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Forums > Technical Discussion > can I use towel for a substitude for kevlar?
Login/Join to ParticipatePosted:i have been using towel on ny poi wiks and I notice that the go out easy is there a way that i could still use towel still but make it stay lit?the closest place to get kevlar would bee a 2 hour drivepeace out
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Posted:Hmm. Usually towel wicks will stay lit longer than kevlar wicks. There are two things you might be doing wrong:1. Not letting them soak long enough. Give them a long time--like 5 minutes.2. Binding the wicking too tightly. Obviously you don't want them to fall apart, but the toweling will tend to swell when you soak it--if it is bound too tightly to swell, it won't soak up as much fuel.You can get kevlar online at www.renegadejuggling.com
Laugh while you can, monkey-boy
DeletePosted:Hey there,when I was starting out with fire torches i couldnt find kevlar anywhere.. nobody knows what it is appearently.. i tried a bunch of "other" things for wicking... i honestly would use towel. for some sick reason nomatter how tight i bound it down it burned way to fast id get maybe half a use out of a torch.. and id get flying chunks of flammimg terry cloth comming off. i then persueded someone to let me use there c reddit card and i orded it off this site.. much better plan i think...i felt like i should warn ya..(2 hour drive?? id go for it.. i live in canada and the only place i could find the stuff was new zealand)
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Posted:Weird, I use towels and I CAN'T get them to go out. I have to throw a damping towel over them at the end. I also bind them in 8 bar cages that I twist down as tight as I can.. I could give someone a bruse if I hit them with a towel wick, that's how tight I make them. I use about 1 1/2 by 2 foot kitchen towels. For some reason even with the 8 bar cage they still find someway to wrigle out befor they are burnt to a crisp.------------------We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonMost Memerable crowd saying "Hey look that dude's gonna set himself on fire again!"
We are all in the cosmic movie. That means the day you die you watch your whole life repeating for eternity. So you'd better have some good things happen in there and have a fitting climax. --Jim MorrisonIt's going to come from a direction you didn't predict at a moment of chaos which you didn't see coming. -- NYC
DeletePosted:FYI, home depot or any hardware/camping store that carries kerosine lamps or heaters will have replacement wicks. I don't know if they're kevlar, but they Are made for use with kerosine. Lantern wicks would be more appropriate, because they're usually a one inch strip, whereas a heater wick usually resembles a mop head, but they should work in a pinch.
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Posted:this might sound really silly, but i am gonna ask anyways,What do u mean by towel? So u mean like kitchen towel paper stuff? or as in towel you use after having a shower??
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Posted:Brain Muffin--I've seen that sort of wick too. It's made out of fiberglass. As a material, fiberglass is fine for poi wicks, though the stuff I've seen at the hardware store is too small to be useful.Golden Crispy--We're talkin' bath towels here. Terrycloth. I have actually made one-shot wicks using shop rags, which are basically heavy paper towels.
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DeletePosted:I made some towel wicks the other day but I havent got round to using them yet.I've been told it is only good for one burn but my mum was gonna throw them out anyway so why not burn em??
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DeletePosted:Try rolling up a cheap wash cloth for each wick and secure with a wire cage. I usually get about 8-10 burns per wick. A pack of 10 washclothes at Wal-Mart costs $2.50 so that comes to around 40 burns total. I'm all about the cheap burns.
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DeletePosted:You use the ordinary bath or kitchen towels. The reason why yours probally didnt burn too long is either because 1) it wasnt thick enough with enough towel or 2) it was wound too tightly and not enough exygen could get to the flame.My friend introduced me to towel wicks in the cages that Supafly mentioned. It works great. Use LOTS of towel for a big long flame and dont wrap the towel too tightly.One downfall of the towel (especially if it's windy) is you will inevitably get flying pieces of burnt towel as it burns through. That's part of the deal with using towels.As far as getting wicks, I bought mine online here: http://www.toddsmith.com
until I realized that they sell them in my town at a local magic shoppe. Kelvar wick is super easy to purchase online, though if there's none in your area. And while you're waiting for the kevlar to arrive in the mail, there's always those towels in your bathroom (hehe...)burn on...j-love~
until I realized that they sell them in my town at a local magic shoppe. Kelvar wick is super easy to purchase online, though if there's none in your area. And while you're waiting for the kevlar to arrive in the mail, there's always those towels in your bathroom (hehe...)burn on...j-love~
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Posted:Instead of using Towel use old pairs of Jeans or some denim from most Fabric suppliers i pay 2.50 per sq metre, which is wound as tightly as you can, then left to soak in fuel for 24 hours which shrinks them even tighter. I dont seem to have any problems with any dissintergrating and flying of, this will only work if thee denim is wrapped around a pieace of tubing. I have tried many diffrent wicks over the past 10 years, and the best ,cheapest and which have lasted the longest is denim. yet to try kevlar. dont know when i will. to expensive ------------------Twist for the joy of it.
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Posted:im building myself a set of towel poi at the momment and i could help but wonder two things:1) what diameter wire to use? i have 16 gauge wire at the momment but it makes me kind of nervous. will the loop that i have for connecting the chain be strong enough to support the weight and fire wear and tear? has any one with experience with that size wire had problems with it breaking there?2) i took some towel and did a glue wrap around the wire base so that the burn from hot metal factor would be reduced. before i light this up does that work or will the glue attatched not be strong enough or go flying off?thanks for the help-melissa
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Posted:I was afraid to use kevlar for my trailing wicks for a while because everyone keeps saying how expensive it is. Then I did the math... The MOST you will pay is $1.50 a foot and you only really need 8 feet for two BIG wicks no? I don't mean to sound eliteist but if you have an internet connection I'm ASSUMING you can scrounge up $12. I mean towels probably aren't much less in the long run and fuel is $3 a gallon. Be nice to your kevlar and you'll have it for a while. Go DuPont.
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Posted:at the momment i'm using old towels because they're free and i don't have any tools at the momment (they're all in storage on the mainland)to make nice wicks. so for right now the simple towel route is my primary option. the internet thing is free for me because i have access to the library computers which is sweet. kevlar is definalty on my wish list though, i've been researching non-circus kevlar distributors (like fiber companies, people that make rockets, sailboats etc...)to figure out if there is a less expensive wholesale option for making the kevlar transition.
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