Forums > Beginner Staff Moves > Making staff?

Posted: 13th Oct 2003
hello Brick

if you do a search you'll find out there are already a couple of threads on this subject concerning weight, size etc.
but to cut that thread short: it's all personal, some like heavy, some like light, some like long, some like short, some like thick, some like thin... all I can say is: experiment!
I've got 2x 3ft., 2x 5ft., 1x 6ft. staffs. (I'm 6ft2) they're all on the heavy side (gives more momentum, but is harder to change direction), and quite thin (18mm). it's just what works best for me.

have fun learning,

eric pOpsteric.


.

eRic.

I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!

Posted: 26th Oct 2003
Hey Brick.

My First attempt at making a staff was out of 15mm copper piping, about 5ft in length with 0.5m of 2" Wick. I plugged the ends with two small lengths of dowl both to give extra weight at the ends and to give the wick holding-screws a base to grip. The thing was lovely to spin and the weight was perfect, although i quickly realised that copper may not have been my best choice, as it bent double every time it was dropped until one fatal night one full moon party. So I have two now, one made out of 20mm Aluminium tubing at about 4ft. Its really light and easy to tuck around your legs and body. The other is made from steel. It's mega heavy but like popsteric mentioned, you can realy get the thing going fast. Only drawback is that its about my shoulder height in length and its really restrictive in the type of moves it lends itself to.

Hope it helped.

Posted: 26th Oct 2003
sorry...
totally forgot!

About the grip....hehe....

I found that squash grip tape works to a certain extent but my favourite up to yet is hemp twine. Get a nice thick length of Hemp string and just wrap it around the shaft, strating one end with a knot, then when you reach the other end, tie a clove hitch (get those knot books out! hehe) and, just to be sure, i like to put a dab of super glue on the knot to keep it nice and tight. One if the major benefits here is that the hemp soaks up any parrafin that's run down at either end, thus preventing that annoying slippy grip.

Posted: 26th Oct 2003
thats actually a very good idea

T

This is a post by tom, all spelling is deleberate
-><- Kallisti

Posted: 26th Oct 2003
Howdy! and there is nothing on size i can tell you that! hehehehe. it's just how you like to spin. my staff if pine (mop hanlde) with the ends shaved down abit and about 8 inchs of steel conduit over the ends for the wick just drill holes and bolts. (locking mind you) and your set you can make it small for a glow staff ^.^ ahh what fun..., or just wick it and leave it apart for moving it around not a huge dif but it helps. and the grip. just cloth X'ed over and over and taped on with black tape. i'm cheap and back to size.. hehe i'm about 5'2'' 5 3'' and my staff is 6 foot. not good for inside work but man can you get it going.

Nothing goes through the Lunitics dark mind... By his own Decaying HeartI love the little tacos... I love them goood G.i.rI'm gunna roll around on the floor for abit k? G.i.r

Posted: 1st Nov 2003
Just a note about using the hemp as a handle, a clovehitch would work, but there is a constrictor hitch (clove varient) that locks itself down even better, and if done right is basically impossible to untie you have to just cut the rope/string..

Constrictor Hitch

you could also tie a series of half hitches down which would essentially create a small ridge that would spiral down, or a straight line depending on how its done.

Spiral Grip

There is another way but I'll have to take or hunt for pictures

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Posted: 9th Nov 2003
Wow all your staffs are pro, mine is just an old broom stick about 4ft long.

Posted: 10th Nov 2003
hello blindnz! welcome to your Home of Poi!
remember it's not about how old your stick is, it's how you swing it.
er yeah!

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Posted: 15th Nov 2003
Hey there! Here is something I found helpful. I wrapped a piece of aluminum tape in the middle of my staff so that when I do a toss at night I can always see where I need to catch it.

love, vulturenine

Posted: 28th Nov 2003
Hi. I'm thinking of making a staff too and had a couple of questions that it didn't seem worth starting a new thread for.

1: where can you buy aluminium tubing? i can't find any anywhere
2: if I make a staff from wood, is aluminium tape good/strong/heat-resistant enough to put underneath the wick to stop the wood burning? I'm thinking that maybe it might just melt or the glue will fail due to the heat.

Any ideas would be welcome

Cheers

A warrior always returns to the fray. He never does so out of stubbornness, but because he has noticed a change in the weather - Paulo Coelho

Posted: 28th Nov 2003
Hey borismcnorris! I made my current staff out of wood and have been using it several times a week and it works great. I used a hardwood broom stick handle and cut it to my preferred length. Then I wrapped 3 or 4 layers of the tape on the ends probably about 12 inches or more from the ends. I then tacked the tape in several places just in case the glue didn't hold. A little of the glue has run a bit out of the end but it has held up just fine. I am quite pleased with my staff. My only problem was that the tape I put on the very tips shredded off after I dropped it several times on the concrete. But so far the tips have only charred a bit and I check it pretty often. You could put some sort of metal cap on the end to avoid this problem. I also saw someone who made the ends of their wooden staff out of aluminum cans. I started to try it but I liked the tape a little better. Good luck!

