Easy fire wands for cheap

I was looking around at some of the options for wands for fire play and found that there are a LOT out there. They range in price from about $10 to more than $50 each. Being me however, I decided I wanted to try making them myself, more as a learning experience than a cost-saving measure. These ended up being both, as they cost less than $2 each to make.

I saw a lot of choices made from fondue forks and thought that sounded great. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any at the stores in my area and I'm too impatient to order them online or wait for a thrift store find so I improvised.

 I found these "camping forks" at the local WalMart for $1 each.  They are longer than a fondue fork which I like, and should serve the purpose nicely.  I bought 4 of them to start.

To complete this, you will also need:
* a package of cotton balls
* 100% cotton gauze
* 100% cotton (or kevlar if you want to get fancy) thread

You will also need a couple pairs of pliers (at least one of them must be able to cut wire), and a pair of scissors. If you want to decorate the handles, you will need paint or whatever else you intend to use there.

Begin by bending the fork prongs flat. Take care not to put pressure on the main arm of the fork as the prongs are welded on and you do not want to snap off the weld.

Continue bending until the prongs are somewhat inverted, as seen above.

Then using a wire cutter (I used the ones build into these pliers) to trim the prongs to about a 1/4" on each side.

Now use the pliers to squeeze the prongs so they point back towards the handle. This will create a catch so that your cotton material will not go sailing off the end of the wand when you get a bit crazy during play time.

Get several cotton balls - I used a total of 8 for each wand. With 7 of them, I carefully unrolled them out flat. It helps to unroll them all before you start wrapping rather than one at a time as you also need one hand to keep the wrap tight.

Begin wrapping the cotton as tightly as you can around the end of the wand, beginning with inside the fork ends, then wrapping around them.

As you wrap, overlap each new cotton ball by an inch or so. It will help keep them together and tight. I did two widths of cotton, from the end of the wand, but if you want a longer burn area, you can do more.

I saved one cotton ball for the very tip, as an added buffer against the tip of the wand poking through. Now wrap the end tightly with cotton gauze. I used three layers.

Carefully pull the edges of the gauze up around the cotton tip, keeping the wrapped cotton tight and compressing the end towards the tip slightly. This should give you a nice, dense, firm tip to play with.

Using the cotton thread (or kevlar if you're fancy) wrap the tip tightly and tie it off with several independent knots. Take your time to keep it tight here and tie a lot - if one or two knots burn through by accident, you don't want the tip to come apart on you (or your victi... um.... partner).

Now use the scissors and carefully trim the ends of the thread and the excess gauze. Aside from decorating the handle, your wand is complete. These will not last forever, and you should always inspect them before use to be sure they haven't burned through too much and are not starting to come apart. As long as you regularly blow them out before they burn themselves out, they should last quite a while.

Have fun, and be safe. I provide this info for fun and education only and assume no liability or responsibility for what you chose to do with it. Fire play is inherently dangerous so please be sure you have proper training and safety precautions in place before attempting it.