Staffmaking

This post is going to be entirely about staff making. For this I will provide some photographs along with written commentary on what is done.

Materials and tools needed.

Materials

-Metal tubing. For this I used some steel tubing however chrome plated curtain rod is cheap and readily available

- Wooden dowel (preferably hardwood). This needs to fit as closely as possible inside the tubing

- Masking tape

- Electrical or duct tape

- Phillips head wood screws about 3/4 of an inch to an inch long

- Washers to fit the screws

- Kevlar Wick. I used wick thats about 2cm wide, bought online from Home of Poi

- Bicycle inner tube.

Tools

- A phillips head screwdriver

- A drill press (I just happened to have one handy, if you don't you could use a normal drill with metal drill bits)

- A hacksaw

- A vice is helpful but not necessary

- Scissors

Method

1.

Cut your metal tubing to length. For double staffs most people say 3 feet but I think its up to personal preference, a good way to judge is by holding the tube at the middle with your arm outstretched so the tip is midway along your bicep.

2.

Drill holes in your tubing. This is where having a drill press is really handy, drilling holes in tubing is hard without one.

 This photo just demonstrates the distance between the holes that I've drilled. If you have wider wick than I do drill 2 holes for each side of the wick. Why I have drilled 2 holes will be revealed later.

Repeat this step for as many staffs you are making, And for both ends of course.

3. 

File the inside of the tubing. This is actually quite important. Make sure that the inside of your tubing is smooth. This is so that the dowel will easily fit inside your tubing.

4.

Gripping. Some people like to do this at the end however I find it makes wicking the staffs easier. For this tek we are going to be using a cheap, easily available, and durable grip; a bicycle inner tube. 1 inner tube makes around 2 grips.

Go out to your local bike shop and ask them if they have any busted bicycle inner tubes, they should have heaps.

Cut the inner tube like this.

Then wrap it around the tubing so it stretches over itself. You will need to pull it quite tight.

 Make sure that you start about this far from the tip. I've been told the minimum distance for it not to be burned is 13cm.

Tape the ends of the grips to keep it in place.

5.

Coring. What we are doing here is filling the inside of the tube with a dowel core that has 2 functions; it weights the tips of the staff and it gives the crews holding the wick on something to grip onto.

Cut your dowel into equal pieces (2 pieces if you are making one staff, 4 if you are making 2 staffs) making sure that the length is about half an inch longer than the distance from the tip of your staff to the second hole.

Use masking tape up the cores we have made. Try and tape it so that it just fits. If your cores are a little larger than the inside of your tubing then you will need to sand then down so that they fit. You might have to hammer them in, but if they fall through then you need to add some more tape.

6.

Wicking. This is the hardest part of this whole process.

Measure your wick by wrapping it around your tubing tight so that its about a cm thick around the tubing. Unwrap and cut it using scissors (WARNING: cutting Kevlar with scissors will blunt them) and use the piece you have already cut to make as many other identical ones as you need.

You should have a bunch like this:

 Tape them to the tip like this and wrap it round tightly.

 Continue wrapping around. Make sure that its as tight as you can.

 When you get to the end fold the tip.

 Screw through the Kevlar and into the dowel. Be sure not to lose any tension when you do this and make sure that the screw penetrates the dowel, preferably all the way through. Sometimes it misses the hole and hits the metal, there is not much you can do but try again.

 Now repeat if you are using large wicks, otherwise place a small screw through the other hole as pictured. This second screw is vital, if this screw is left out the core may fall out due to high temperatures and fall out.

Final finishing touches that you might find useful:
-Marking the center of the staff with whiteout (if you need it).
-If you have a grinder (I did) grind the tips so they are flush with the wicks, this is great and will help if you accidentally hit yourself with the hot bits.
-Shock absorbers. If you do any double contact these are a good idea. grab some of the inner tubes and slice them open. Cut strips into them and then tape them sideways around the ends of the stick.

And the finished product (x2)