Forums > Help! > An easy question about loops for fire poi

Posted: 8th Aug 2005
If you use nylon loops for fire spinning, you run the risk of having them melt to your fingers if something goes wrong. Leather, canvas or some other fire resistent material (like kevlar, but I wouldn't want bare kevlar loops - they'd chew your fingers raw!) are the safest for fire play. I can't say as to why synthetic (meltable and flammable!) loops would be the de facto... I'd never use them. They could turn a minor burn into a crippling injury.

Yellow and blue make green.

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
indeed..if I buy Fire Poi i´ll also buy leather loops in the shop...but why aren´t they standard by Fire Poi?

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
generally, the loops and the fire don't come in contact much. and even when they do, they dont really melt a great deal if you keep the contact short. I do catches with my nylon loops, and they're still in perfect nick.

"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA

"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
ok..what about the short contact, you´re right..
but when there will ever come a situation where everything goes wrong...there´s more danger with nylon then with leather loops...don´t you think so?

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
yes, there is. synthetic is almost always more dangerous than natural.

perhaps you could ask malcom about it? he'd know a whole load more than i do

"beg beg grovel beg grovel"
"master"
--FSA

"There was an arse there, i couldn't help myself"
--Rougie

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
ok thanks!

Posted: 9th Aug 2005
Yea. I switched over from synth (hesian) to leather (suade). Leather is ALOT better, iv had alot of cuts from hesian and it takes ages to break in untill its soft. (It melts if it contacts the fire for longer than afew seconds) The down side of leather is when someone drops your handles into your fuel When they dry out they shrivle up and go all funky

#1 rule : never drop handles in fuel!!!

Posted: 11th Aug 2005
I think synthetic handles are used more commonly simply becasue they are usually a lot cheaper than leather ones. And because the risk is so small (although always there), it doesn't really matter too much.

Live like there is no tomorrow,
dance like nobody is watching
and hula hoop like wiggling will save the world.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Posted: 11th Aug 2005
I tend to fit synthetic handles to fire poi sets that I manufacture for sale, and for personal use, generally because I find synthetic webbing much easier to work with than leather / swede. I tripple hand stitch fingerloops, and this would be very hard going with leather.



Would aggree though, leather is certainly a safer material, although you still get problems with fuel exposure, and cracking, bottom line is with everything fire, good inspection and maintainance.



mark

Posted: 12th Aug 2005
I have to disagree about the synthetic handles being cheaper than leather - I've made at least 5 sets of handles from 6 euros worth of scrap leather I bought earlier this year. The pack of grommets cost me another 3 euros, and the x-acto knife blades brought that up to maybe 10 euros total - 2 euros for each set of handles all told.

and there is no need to stitch leather at all unless you are making something really fancy with wrist braces inclusive (like adamrice does for example) or something like that. A single layer of leather that is thick enough is more than adequate.

I still use the very first set of leather handles I ever made more than 5 years ago after almost daily use, many accidental dunkings in fuel, getting soaked in rain, singed, etc. They are niegh on indestructable.

I find nylon handles to be very uncomfortable in comparison.

-v-

Wiederstand ist Zwecklos!

Posted: 13th Aug 2005
I´ve no experience with fire Poi and also not with Leather loops...but í haven´t any problems with my nylon loops now.
I will buy Leather loops by my Fire Poi for the safety i think..

thanks for all your opinions!

frederik