Great Boomember
12 posts
Location: Rotherham(Leeds soon!)


Posted:
Saw someone a while back juggling with 3 "balls of fire", but didnt get the chance to ask how they were made.Well,finally have some time on my hands an fancy making a set of these.Anyone any ideas??

Cheers
Boo

ps. I did do a search for this but it came up with about 3,000,000,000,000 results.If this topic has already been done then just point me in the right direction an i'll stop wasting eveyones time

All men are born madSome stay that way


tadpoleGOLD Member
enthusiast
200 posts
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe, United Kingdom


Posted:
Surely you'd need gloves of some sort, then it could be quite a simple matter of juggling with wicks. Not sure where kevlar gloves could be found

Don't worry, be happy...


Singed Piper (formerly Mark1)resident bagpiper
342 posts
Location: Vermont, USA


Posted:
you make a wire cage in a sherical shape and suspend a wick by wire in the middle

/ | \
--W--
\ | /

w is wick

these can also be bought at many juggling retailers. you don't need gloves to use these, but it is recommended especially if you want to stop the motion at any point in your routine

Q:What's the difference between the Great Highland Bagpipes and the Northumbrian Pipes?
A:The Great Highland Pipes burn longer.


DurbsBRONZE Member
Classically British
5,689 posts
Location: Epsom, Surrey, England


Posted:
I've seen two types of fire ball:
The wire cage version described above and another version which is simply wick wrapped around a wooden (possibly) ball.

Gloves are recommended for both - the metal cages get VERY hot and the fully covered balls can leave fuel on your hands. The gloves are kevlar and you need to soak them in water.

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude


CharlesBRONZE Member
Corporate Circus Arts Entertainer
3,989 posts
Location: Auckland, New Zealand


Posted:


Kevlar kevlar kevlar...Why use kevlar gloves? Especially soaked in water? That's really dangerous!!!!!

If anything goes wrong, the steamburns you might get on your hands could leave you disabled for life!

Maybe these have been used a lot with no problems, but that doens't mean the possibility of steam burns isn't there.

This is really creeping me out...hot water and steam burns just as much as a flame, so i would never have soaked items of clothing next to my skin when using fire of any sort. Mayeb an outer layer at the most.


Here's a new thought, which is pretty old really, fireproof and heatproof stuff doesn't have to be made out of kevlar. Seriously.

There's all sorts of heat resistant gloves on the market. and none of them require soaking in water first. Best place to go is into an industrial safety shop, look in yellow pages under safety or clothing.


Please please please don't soak your gloves in water before fire juggling

[ 25. July 2003, 13:18: Message edited by: Charles ]

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onewheeldaveGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,252 posts
Location: sheffield, United Kingdom


Posted:
It's not a problem Charles, I've done a lot of experiments with gloves for juggling fire balls over the years.

Never found a combination that works satisfactorly but never encountered steam burns.

You do have to be careful cos after a time ranging from a few seconds to a minute, the heat gets too much, but water on the gloves definitly prolongs the time they work for and makes it safer as the gloves don't ignite when soaked with water.

It also stops them absorbing the paraffin which otherwise would cause them to ignite.

To anyone who tries it make sure that the gloves aren't tight in case you have to get them off quickly, and be aware that when the heat does penetrate it does so very quickly and you should have a bucket of water nearby for quick cooling.

Surprisingly, all the gloves I've bought from industrial supplies have been useless, they ignite after 30 seconds.

I've never tried the commercialy available fire juggling/water soaked kevlar gloves sets; has anyone else, and how good are they?

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32


Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!


onewheeldaveGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,252 posts
Location: sheffield, United Kingdom


Posted:
Actually, I've just realised that the quick penetration of heat may be what Charles meant by steam burns.

Although I've never felt in danger when trying the fire balls that's mainly cos I have a bucket of water nearby to plunge my gloved hands into when they get hot or ignite.

I just want to stress that a bucket of water is a really good idea and that without it these kind of experiments could be really dangerous.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32


Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!


CharlesBRONZE Member
Corporate Circus Arts Entertainer
3,989 posts
Location: Auckland, New Zealand


Posted:
Oh dear here we go, two mad unicyclists arguing on HoP again...

OnewheelDave - I know this is hard to understand, it took a fireman's long indepth discussion and a picture of a steamburned child for me to get it fully.

A body of water (a bucket, a pool or a lake) is not as great an idea as a lot of people think.

If your gloves start to give you steamburns, plunging them in water will slow the buring process a little, but it will still be causing you serious damage for ages until it properly cools. Steam and water interact very differently to water of different temperatures, they don't diffuse each other anywhere near as much as you would think.

People who have caught themselves or clothes on fire can give themselves 3rd degree steamburns by jumping in a body of water. There a reasonable chance that the water immediately surrounding a hot body will turn to steam. That steam can then get trapped between the skin on the person and the outer layer of water, and burn burn burn burn burn...

What worries me is you statement that you have done this heaps of times with no problems...

Whenever dealing wiht fire, you need to EXPECT problems, even if it has never happened before. The human, propoerty and financial cost of expecting problems barely registers when compared to the cost of NOT expecting problems.

Especially when dealing with your hands, that can be rendered useless by third degree burns. Do you really want to risk losing the use of your hands?

The more you do something with fire the more chance something will happen because it's not like like machine or juggling ball. It's more like Windows, does the same thing hundreds of times in a row and then suddenly goes all to hell just at the worst possible moment.

Please, buy a fire extinguisher, fire blanket and don't trust that bucket of water too much.

In my opinion, of course...

HoP Posting Guidelines
* Is it the Truth?
* Is it Fair to all concerned?
* Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
* Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?


onewheeldaveGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,252 posts
Location: sheffield, United Kingdom


Posted:
I'm quite intrigued by this, as I said before I've never had any problems even when dunking ignited gloves into water to extinguish them.

However, as you say, just because I've done it loads of times doesn't mean it can't go wrong.

Could you clarify the circumstances in which people have recieved steam burns, is it literally when there's a major sustained fire on their clothes cos then maybe it wouldn't apply to a small just started fire on a glove?

I do respect your opinion cos I'm safety orientated myself, far more so than most of the spinners I know.

I guess my feeling is that ALL fire stuff is dangerous and I have to set a personal level for myself.

For example I'll spin fire poi and meteors but won't fire breathe.

At the moment I consider fire glove juggling experiments with water present as being on a similar danger level to poi/meteors spinning.

But I'm more than willing to be further educated on this matter.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32


Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!



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