Published: 2023-12-22 - Author(s): Josh - Tag(s):

Towards a More Indestructible Monkey’s Fist

My first attempt at making a monkey's fist that won't fly out or loosen.

Intro

We all should know that before using any of our props, we need to check them to ensure nothing (on-fire or not) will go flying as we spin. My first home-made monkey’s fists had to be retired from the kevlar degrading and the internal mechanism no longer being able to hold the kevlar. I have seen friend’s home-made monkey’s fists fail from having the core come out. After seeing how mine and others monkey fist’s fail, I tried experimenting with the core of my next monkey fist’s. The college club I was a part of almost considered banning home-made monkey’s fists due to not wanting to deal with the risks and the community who wanted to create props.

I’m aware other types of end-knots exist that are more resilient to core pullout, but I like the spherical look of the monkey’s fist.

The Head

Before we continue: I don’t believe myself qualified to provide advice on making monkey’s fists. We’re not responsible if damage occurs from you copying any ideas from this post.

I like making my fire ends by placing a core made from an eye bolt inside the monkey’s fist. This is how I made my first fire head. The core is held in place by multiple wraps of kevlar around the eye bolt. A washer is placed at the end of the core preventing it from sliding out. When all the kevlar is tightened, there no where for the core to move. One of the main failure modes of this was the nut on the bottom would become loose. It it were to completely fall off, there would be nothing preventing the eye bolt from just sliding out. The nut used to be tight when it was first installed, but with wear and tear of the kevlar and normal use, it lost all tightness. Nuts stay in place because of friction. They press tightly against a surface and this is why they generally stay in place. The loose kevlar inside the this core was not strong enough to create any sort of pre-load for the nut.

What I experiment with was to use jam nuts, hollow tubing for spacers, and washers.

Using both a top and bottom washer, and ensuring the bottom washer is held by tightened nuts on both sides, there is constant tension to keep the nuts tightened. As I don’t expect to take it apart, I tightened them to an extreme amount using a vise and a wrench. To place the top washer as high up as possible, a hollow tube is needed to push it upward as the threads of the eye bolt didn’t go all the way up. If threads continued all the way up, I perhaps wouldn’t need this hollow tube. With these two washers, a tight coil of kevlar can be placed in between as the core of the monkey’s fist. The other wraps of the knot keep everything tight. I have been very happy with the durability of my heads. Through all my practice abuse, I have not needed to tighten them or adjust anything regarding to the head. I think it’s super important to really make sure the jam nuts are tightened much past just hand tightening with pliers.

Some Cons

• Too Heavy
  • I like to experiment with heavier heads. This was probably a mistake with this head. In the future, I would chose an eye-bolt smaller than what I used.
• Poor Shape
  • The coil between the washers is not very round. This makes the head look slightly longer than wider. In the future, I would experiment with adding more wraps in the center or finding some sort of fireproof insert.