love to you, vulturenine

Posted: 28th Nov 2003
Hey, my preferences for staffs have always been to keep them simple. I like using wood for the shaft and then adding weight by just using thicker wick (which would soak up even more fuel). To me, that makes sense because you want the weight to be at the ends of the staff, not the middle - using heavy metal for the staff. Aluminium tape works great, i actually just tape the entire thing, gives it a nice silver touch. For the handle, i use badminton wrap, but underneathe the wrap i take tape, twist it up it makes something like a thick rope and wrap it over the shaft spirally then putting the grip tape on top so that you have spiral grooves that better still enhance the grip. For staff length, the shorter you go, the heavier it has to be to have a smooth spin. My single staff goes up to my underarm and my twin staff go about midway of my stomach. Smaller staff usually equals more tricks

stay lit

Posted: 28th Nov 2003
did someone say aluminum tubing? erm...i dunno if this is exactly what you had in mind, as i'm rather dense at times, but they have some nice flagpoles that i use for my staff here: https://www.marchingworld.com/pg180.htm
(you can find this stuff at any kind of marching band supplier)

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

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Dona eis requiem *whack*

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Posted: 29th Nov 2003

Quote:

---

Smaller staff usually equals more tricks

---

just a tiny "grrrr" at this.

would change it to 'Smaller staff equals smallstaff tricks. longer staff equals different tricks'

(an avowed longstaffer speaks out )


R

Holistic Spinner (I hope)

Posted: 30th Nov 2003
Wouldn't use aluminum tubing in my experence it tends to bend which make any rolling moves almost impossible. I use steel tubing which makes a much heaver staff which is grate for contact. if your coming along to BOB4 come and find me and mike who are running the staff work shop and have a play with our staffs.

Oh and bluecat small doubles are far better, in theory you can do every thing with small staffs that you can do big ones plus a bit besides it's just contact with small staffs is stupidly hard. maybe when you get good enough you'll move onto small doubles

Maybe I should change this too something abit nicer, humm no I still think your all Ct

Posted: 30th Nov 2003




contact on fire with 3footers. mmmmm


i find alu tubing fine myself.
had the same staffs for 2 1/2 years until somebody put a flight case on them

tho i guess its (once again, *sigh*) all down to personal preference


R

Holistic Spinner (I hope)

Posted: 1st Dec 2003
lol bluecat no offence intended. But for me I regularily use a 4 foot and i've seen others that use staffs taller than themselves. With staffs that big, you can't spin samoan style without crankin yourself in the face. So 3 or 3.5 footers to me are perfect for doubles or more tricks like that

stay lit

Posted: 1st Dec 2003
none taken beleive me!


have spent ffaaaar too long arguing about matchsticks to let it bother me

and for the record i love the way some people spin their short staffs


R

Holistic Spinner (I hope)

Posted: 1st Dec 2003
off the record but i suppose large doubles do have there advantages and can look amasing when spun well (i.e. not by me). but it's such hard work

Maybe I should change this too something abit nicer, humm no I still think your all Ct

Posted: 1st Dec 2003
tYBR,



In the past 5 days, I have had two local performers come to me with repairs to be made with their homegrown staves. What happened to both was that the impact from dropping the staves jarred screws loose in the wood, ripping them out after a while. Though we may use bolts to secure the wick for now, and saw off the end sticking out, I am a fairly anti-metal person when it come sto what is touching my wicks. No screws or bolts in the following tips:



1) Adhesive-backed wick (Tapes with PSA): We have some locals using this, trying it out. It is very new to the scene, and I don't know anyone that uses it that I have not dealt with personally. My 6ft staff has 3 rolls of 5ft x 2" x 1/16" wick on each end. This is the same wick based on KEVLAR(R) that you can get most anywhere, just comes backed with a pressure-sensitive adhesive. I have a total of 5 staves that use it, and have noticed no fraying and no probelms with the adhesive.



2) Wire: If I had to secure something to my staff and did not have the above wick, wood or metal, i would use wire of some kind. Bailing wire, or something more stiff if you have strong hands and pliers. Too many problems with screws and bolts and fittings and so on. Wire is thin enough to get through the wick and into your drilled hole even if you have several layers of wick. That being said...



3) Low-profile wicking: ...I almost always suggest distributing your wick along the length of the staff. If you are using 2" wick on a long staff (4ft-6ft), consider using 2 or 3 rolls right next to each other, and using less in each roll. If you are using screws and bolts, the trauma from dropping a staff will be distributed on a larger area and among more screws/bolts. The breaks I mentioned in the beginning occurred with large bundles of wick on each end, where the total thickness of the wick layering exceeded the actual staff thickness. This will also make it easier to "wire-wrap" your wick if you choose to use wire.



4) Wood Vs Metal: wood is a cheap way to go if you want to do some experimenting. I generally only use wood staves in performance anyway, though if I had a nice "aircraft-grade" aluminium alloy, i would use that. Or maybe titanium.



Best of Luck,



MJ

Flamma Aeterna
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Posted: 1st Dec 2003
I have a rambling article on how I make a staff at my fire page with a diagram and hints and tips. I keep meaning to take photos of the steps, but never quite get around to it. I've made a few now, for various people, and they all seem to like them.

--Luke