Fire Water

garthv

Where can I get some fire water?

Ali Cat

Do you mean fuel?

garthv

For lighting fire sticks and fire-breathing etc...
Or can you just use white spirits?

Hugh Hefner

The most usually used fuel is parafin which as far as I know you can use for fire breathing as well as lighting stuff. Make sure you read up on the safety issues first. Good luck.

cocoa

fuel l

rubadub

For firebreathing I would only use ethanol (drinking alcohol)
If you need a source of cheap pure 95% I know a guy looking to sell a still, but you will need a licence to run alcohol through it.

garthv

Yeh but where in Ireland can I buy some?

1,500th

garthv

Anybody here do Fire juggling/Breathing?

Zukustious

GaRtH_V wrote:

Anybody here do Fire juggling/Breathing?

Use parraffin for torches. It's a cool enough flame and won't burn you if you catch the wrong end, just so long as you immediately let go.
If you want coloured flames you have to use a polar fuel like ethanol. You'll be familiar with this if you do/did chemistry. You simply add different salts to the wicks to make different colours. A lithium salt will give you a red flame, I think potassium gives lilac, and sodium gives yellow. The fuel is kinda damaging to the wicks though so you may not want to do it. Also the flames are a lot hotter, so I dunno, be careful or something.
You can get parraffin in any hardware store. Just go in and ask for a few gallons of it. Get it in large quantities, it's cheaper. To fuel up the torches, get an old bean tin or something and fill it up with parraffin. Simply dip them in, and shake them off. It's important to shake them off though cause as they're spinning around they can spray you in the face with fuel and it smells SO BAD. Try it in the day first cause it's scarier at night. That's pretty much it.

larryone

i use parafin for my poi and for fire breathing.
only problem i've had is when some of it flows down my neck and onto my chest i get some minor irritation. just be careful not to let it go everywhere.

garthv

excellent advice lads, anybody want to teach me how to fire breathe ?:)

Ali Cat

Yes parafin is a relitively cool flame but it burns really dirtily, i.e. there is a lot of smoke, if you're good enough that you're not going to be catching the wicks half the time then try using white spirits, it's a much cleaner burning fuel. Also, as for colours boric acid in methelated spirits is my favourite, not too bad for the wick, cool enough flame, clean burning and GREEN! Anyway there is a lot of debate about which fuel is the "right" one but really it does just come down to personal preferance, the only thing I'll say (besides everything else I've already said) is DO NOT USE PARAFIN FOR FIRE BREATHING, it's really bad for your lungs (not to mention carcinogenic inside the mouth and digestive tract).

Finally, I'd love to teach some fire spitting but unfortunatly am leaving the country forever on monday

larryone

i've never had problems with parafin for fire breathing... what's better to use for it???

larryone

GaRtH_V wrote:

excellent advice lads, anybody want to teach me how to fire breathe ?:)

Start off practicing with water, breath in deep, take a little water into your mouth, and spray it out strongly, and upwards at about a 45 degree angle. You should be able to blow a spray at least a foot and a half in front of your face.

Hold a cloth in one hand, and cover your mouth with it the moment you stop blowing. This protects your mouth in the event of a blow-back. Breathe in again THROUGH YOUR NOSE!!

To get the right spray effect, you sortof blow out through your teeth. Dont try it with parafin until you're sure you have it right, and are with someone who can do it and knows what they're doing.

If you are going to try parafin, drink milk beforehand, it'll protectively line the inside of your mouth and throat from the toxins in the parafin from irritating you or seeping into your blood stream. Dont use vaseline on your mouth or face, as it's petroleum based, use some sort of water gel or cream to cover yourself there. Lining your mouth and creaming up your face, and breathing in through only your nose will protect you from the parafin.
Dont wear baggy cloths, or anything polyester. Natural fibers are better and easier to extinguish. Alot of fire breathers do it topless just in case. Beware of wind, obviously.

Use a fire club or something to blow onto. First time I did it I was using my poi, but with poi it's easier to screw up, as you cant really hold them steady enough. You also have to get the distance right. Hold the club close enough for a good flame, but far away enough so you dont burn your face.

Not sure what other advice I can give you right now. But definitely do it with someone who knows how to do it properly, and has some first aid experience. Have alot of cloth nearby to smother any unexpected flames, and sand to extinguish your club.

AlienGav

Jaysus!!

This sounds dangerous! I'm not big into the juggling and firebreathing, an apple and two oranges was my limit! lol

Has anyone here ever had something go wrong with this firebreathing business? Sounds fairly risky...

larryone

Oh yea, and only use a very small ammount of parafin, you'd be supprised how little you need for a good flame. Make sure the milk is full fat. Wash your mouth out well afterwards, and do the milk thing again afterwards.

larryone

AlienGav wrote:

Jaysus!!

