A new flame will be born

I haven't seen any tube-core poi like HOP's beginner ones in a while. Most poi I've seen have been either cathedral wicks or monkey fists. I personally favor the cathedrals because I hit myself a lot and don't like getting hit by monkeyfists (they're harder). I like cathedrals with as little exposed metal as possible - it's the metal bits that burn me more than the wicking.

I know fuel's been covered in a lot of forums, so I'll keep it simple. In the US, we don't have the paraffin that they have in the UK. I avoid Kerosine because it's really stinky. Likewise, avoid citronella or any yellow-colored lamp oil designed for tiki torches. Go get yourself some "ultra pure" lamp oil -- the kind designed for use in lamps. Look in the candle department at Walmart for the best prices. Characteristics of lamp oil: gives off white smoke after fire goes out, and is relatively hard to light. Also lasts longer than white gas.

White gas, aka Coleman fuel, is another common fuel among US spinners. Do not confuse with White Spirits and other things... this is the stuff designed for camping stoves (very expensive in the UK, but less so here). It's more volatile. That means you have to be more careful while handling it, it's easier to light... but you also have to be careful when you're starting to spin because it will splash on you and/or your clothes and catch on fire. The flame is bright and hot. Since you're new to fire, this might not be the best fuel for you to start with. Read more about it first.

There are other fuels out there, but these seem to be the most popular.

Personally, I like a mix. I know a lot of people who do 50/50 lamp/white gas... and I know some people who do mostly lamp with a splash of white gas to make it easier to light.

Hiya Cath :hug:

first fire poi eh...it's nearly a year since mine so I hope my learned advice is worth the read!

Parafin/Lamp oil - Firstly "ultra pure" or and other kind of "smokless" fuel has more additives than the other stuff. Extra chemicals are added to make them appear to have less smoke and to make the smoke smell less. It's actually the same chemicals and before but with extra ones too and you can't sense it so you naturally breathe more without feeling the effect. Not good.

Safety guy - Always have a person with a wet towel if you feel unsure about how to react to yourself/someone else/something else setting on fire.
Safety Clothes - A hat, reasonably heavy duty cotton clothes such as jeans & long sleeve Tee or jumper are good. Avoid wool and synthetic fibres.

Poi - Buy quality. I made my first fire poi and one flew off at a festival landing on a tent. I REALLY learned a lesson that day, went to HoP as soon as I got home and bought high quality ball chains. Ball chain really is the best so whatever wick you have make sure it's got ball chains. It's the most flexible, controllable and pretty chain of them all. If ever you do want to make any fire poi yourself go to ballchain.com cuz they've got wicked ball chain for sale in all guages. Stainless steel is best as coated stuff such as chrome or zinc can flake, corrode and spoil your poi. It's more expensive but will pay for itself in time.

Moves - Again depending on your confidence go for basic ones to start with, work your way up same as when you first learned poi. You can practice for a few days without lighting them to get used to the weight etc. They're almost certainly gonna be heavier than your poi.

Wicks - Again personal preference, tube core are cheap and last well enough (5 mins-ish) strong and when they hit your aren't too heavy. 2" are uch lighter than 4" but 4" last longer/look better burning. IMO cathedral wicks look crappy but they don't hurt when they hit you at all and last quite a while. Monkey fists are fantastic to spin with, will burn all night (well, nearly 10 mins) but are damn heavy if you're not used to them. The cool thing with wicks tho is that you can change them at any time without having to fork out for a whole fire chain set. Buy the ceapest 2" tube core wicks if you want to start off with and work your way up the weights etc. I have/like 4" cuz they have good weight but I intend to buy monkeys now I'm stronger and more experienced.

Apart from that be happy, be nervous, wait for the noise and feel the smile roll up your face! how many incidents have you actually heard of about fire poi compared to how many poiple spin them!! It's rare and 99.99% of accidents are due to un-safe poorly planned folks no where near as responsible as you!

Enjoy!

Hey Catherine, way to go.

I highly recomend the monkey fist poi from HOP, they just burn really well and there are no jagged metal bits like on cheaper models. It's the metal that burns and cuts so it's a good idea to have as little exposed metal as posibble.

Fuel: I only use parafin (UK) but I'm not certain that kerosene (US) is the same. I do know that spinners in the US tend to use much hotter fuels which burn slightly brighter but are much hotter and IMO aren't worth it.

