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 Short Staffs

Choosing the right size for short staffs depends on your size, and the style of manipulation you are intending.

Contact is 'easiest' with longer staffs. For pattern spinning, you probably want to be able to spin the staff under your armpit, or not hit your chest when your arm is out in front of you. You can add more petals to flowers if you can fit the staff inside of your elbow. Fit here means while youre holding the staff in its center, so like palm to inside of elbow x 2 might be a good size for the widest range of tech patterns, while palm to armpit x 2 is about as long as i'd recommend for short staffs. These formulas are rough.

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.

End Shape and Flowers

Cane tips are the lightest option and great for toss juggling. Add flowers, and they are my favorite setup for being able to throw, do on-body contact, and pattern manipulations with one set of sticks.

The barrel wraps match the size and weight and shape of my fire staffs. This is the way to go for consistency between a practice set and a fire set. this is also highly customizable by size and weight. let me know in the order notes.

I think the lacrosse balls are too heavy for 1/2 tubes, and too heavy if you want to do toss juggling, but are great for on body contact and pattern spinning with 5/8" tubes, especially with ex-grip and no flowers.

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.