gretelmember
47 posts
Location: sydney, australia


Posted:
alright now maybe i am just stupid but i dont know....
after playing with staff for a while i purchased poi the other day.... lit them up and couldnt put them out.... and so it happened that they kept burning until the wicks were complelety gone... did i do something wrong or were they just poor quality? i have no teacher and just play by myself.... sorry im kinda clueless....?

Paddyback from the dead...sort of
884 posts
Location: 43°41'N 79°38'W


Posted:
What were they made of? Most poi are made of kevlar, which is fireproof and can be used hundreds of times before they no longer hold enough fuel to be effective. It sounds like you had some cloth wicks, which only last a few burns, and it sound like they burned themselves out in just one.

If you play by yourself, I guess you can't compare your material against anyone else, so we'll have to firgure this out ourselves. Was the material yellow? Did it look like the stuff shown here?

PeleBRONZE Member
the henna lady
6,193 posts
Location: WNY, USA


Posted:
I want to also add that it is a good idea to "condition" any wicks you might have in the future..by doing a quick dip (not soak) in fuel and lighting them, then putting them out after a short while. Some people do this once, some three, I know of one person who does it ten times.
Somehow it really does help the longevity of the wicks I find.

Now, I agree that your wick should not have "burnt away", even if it were terry cloth, towel, denim or other fabric that does not last as long. I think it is pretty safe to say it was not kevlar. What fuel did you use? Did you spin/shake or squeeze the excess off?

And more importantly...why didn't you just put them out? If you thought there was a problem, all you had to do was put it out.

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK


Astarmember
1,591 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada.


Posted:
I just realized why conditioning wicks works. It always seemed nonsensical to me.

It builds up carbon on the wicks. If you put it out soon enough it doesn't build up enough heat to damage the kevlar. If you do this multiple times it builds up a nice coating.

People do this for pipe smokeing to. You very gently smoke maybe half a bowl a few times to build up a good cake of carbon so you don't burn the wood out.

AdeSILVER Member
Are we there yet?
1,897 posts
Location: australia


Posted:
This might seem like an odd question gretel - but did you in fact put fuel on your wicks, or just light them cold?


And where did you buy your wicks?

FlyntSILVER Member
Intrepid Penguin
5,635 posts
Location: Australia


Posted:
and from a safety side of things:

Its very helpful to bring a wet towel with you when spinning. If your wicks wont go out at the end of the spin, just roll them in the wet towel, and your problem is fixed.

Its also worth mentioning, that you should NEVER spin on your own. Always have a buddy with you to act as a safety `

Currently on the right side up of the world.


gretelmember
47 posts
Location: sydney, australia


Posted:
thanks for the responses guys...
i had thought that they were kevlar... at least they did look like it but they most not have have been... as for conditioning them i was trying to... the thing was we couldnt get them out... i hadnt seen that happen before...
and dont worry i dont twirl by myself, me and my friends do it together its just that we our all as inexperianced as each other...
hmmm yeah we had the wicks wrapped in a wet towel and tryed to not let them have any air and they get on smouldering... the material must have just been cloth.... they were only very cheap and i have only used decent equipment in the past so um yeah...
anyway thanks..
gret

gretelmember
47 posts
Location: sydney, australia


Posted:
oh and in reponse to ur qn... i use kero and i do spin and shake any excess and yes ade i did use fuel on them... and i had soaked them for a couple of hrs before i used them because this is what i had always been told to do before lighting a new wick...

NYCNYC
9,232 posts
Location: NYC, NY, USA


Posted:
As the only human being to have done a side by side, scientific experiment I can safely say:

Pele is a liar. Ignore her.

Conditioning wicks does nothing. It is an urban legend spread by people whom are taller than me.

I don't care how much longer "these wicks last than the ones I made two years ago" last because you're using them differently. People talk this way all the time. I have actually found that my first pair of wicks which I DIDN'T condition have lasted much longer than my current pair which ONE has been conditioned.

Make a pair of wicks, condition one and don't condition the other. If you actually find that the one you conditioned lasts longer, good, you've proven nothing.

If you actually prove that the one that is conditioned lasts longer MORE THAN HALF THE TIME, congrats, you've proven me wrong.

We talk about this often and everyone always tells me about a cousin that they had who saw a video of a guy who said he once had a really smart freind who said that conditioning really helps.

I DID this experiement and found NO difference in wicks. And as far as I know, I'm the ONLY one who did this experiment.

Until a SIDE BY SIDE test is done by someone OTHER THAN ME:

You guys are liars.

{For those of you who don't know me, I'm kidding in my gruff presentation to my buddy Pele but serious in my intent. }

Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]


DJ DantanaBRONZE Member
veteran
1,495 posts
Location: Stillwater, Ok. USA


Posted:
sorry.... But I am going to have to agree with NYC on this one.

I have used "conditioned wicks" and "raw wicks"
and there is no noticable difference.

They both seem to last a realy long time.

They actually look exactly the same after a few burns......nice coat of carbon.

However, in the spirit of science, When I start my next set, I will purposely not condition one and condition the other (carefully marked of course)

we eat and we drink and we smoke and we try!


Astarmember
1,591 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada.


Posted:
I still like my theory.

The accuracy of it doesn't matter.

FlyntSILVER Member
Intrepid Penguin
5,635 posts
Location: Australia


Posted:
I'm going to agree with the Lads on this one.

I think you'd find if there was a difference, it would only be by a few weeks at most.

Currently on the right side up of the world.


RoGOLD Member
member
57 posts
Location: Kamloops, B.C, Canada


Posted:
the woman that built my poi ALWAYS uses me as "research and development" because of my particular style of spinning. If it's fragile, I'll break it... If it lasts, then not even a dump truck can destroy it. So I have a little experiance with construction. My advice:

with wicks I find you should take care and not beat them together, or on the ground to put them out (that's a no brainer I think). This can lead to fraying down the road. If it frays you might need to tie it with something to keep it held together. DON'T tie it with something metal, like wire... Instead use something like a fiberglass thread... Doesn't conduct heat, that can lead to branding of the skin if it does come in contact

another thing you should keep in mind is different kinds of fuel that you'll use... If you use a fuel that burns hot, chances are the wick won't last as long, as compared to a fuel that burns at a lower temperature...

hope this is some help to you

Fire Mamamember
53 posts
Location: West coast gal,Canada


Posted:
Agian...check out the type of wick you got. My first poi, I got in Thailand, and they were cotton...very famous for not going out and becoming an exravegant show of orange glowin fire embers after a few minutes. The whole conditioning thing....well that's up in the air. I've only spun with fibreglass( the stuff that you put around your wood stove door.....it works wonders and goes out like a charm) but am about to get lots of Kevlar in the mail. I have faith in the stuff. Is it Kevlar that you are playing with?

Thru meditation I program my heart to beat break beats and hum bass lines on exhilation....



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