You should use a fuel which is difficult to light, like parafin. My US friends use stuff that goes up as soon as a flame goes near it ~ useful for stage performance but not very safe.

If you use parafin or US equivalent. Your Mom can rest easy. Make sure you wear clothes made from natual fibres. I tend to use heavy cotton clothing. You don't want anything to baggy. Be aware of the connectors on your fire poi getting snagged on your clothes.

If you have long fine hair you can dampen it slightly to reduce the risk of it setting ight.

I always wear a wooly hat to keep my dreds safe. (Actually that's not true but it was for the first couple years i was spinning

Fire safety: a big damp sheet of material is very useful for extinguishing you poi, or you for that matter. Little fire extinguishers aren't too expensive either. Make sure there is someone around who knows how to use the saftey equipment.

NEVER SPIN FIRE ON YOUR OWN.

Remember that you are gonna have to re-learn all your moves with your new set of poi. Practice with them unlit as they will probably spin differently to your usual ones. For your first spin just build up slowly, do a bit of split time, a few weaves, see if you can turn and so on. THERE IS NO RUSH.

Be aware that when you do stalls the flames will belch upwards towards your hands.

Oh yeah, when you first light them you wanna keep them moving so the flame doesn't get too big.

And i get poiple to practice escaping from fingerloops. Just put your fingerloops on and try getting out of them as quick as possible.

The length of the poi shouldn't hit your face when held at arms lenght. That way you know that if things are going wrong you can just throw your arms out and your face is safe.

Have fun Catherine,

¦m¦

ooh, they grow up so fast these days

The poi you're getting will be fine... especially since you're not doing any hyperloops or wraps. My objection to cable has always been that they get a bit warped after a while, and they're not as floppy as a nice light chain can be -- but those aren't a big deal when you're starting out.

As Vixx said, it's the metal that gets hot... especially right near the poi heads -- and I find with cable the heat actually travels up more than chain. I have a friend that actually catches his monkey fists and throws them back out -- but that's because 1) he's crazy 2) his fuel's mostly spun out.

I'm drifting a bit here... right. So like Matt said, wear natural fibers and I would add tighter weaves is better - loose wispy bits will burn or at least char a bit. Covering your hair is a good idea, as I have lots of singed hair to prove. A dampened bandana will do for a hair cover. Long sleeves are good too for when the poi wrap around your arms... work shirts are often fire retardent (though really ugly).

I know I already babbled about fuel, but just get kerosine or ultra-pure lamp oil for now. White gas is what Matt's referring to. You'll be able to tell because it will take a bit of effort to light the poi with these fuels.

So imagine... you're wearing the right clothes, mom has a damp (not wet) towel handy... Let mom know that if your pants leg catches on fire briefly, it might just be the fuel and will go out on its own. With non-white-gas fuels, this isn't very likely. She should tell you before she comes at you with that towel -- otherwise you might whack her in the head with the poi. If she's really careful, she can wear tightly woven natural fibers too. The word "fire" generally won't help, because if other people are around, this word will be used a lot... so she's gotta either yell Fire! or tell you the name of a body part. Or Stop! works too.

Enjoy the sound. feel the heat.

For what it's worth, my mom still calls me and tells me to stop playing with fire once in a while... though when she saw me spin, she was really excited and thought it was really cool.

Okay, I've got questions now.
The only time I ever saw someone get prepared to spin fire, he dipped his poi, then put some sort of can over them, and spun them around really fast to get rid of the excese fuel. Does that need to be done with kero?
Custom_bug said not to wear wool and Matt said it was okay. So is it a good idea to wear wool?
All this talk of fire poi reminded me to go get the length of my arm for Saucy.

As Vixx said, it is a good idea to shake off excess fuel before spinning... though most people just do it somewhere away from the fuel and performing area, right onto the ground. The cans that you saw are to 1) conserve fuel -- you'd be amazed how much comes off the poi when you shake out and 2) protect the environment from the nasty fuel. 3) keep the fuel from raining all over you while spinning out.

Here's Nick Woolsey's wonderful web page and video about the cans:
http://www.thevenue.org/fuelandenvironment.htm

I've seen a lot of different improvised variations on this... doesn't really matter what you use as long as you catch the fuel!

