heat proof gloves

Unicycles and Equipment
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As someone who’s done a fair bit of fire club juggling in the past, presently does fire poi/meteors and loves three ball stuff, it’s been a goal of mine top work out a way of juggling fire balls.

I’ve experimented with various gloves i.e. industrial safety gloves, kevlar gloves, and have found that after less than a minute of juggling they either ignite or the balls get to hot too juggle.

The last time I tried I used a combination of washing up gloves with a layer of tin foil, with water soaked kevlar on top, topped off with water soaked thick garden gloves.

They worked better than previous attempts, but the heat got too much after a while.

I’m aware of the comercially available balls with wicks surrounded by a kevlar covered metal cage, but the flames are too small and they’re expensive and fiddly.

I’m wondering if any of you have any ideas on this.

Sorry it’s not a unicycle query, but I know some of you are jugglers, and I’m hoping at least one of the people who post here is a fireman/firewoman with experience of extreme heat protective clothing.

My feelings are that heat resistence is more usefull than fire proofing, I’ve done some searches on the net and found the gloves in the picture.

They look like they could work but the aluminium coating doesn’t extend over the palm area, and that’s where it’s most needed.

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what you need are some asbestos gloves…

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Aren’t they banned?
If not, where can I get some, and are they safe?

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Dave, I am reasonably certain that Max is kidding. But you could try asking at Home Depot (they won’t laugh at you – really).

I did a Google search: buy “asbestos gloves”

(apparently you can get them from China)

I never knew this, but asbestos gloves is a common expression. As in, that new book was so hot, I had to read it with asbestos gloves! It is apparently well known (to most people, anyway) for it’s heat-resistant properties.

It’s amazing what you can learn here. I will try to incorporate “asbestos gloves” into my everyday speech (every single day, that is, like I did when I recently learned the word bifurcate).

Thanks, Max!

Dave

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I’ve never done fire juggling, but I used to do a bit of fire eating, and that thing where you run a burning torch up and down your arm. A friend of mine had a full show which involved licking the burning torch.

From what i remember, if you use methylated spirits, it burns at a much lower temperature than paraffin or petrol. Add salt to make it burn with a yellow flame.

Worth a try.

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Mikefule

From what i remember, if you use methylated spirits, it burns at a much lower temperature than paraffin or petrol.

Cheers Mike, I should have thought of that! I’ll give it a go.

I still want to track down some aluminium coated gloves (with coating on the palm) as I think that they could work even with parrafin.

For safety reasons and my conscience I should point out that petrol should never be used for juggling, eating etc as it is incredibly dangerous.

As for asbestos gloves, I’m wary of even looking into it cos I know they’d probably work but could be very bad for my health.

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I certainly was kidding, that’s what MG’ers in Nam used to change there barrels when they melted… not excactly a fun experience im sure.

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I’m not completely sure, but…

I think that its just the asbestos building insulation that is a problem. Insulation is fluffy with fibers that can break free and get into the air…which you then breathe.

I’m sure asbestos is still used for a lot of things, but processed differently. I doubt that a tightly weaved asbestos cloth causes any health problems. I don’t see how you could breathe it in. I wouldn’t have a problem with asbestos gloves…and I think they might use asbestos in those spaceman looking fire resistant suits.

I’m not positive about this…please don’t get yourself black-lung because I figured asbestos was cool.

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Dave,

Juggling fire is cool (hehe!), but please, educate yourself about the hazards first!

I used to do fire-breathing and fire juggling, but before the taste of the stuff turned me off, the too-late knowledge of the hazards scared me off.

Besides the burning qualities of fire, there’s the poisonous qualities of petroleum by-products to consider.

Alcohol/Methylated spirit is much safer to handle than petroleum-based fluids due to the lower kindling temperature.

The following links are not necessarily the last word on fire safety for juggling, but they’re a good start.

Liquid Fuel

Jugglin Fire Safely

Finally:

Yeah, fire is exciting, but in the end, it’s just decoration.

If your juggling is mediocre (I’m not saying it is, just if…), fire isn’t going to help.
I’ve seen lots of sloppy street juggling that was only made worse by adding this dangerous element!

I’m not trying to be a killjoy. Just think about these points…

Do you really want to compound the danger of poison and incineration with the carcinogenic danger of asbestos?

Isn’t there enough crap in your environment that you have no control over already? Just how cool is it going to look juggling anything with giant silver mittens on?

Having said all that, I completely admit that good fire juggling performances are very exciting!

Let us know if you come up with good, workable innovations!

Rick

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Black Lung disease (Anthracosis) is caused by inhalation of coal dust.

Inhalation of asbestos fibers has been proven to cause lung cancer.

If you are qualified to declare that there is a significant difference between the asbestos fibers used in ceiling tiles and fireproofing in buildings and that used in fireproof clothing, please do explain the difference to us.

Otherwise… hey, a little “knowledge” is dangerous, ya know?

:astonished:

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I’m not an expert, but I believe aluminum is a pretty good conductor of heat. It may reflect it when you’re not immersed in it (hence having it on the back of the gloves), but I think it might not be as effective if you’re holding the heat in your hands.

You are talking about juggling flaming balls that you hold in your hands, right? :slight_smile:

I have only ever seen fire ball juggling at juggling conventions. I’ve never seen a professional (or amateur) performer use them in a show. I don’t think they’re as cool as “regular” fire props, because part of the artistry of using them is keeping the fire away from you while still manipulating it. Juggling fire balls is kind of like juggling torches on the wrong ends. It has an innate wrongness to it (to me).

