Details

Contact staff. overgrown baton, underpowered implement of wizardry, highly stylized and functionalized walking stick.

Aluminum or Carbon Fiber?

The aluminum i use is 7075 alloy, which is much stronger than the more common and easily available 6061/3 alloys, but is still more prone to bending than carbon fiber. Even invisible bends will cause the staff to wobble when it is rolling on your body.

Aluminum is slightly heavier than carbon fiber, but this is offset in total weight on fire staffs, because aluminum must be added as a sheath on the ends to protect the glue in the carbon from the heat of the flames. This does make the weight distribution on carbon fire staffs more ideal, as there is less weight in the center and more on the ends. This remains true on short fire staffs, but if you are mostly wanting to spin and toss, and not interested in body rolls, it may not be worth the price difference.

The thicker the tube, the stronger and more resistant to bending it is. The shorter it is, the more resistant to bending.

Sizing for Contact

tldr: you can learn with any stick that you practice with. between chest and chin height is 'best' for a full size contact staff. diameter affects roll, and comes down to personal preference unless youre quite small or quite large.

when choosing a staff, size can be important, but really the stick that you pick up and use is the best stick, so dont stress out over a couple of inches length or an eighth of an inch diameter. that said, heres more information about sizing that will either help clarify your choices or leave you more confused.
length
for a full sized contact staff, you generally want the length to be somewhere between your chest and chin, but if you havent watched world class baton twirlers, you should watch anetta lucero, and you will see that about everything we aspire to do with sticks can be done with quite short ones. the longer the stick, the slower it will spin, and the more leverage it will have available to get it to keep spinning. for example, horizontal propellers like in a 'matrix' will be easiest with a super long stick. the shorter the stick is, the more space you will have for moving it around you or moving around it without collisions. shorter sticks are easier to throw. if you're trying to choose between the 54 and 60 inch defaults i offer, and both are somewhere between chest and chin, i'd say go with the shorter if you have or want to develop a dancey style and have a little more space for the stick, and go with the longer if youre more interested in extended contact with little mobility. the difference in the six inches is not extreme, tho, and really, you can only determine your personal preferences by playing with multiple, different props.
diameter
besides how it fits your hand, the main difference caused by different diameters is the roll speed. a thinner stick will require more rotations to travel from point a to point b. thinner sticks can be a little more difficult tto get rolling, but once they are, can feel stickier. the thinner diameter may demand a little bit more control to complete a move, but will also give you a little bit more control in directing the move. again, this is subtle, and preference can really only be determined by trying the different things. if you're under 5'4", i usually recommend a 5/8" tube. if you're over 6' usually the 3/4", and i rarely recommend 7/8" (especially with a thick grip) except for dragons, unless you're quite large, or really want a fast rolling staff, but there are no rules.

Grip Options

wizardgrip is a spongy natural rubber yoga mat. It has a nice amount of cushion, but is firm enough that you wont lose the stick in softness. Its downside is its longevity and complexity to replace. It lasts 4 months-2 years, depending on use and storage (wizardgrip is allergic to being left in the sun) Because i glue it on, replacing it requires some staff shaving and sanding. i do regrips for 35-50usd plus shipping, depending on staff size, or i sell rolls of grip, and can talk you thru the process if you want to do it yourself. wizardgrip comes in black, purple, navy, and olive

exGrip is a soft, thermoplastic elastomer tape that feels like a very grippy velvet. It’s quite thin, so you really feel the stick. It lasts about the same as wizard, but is more simple to replace. The tape usually peels off cleanly, but may require the use of a solvent (i use isopropyl) to get all of the residue off. exGrip comes in black.

goat grip is a firm synthetic rubber. It has a thickness between the other two, is heavy, just a little less grippy, can be abrasive at first, but has the benefit of lasting for years and years. goat grip comes in black and is 10-20usd more expensive per stick.

Flowers

Flowers are the fringy bits on the ends of the staffs. When the staff rolls, the flowers open up, and the moment of inertia increases (the roll slows). This is the same effect as a dragon staff, but to much less of an extent.

On long staffs, i put flowers on by default. On fire staffs, there is a silicone band that can be rolled over the flowers so that they remain closed. On the non fire staffs, i place them so that they come over the balls and do not include the silicone band, but i can mod this by request. I like them as far to the ends as possible, so that as much of the staff as possible is grippy, playable space.

On short staffs, i leave their inclusion up to you, since there are more variable use frameworks.

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Shipping

I try my best to get orders out as quickly as possible, but i am a one person shop and sometimes there are delays. I will be communicative about any issues that will cause an order to take longer than ten days to build and process.

If you have a particular timeframe where you 'need' your prop, ie upcoming festival or gig, it is best practice to check in before you buy to make sure i can meet your timeframe, or at least leave a note in the checkout process, so that i can adjust my prioritization and communication.

I like to send pics of completed orders before i ship them out to ensure that colors are right and you are getting what you want. There is a field in the checkout process for you to let me know the best way to send you pics. Once i send pics, i usually wait a day or two for a response before i just go ahead and ship.