This sounds dangerous! I'm not big into the juggling and firebreathing, an apple and two oranges was my limit! lol

Has anyone here ever had something go wrong with this firebreathing business? Sounds fairly risky...

My only trouble so far is the parafin dripping onto my chest and causing irritation. you have to be fairly liberal when creaming up beforehand and afterwards. Aqueous Gel is wonderful stuff =0)
But you have to be really careful. I've heard enough horror stories that involve burning beards, burns on the face and mouth, lungs half ful of parafin, etc, so unless you are 100% sure dont attempt it.

Zukustious

I hear parraffin absolutely destroys your teeth over time though. Or maybe it was meths... One of them does. Anyone know anything about this?

larryone

to the best of my knowlege, although some people on this board seemed to have a different opinion, the best fuel to use for fire breathing is either parafin or kerosine. Overuse of either of these will eventually cause damage to your mouth long term (tooth erosion, lip cancer) but these tend to be in the case of people who do it day in day out for a few years, like professional preformers. Doing it just a couple of times a year (i would tend to about every three months or so, not every weekend) isnt going to have a huge effect. Then again, different people have different teeth, so it is going to be slightly different from person to person...

Kerosene: very hot flame, fumes have an explosive potential, more toxic than parafin, can be harmful for fire breathing

Parafin: slightly smaller and cooler flame, easier to smother, less explosive, fewer toxins. however, it can be auto-ignited by very hot objects like fire clubs, without a spark or a flame source. not a common occurence, but possible.

Short chain alcohol (methyl, ethyl, propyl): burns much cooler, ethyl can make you drunk if you use it for extended periods of fire breathing. Methanol contains some neurotoxins, so be very careful with it. enatured alcohol (which contains methanol) can cause blindness in large quantities, isopropyl tastes ****in horrible. alcohols are better for producing different colour flames, because it dissolves stuff really well. Personally i wouldnt use any of these for fire breathing.

This is why I use parafin and not anything else. If anyone knows something better for fire breathing please let me know.

lorum

when you use paraffine products be very careful and watch out that nothing dripps on your chest...it can be skinirritating (like a hard sunburn)...change your clothes after the show, especially your pants !!! its not a very cool feeling to wake up in the morning and have a sunburn-feeling in your pants =((

larryone

I think it's worse than sunburn cause it's itchy... I just plaster myself in aqueous cream and i'm ok-ish. Thankfuly, theres fairly good EU guidelines on the purity of commercial parafin, so most of what you buy in Ireland is fairly safe.

garthv

Well,just had a fire breathing lesson with larryone,
Nice one for that man:)
Dangerous sport but very very entertaining. Ive a few videos of it to knock up in a while

larryone

no problem, was a pleasure to teach =0)
and thanks again for the parafin.
I have a few photos from when I did it in Kinvara over the Paddys weekend that I might post.

larryone

I had a look for information on "fire water"
GaRtH_V had mentioned on saturday that it was used in Austrlia, but not anywhere else.
I came accross this thread http://www.homeofpoi.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/354958/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1
In which some people were discussing the hazards of "fire water"
It seems it was a fuel that was used down under, which had additives to kill the taste of the parafin, but the additives made the fuel alot more toxic.....

The thread also has a link to one of the best online guides to fire breathing i've seen

loafer's glory

So Larry, I took your advice and joined here. Looks like we've managed to pick the same avatar though. how sweet. change yours. now.

anyways yeah, fire water is just a fuel that's designed especially for fire breathing. it wouldn't be great for any other purpose (clubs / poi etc), too expensive for one thing. and very hard to get. but it doesn't taste quite so bad as the others, and it's non-explosive etc.

I've only ever seen it mentioned online. I've never even seen it used, anywhere.

And on the boric acid thing from earlier, I went into the chemistry lab in the eng building in UCD to see where I might be able to get some, and the technician says "yeah, I'll see if I can get some for you". How odd. I never got back to her though... Boric acid really only works with poi though, since the green flame only shows at higher twirling speeds. clubs/staff etc are too slow, they stay orange.

larryone

same avater. how rare. not changing.

loafer's glory

How about I rip off your signature too?

garthv

now now ladies...
Handbags at 50 paces!

larryone

It's ok, I'll get him with my fire doablo once I make it.
In the meantime..... http://larry.netsoc.com/fire/

loafer's glory

well then I'll bet you wish you hadn't taught me to catch a diabolo on a ring and throw it back at you.

larryone

Balls. Foiled again! hopefully the fire diabolo will be hot enough that it'll melt the ring and you wont be able to throw it back =0)