I remember a guy at a juggling convention who was juggling flaming sticks, that had fire on both ends. His object was to basically work them from the center. But he appeared to be still “experimenting,” as indicated by the burn marks all up and down his forearms.

I like what I read on the Fire Juggling Safety link. Keeping wet towels handy sounds like a real good idea, and I highly recommend it to any fire juggler.

Good luck with your hands!

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sendhair
Juggling fire is cool (hehe!), but please, educate yourself about the hazards first!

I used to do fire-breathing and fire juggling, but before the taste of the stuff turned me off, the too-late knowledge of the hazards scared me off.

Besides the burning qualities of fire, there’s the poisonous qualities of petroleum by-products to consider.

Alcohol/Methylated spirit is much safer to handle than petroleum-based fluids due to the lower kindling temperature.

I’ve done a fair bit of research into this. Parafin is filthy stuff full of carcinogenic additives, but out of the alternatives it’s the best thing to use.

I’ve never, and will never, fire breathe because of the long term health effects of absorbing fuel and the danger if it goes wrong. I know of several very experienced and professional performers who’ve almost died fire breathing.

I used to fire juggle (busking) in town for 3 hour sessions, I pretty much stopped cos’ I could tell that even just juggling I was inhaling a fair bit of stuff i.e. blowing my nose later revealed that it was full of black soot!

At the moment I do an occasional bit of fire poi/meteors and, because my speciality used to be three ball juggling I want to be able to get some fire ball stuff going.

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johnfoss
quote:

Originally posted by onewheeldave
I still want to track down some aluminium coated gloves (with coating on the palm) as I think that they could work even with parrafin.

I’m not an expert, but I believe aluminum is a pretty good conductor of heat. It may reflect it when you’re not immersed in it (hence having it on the back of the gloves), but I think it might not be as effective if you’re holding the heat in your hands.

Good point. The first time I went to an industrial supplies place and got some gloves I asked the guy if they’d be o.k. to juggle flaming balls with; he kind of sneered and said ‘these are rated to 800 degrees c’.

Two hours later I was in my garden pulling the burning gloves from my hands. Just because gloves are designed to hold lumps of molten steel with doesn’t necessarily make them good for fire juggling.

johnfoss
quote:
You are talking about juggling flaming balls that you hold in your hands, right?

I have only ever seen fire ball juggling at juggling conventions. I’ve never seen a professional (or amateur) performer use them in a show. I don’t think they’re as cool as “regular” fire props, because part of the artistry of using them is keeping the fire away from you while still manipulating it. Juggling fire balls is kind of like juggling torches on the wrong ends. It has an innate wrongness to it (to me).

The problem with the fire ball stuff at conventions is that the commercial fire ball equipment isn’t that good i.e. the flames in the cage type balls is a bit puny.

As for regular fire clubs, they’re great and I’ve used them a lot, but I much prefer ball juggling to club juggling.

Cheers to everyone for their thoughts. I’ll do a bit of looking into safety issues concerning asbestos gloves and check out some of the links given.

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having not researched nor seen pictures of the cages used for fire ball juggling, excuse the ignorance. i could research it right now, but … i would rather not.

would it be possible to use a much larger cage than the flame size? hence the hands would be farther from the flame when palming. i am not sure if this produces the desired effect.

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nosabe332
having not researched nor seen pictures of the cages used for fire ball juggling, excuse the ignorance. i could research it right now, but … i would rather not.

would it be possible to use a much larger cage than the flame size? hence the hands would be farther from the flame when palming. i am not sure if this produces the desired effect.

I think the commercially available caged balls are about the best they can be; they’ve been around for years, been substantially redesigned on several occasions etc.

I want to use home made balls with no high tech cages and use fire/heat proof gloves instead.

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Asbestos gloves are great. I use them all the time when I retrieve things from the big ceramics furnace. I feel like I have to cover my face when it is arms length away, But can reach right inside with the gloves. Anyway, there is this snaught that welders use. You put it on something and it prevents the heat from traveling through the material. I think you can put it on your hands and it works the same way. I can’t remember what it is called.
-gauss

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gauss

Asbestos gloves are great. I use them all the time when I retrieve things from the big ceramics furnace. I feel like I have to cover my face when it is arms length away, But can reach right inside with the gloves. Anyway, there is this snaught that welders use. You put it on something and it prevents the heat from traveling through the material. I think you can put it on your hands and it works the same way. I can’t remember what it is called.
-gauss

Are you aware of any safety issues concerning asbestos gloves?not many places seem to sell them (there’s a place in China that does).

What’s ‘snaught’? is it a kind of paste that stops heat?

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KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? “Hot Thread!”

I’m going to have to put my asbestos gloves on!

Dave
(at the bottom of the page that lists the threads, look at the icon legend – the tooltip says “Hot Thread” – I don’t make this stuff up…)

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uni57

This thread now has over 15 replies or 150 views.

KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? “Hot Thread!”

I’m going to have to put my asbestos gloves on!

That ‘asbestos gloves’ phrase is funny, I wasn’t aware of it till I posted this thread.

Now I’ve done some searches looking for gloves and 90% of the results are about high risk financial deals rather than gloves.