Orbit

So what about wool? Is it a bad idea to wear it?

hmmm, me think you miss-read me

Although well knitted heavy duty woolen jumpers would probably be ok, deffo avoid spinning while in a fluffy one

Cotton is the way to go; heavy duty is good, normal is fine, avoid whispy bits

Your chains will be fine poikid. I hope you enjoy them

[sillyquestion]Don't forget to let us know how the first burn goes! [/sillyquestion]

:41 :47

Around here, we usually spin the poi until the fuel runs out...

I use a surplus ammunition can for dipping. It's metal, so it won't melt if my fuel dump catches on fire... it has a built-in lid (can be a bit of a problem as it makes the container a bit top-heavy), and seals up because they were made to be waterproof. I check the seal once in a while to make sure my fuel hasn't degraded it.

The plastic spin-off bottle story reminds me of getting gasoline (petrol for you Brits) in Cambodia... There, they sell gasoline either from a big 55-gallon fuel drum with a tap, or from reused soda bottles! So if you see someone with a display of soda bottles on the side of the road, they may actually be selling fuel. Well the woman who sold me the fuel put her thumb over the top of the bottle to control the flow. She'd been pouring nasty gasoline over her thumb for years, so it was a bit disfigured - ewww!

Anyhow, don't use plastic for your dip can because it would melt, resulting in a big pool of burning fuel... but it's fine for the spin-out bucket!

Orbit

sweet. Can't wait for videos.
thanks everyone for the advice and stuff too.

Woah! Poikid with fire!

Man, now I'm really itching to try it. Still gotta wait, though. Can't really offer any advice having yet to spin any fire (and it seems like everyone's got just about everything covered), but I can still run around cheering. Yay poikid!!

Sweet poi kid. i'm still practicing with myine unlit. mine are heavier then my practice poi's just tried my practics ones and they feel so light!!

good luck dude!

wow kiddo...i go away for wee while and come back to you playing with fire!..yaya sooo wikkid.. :32

I hope you have heaps of fun..ahhh *inertia remembers being so amazed by the beautiful sound of her first burn*....

can't wait for updates!

Woah, your socks must be filled with rocks or something

Saw this thread a while ago but had yet to spin fire myself so couldn't really add anything.
However, span for the first time the other day and now... ...can't really add anything

What poi did you get?
I went for the monkeyfists which are pretty hard so it does hurt a bit when you hit yourself (which I did quite a lot) kind of but didn't burn at all
Cathedrals should be softer (which is what I'm guessing you got as they may be quite light).

Something you probably know but I'll mention it anyway:
When the fuel starts to run out and the flame gets small you need to put them out, this protects your wicks from most of the damage from the flame. As far as I'm aware the best way to do this is by spinning them very fast (sort of blowing them out).
BE CAREFULL! This is when most of my accidents happened (hitting myself, letting go etc...)

Stay cool.
Feel free. :41
Express your joy through your movement. :47

Can't wait for the vid :7

:57

Thanks kid -- that's my favorite smiley!

I'm sorry you haven't been able to practice with fire ... but it's probably a good idea - is there a drought out there or something?

Countdown to Burning Man ... I leave NY in 15 days ........

Further to other's comments...

I dislike cables because they have too much friction between themselves and my skin; once got a big long burn when they weren't even on fire by wrapping a friend's set (ouch!).

I've spun fire alone once and once only. My mates went on a run back to the house to collect some more maraj... um... sausages for the barbecue, and I thought I'd light up to surprise them when they came back. DON'T DO IT!!! I was ok because they came back abvout twenty seconds before I got one tangled around my arm, and I'm not freaked ny the feeling of burning skin, but it did make me realise that if they hadn't been there and I hadn't been able to untangle it myself...!! Scary thoughts.

The first time I used fire it was with my staff, and the people I was with told me to run the wick up and down my arm. With some trepidation, I did, and... It didn't hurt. Was warm, but in a nice way!

I wish I'd videoed my first poi burn; it would be so funny to watch the look of abject terror! All good though.

I'm being quite naughty at the moment; going through an "experimenting with fire" phase, ie trying moves I can't always pull. Looks good sometimes, but it's going to catch me out one of these days. I know the risks and I accept them... If you're not prepared to die for something you love, how much do you really love it?

Remeber: it's ok to lose your fear of fire, but never your respect of it.