The floating wand

The floating wand is a very different tool than the floating sword. This little guy has a specifically placed, balanced and length of string that allows a talented user to make this appear to "float" in mid-air.

My first first version was built years ago for a friend who saw someone use it on the Playa. I ended up building it completely to specs (based only on his rather vague description). But he never liked it until he bought a non-fire version from Flow Toys. Well I spent a little time with Sean and Prizna at Fire Drums, and they were happy to have me knock out fire versions of this tool.

The really odd part was that my original version was all brass with one wick. But I wanted more out of the tool and started prototyping the one above. The idea is that you can use it for both fire eating/fleshing shows AND as a solo tool that "floats" on it's own. In the final stages, someone pointed out that a swedish site (salza), already had a version like it. Now, salsa is a bit infamous for stealing designs from other fire tool sites (including Bear.... well, including just about everyone). So, when it looked that it was going to appear that we stole a design from them, my usual first instincts to change the tool were swept aside. Let 'em think that we're not above stealing a few designs back. Maybe it'll slow them down a bit.
:)

So, The double perfect has been a back-burner tool for some time. Just never got around to making them. The idea is to have one wick that you light up, and the other one for a fuel reserve. This allows contact (or "fleshing") artists to facilitate their shows down to just one tool. Two of these bad boys would make for an awesome fleshing show. But add in the floating aspect, and you can appear to let go of the tool completely, even have it 'dance' around behind your head. Some folks can't manage the floating aspects, and for them, the string can be clipped and replaced later (standard black kevlar thread).

The Fire Flogger

Everyone looks at this piece and says something different. Floggers evoke such incredible feelings in people from lust to bile, fond memories to nightmares. They're definitely the tool that gets right to the root of the watcher. This particular flogger is not particularly good at spanking. You see, every flogger has it's own character. Masonry cord produces a flogger that feels like soft hair, leather is snappy and stingy, rubber is rippy or thuddy, stingy and slappy. Kevlar is a bit of a whiff and not particularly good alone, but the addition of hybrid wicks changes everything.

The intended use of the Bearclaw fire flogger is a two-fold show. The hybrid wicks burn amazingly with white gas and these will produce a big, bright fairly-long show. But the real fun begins when they're used for "fire play" or painting fire on the sub's body. You can get two kinds of strike out of these: a thud and a whisk. The thud will usually transfer fuel, but bounce off without lighting it. The whisk will transfer flame and heat without spreading fuel. Naturally, you should be well versed in the tool and how it expresses and lights fuel before trying on a partner.

The 5" finger hybrids are a complete seal of kevlar around cotton. The 12" falls give a lot of play between the fingers and the handle. The aluminum handle has a torch ball at the top for good grip in either sword or torch holds. But the back of the whip has a ring that can have chains attached for longer, poi-like shows. This option is better with white gas burns. Not intended for beginners, this makes a great step up from either basic torch/poi shows, or unlit flogging scenes.