".
http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Miracle-Mongers-An-Expose-1.html

also you might consider doing this magic trick which i used to use as a hand transfer when i started my act.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmH7YgU4Rw4

a little crazy idea stuck in my head..is it possible to make a body burning show? what chemical to rub so that the fire won`t burn our skin?