Just as a note, do not build aluminum chain maille for poi!!!

I had a set brought to me that was torn apart in a few places. It was built by some people who clearly didn't test it out. It was made with aluminum rings. I sold him a set of stainless steel chain maille and he was very thankful knowing he purchased a quality solid set to replace the weaker aluminum set.

Aluminum chain maille is dangerously weak for poi. Do NOT attempt to build these.

Hey Zer, will you be heading to WIldfire this weekend?
I will be selling them there and you will be able to get a chance to demo them with stainless steel and I think you will find that they are not has heavy as you may dread. I actually prefer the slightly heavier weight with the stainless!
I will experiment with the titanium, but I have a friend who tested it and he said that it didn't work, but I have to see for myself now.
Cheers,
Paul
Burning Passion
www.burningpassion.com

Hey guys... I've been spinning with this set of box weaves for about a year now, and I can speak from experience that:
A.) they spin amazing, especially when you do wraps and tangles because the box weave runs in a continuous fish-scale pattern.
B.) they look amazing and really turn heads
C.) they are heavy... 4 rings per iteration instead of 1 on a normal chain = 4X the weight
D.) they are dangerous... in my opinion, any of these home made poi chains are going do be dangerous unless you weld them. I'm going to put all my other projects on hold until I can solve this problem because it's driving me crazy.

I'd like to talk more about welding the links... if anyone knows anything about this stuff, please speak up. The chainmaille concept is great but it's just too dangerous without welding IMHO... I'm going to try to figure out a way to bench-mount a TIG-welder so you can just do the rings rapid-fire style with an anode-set of pliars.
It would be very exciting to be able to weld these things, because in addition to low tensile strength, they are also pretty heavy. So it would be really cool to make an Uber-poi set using titanium, but it would DEFINITELY require welding to stay together. Titanium as I understand is brittle.

Bottom line is that these things simply MUST be welded. I don't want to see anyone get hurt out there... I almost have... twice.
At a minimum, you have to inspect the rings before you burn and change out the ones that are starting to go... Box, byzantine, persian... they will all start to go eventually.

I agree! It is always good to check equipment. We beat up our tools of our art by spinning it, throwing it in the air, dropping it on the ground (only sometimes), traveling with it, and LIGHTING IT ON FIRE! There is always room for equipment failure when we treat our gear the way we do. Byzantine has the potential to break like any other piece of hardware. The positive thing about checking byzantine for potential problems is that you can see any rings that might be slowly bending out of shape and it can easily be mended. From my experience with other chain like ball chain, there is no way to check it for failure as the points that break are internal, inside the ball itself, and is impossible to check.

I hear what your saying about the physics of spinning and I think you are right about having extra weight in the middle. I do also think it largely depends on things like if counter weighted grips are being used, how heavy the poi heads are and how long the chain is. I think there are a lot of factors involved and that everyone has to discover what set of poi with what specific variables will work best for them. I personally have never had any troubles doing stalls, isolations, or cat eyes with my byzantine and I haven't heard anyone that has had experienced any troubles executing these moves yet. Of course everyone has a different experience and a different feeling for what works best for them. So I guess the best way to find out is to experiment with different things to find what is right for the poi spinner! :)

I have some byzantine chains, and I'll share my opinions of them here.
I really like byzantine chains! Not just the way they look, but the way they feel. When I shorten my poi by wrapping around my hand, and I pinch the chain with my thumb and forefinger, it feels just like rope. Lots of people use rope for practice poi, so it's similar to that.
For tangles they are amazing. The fluidity of the movement of the chain is better than oval link, better than rope poi, better than other fire poi I've ever had.
As for other moves, the main drawback (as many have mentioned) is moving he center of mass of the poi. A heavier chain makes the center of mass farther in. But the wicks I use are big and heavy, so the effect isn't so noticeable. If I had tiny wicks, I wouldn't want the think chain. The center of mass changes the feeling of a stall, but I don't have trouble making the stalls look clean. It would be harder to LEARN stalls while using these chains, but since I already know, it's just a small adjustment to make it looks right.
I had these chains at burning man this year, and really liked them. I also shared them with lots of people to see what they thought. Every person except for one really liked them. "They feel great!" sort of a thing. The one person who didn't like them had the above comment: "The chains are too heavy. I like the weight to be all at the end." So that's the trade off.
I can't speak to tensile strength or longevity, since I've only had them for a few months.
If you're considering some byzantine chains, here are the things to think about:
-How sensitive are you to the distribution of weight? People in their first year or two of poi spinning may not notice. The longer you spin for, the more you can notice subtle differences.
-How much do you stall while you spin, and how good are you at it? If you like to stall a lot, but don't feel solid in your technique you'll find it more difficult with these. If you're solid with the technique, or don't like to stall they'll be fine.
-How much do you do tangle moves while you spin? If you do lots, you'll really like these. If you don't do tangles, you won't take advantage of one of the major advantages of this type of chain.
-How much do you wrap your poi around your hand to shorten them? These feel nice for that.
-How much money do you have to spend on your poi? These are expensive chains, which is the main drawback.

That's all the information I have. I hope it's helpful to this discussion. I've always been of the opinion that what you can do is defined by what type of prop you use. You want to find the dimensions, weight, grip, et cetera that best match the style you want to spin. There are always trade offs, and there is no best option. For example whether you use single loop handles, double loop handles, or a weighted ball end depends on what style you want to spin. So I recommend to try as many sets of poi as you can to see what you resonate with, and what doesn't fit you. Byzantine chains fit me quite nicely.