Forums > Technical Discussion > Need help with wrist harness design

Posted: 15th Sep 2004
do you want to direct most of the stress to the fingers or wrist? if fingers, you'll have more control.
i'm assuming that to need such a strong handle, you have a heavy firetoy, more control = safer to twirl = better performance.
fingers are friends, not food.

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Posted: 15th Sep 2004
Really the problem is that I have tendonitis (which doing poi generally helps with but occasioanally I push it a bit too far) and metacarpals that like to dislocate every once in a while. I'm told I use slightly large wicks and am waiting on more wick to make a set of 2 headed wicks, so that will be a bit more weight.

Really I'm just about trying to protect myself from fatigue after a long day of spinning and future injury.



So far I have tried locking finger loops, non locking finger loops (2 loop), non locking finger loops (one long loop woven between 3 fingers) and a large wrist loop.



I like the control of the finger loops but my hands can't deal with the stress after a day of spinning. Somthing about the way the wrist loops sit in my hands makes my hands cramp and ache for days, but I think thats more from the grip then the pressure.



I'm thinking somthing with a strap on the palm side attaching to loops on my index and ring fingers that then have the chain attachment off of the back of my hand. This way I can have the control of the finger loops, but when the moves allow for it I can let the wrist strap take some of the pressure.



Really hoping for some feedback, as I said I have more wick coming within the next week and I'm champing at the bit to get these new straps going but I dont want to make any really avoidable mistakes.



EDIT: My wick has arrived and is all done up and ready to burn once the white glue dries. I'd really like to get a set of harnesses up and running ASAP before the nice weather runs out.


EDITED_BY: SterlingSpider (1095840084)

"If the human brain were simple enough for us to understand, we would be too simple to understand it"
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Posted: 4th Apr 2005

Notes on tripple finger loops and wrist straps, I use both, since some of the arts I do involve the manipulation of very heavy long burning heads and multiple head design.

Tripple finger loops work well for spreading the load across more than two finger joints, as for wrist straps, technically these are actually a requirement for compliance insurance etc for some of the shows I do, I make all my own single double and tripple finger loops, as well as wrist straps,

Posted: 4th Apr 2005
THe only way i can think of after a whole 5 or so minutes of hard thought is to make some just like the fire gear ones, except overlap the wrist strap over itself maybe 2 inches (4-5 cm) and then put industrial strength velcro on the leather to fasten the strap, the velcro IS actually quite strong, but you'd be able to undo it if need be.

that or swe a small strip of leather between the 2 ends of the strip so you could strecth it over your hand, and that probably would work better than velcro.

Posted: 5th Apr 2005
I learned to spin with with the self-tightening finger grips. I swore by them until I started doing hand wraps to alter the length of the chain -- finger grips just don't work for that. I experiemented with a bunch of different grips and finally settled on the simplest -- nothing more than a straight loop. With my palm facing up, the loop goes over my middle finger and hangs to the ground. I then wrap the chain arround my pinky and then up through my thumb and index finger. The chain just rides on my index finger, and I can wrap it as many times as is comfortable.

With regards to sore hands/wrists with heavy poi, this probably has more to do with the way you are swinging your poi than the grip you are using. If you shift the center of rotation from the end of the chain to several inches down the chain, the force on your wrists is reduced dramatically. When I discovered this, my multi-wick poi suddenly got much easier to spin.

-p.

Posted: 5th Apr 2005

Written by: Ðraghkyre

---

I'm not sure what you mean by 'sew a small strip of leather between the strip so i can stretch it over my hand?

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like this:

__________ ______ ________
...................| ---------- |.............
...................| ---------- |..............
..Leather.....| Rubber |......leather (loops around to left side of screen)
...................| ---------- |...........

that's the wrist strap part... thought i dunno if you'd be able to wriggle it off.

the loose strap might work, i'd just replace the little strap that goes between the finger loops and the wrist strap with a big loop... that would keep the big loop tight when you spun it but you still could wriggle it off if you undid the finger loops..

i hope that makes sense.. lol