White Gas (or better known as Namptha, or Coleman's Camping Fuel)

White Gas is known as one of the cleaner burning fuels. It lights quickly and has a moderate burn time. Many fire dancers enjoy spinning with white gas because it lights faster than Lamp Oil or Kerosene. White Gas has a lower flash point than the other fuels commonly used. A low flash point means that white gas is a flammable liquid that can form an ignitable mixture in the air. The vapor will cease to burn if the source of ignition is taken away. It is important to store white gas in a well ventillated area. Some of the benefits of using white gas is that you can use it for fire tracing or making cool "Back to the Future" trails on concrete.

Kerosene

Kerosene is considerably sootier than White Gas and leaves a sticky residue on fire equipment. Kerosene has a longer burn time than white gas and has a distinctive light yellow flame. Kero takes longer to light in colder temperatures. Although Kerosene has a higher flash point, and is safer to use than White Gas in some ways, it has a distinctive smell that lasts well beyond your spin.

Lamp Oil

Lamp oil is very silimar to Kerosene in many of its qualities. Lamp oil is slow to light but has a longer burn than white gas. Lamp oil has a high flash point and is one of the safest fuels to use. The flame will be copper-coloured. One of the nice things about lamp oil is that it doesn't leave a smelly residue on your wicks.

Bio Diesel

According to nafaa.org, Biodiesel is a great fuel for fire spinning. As a performance fuel Biodiesel may take upwards of a full minute in flame to get lit on a wick. It is very greasy and spitty, so even well spun out wicks may slick up surfaces on dance floors, stages, even concrete. And finally, it burns with a great deal of sooty smoke, making it useless for indoor burning. The up side is that it burns very long. A standard torch can burn upwards of 10 minutes on this fuel. Also the MSDS on most BioD's are very promising as an environmentally safe fuel, and one that is relatively harmless to humans.

Ethyl Acteate

If you're looking for a clean-burning fuel, nafaa.org also recommends Ethyl Acetate. As a performance fuel Ethyl Acetate, dubbed 'Bio White Gas' or just BioWhite, is nearly indistinguishable from White Gas. It has a low flash point of 30 degrees (F) so it will burn on skin, on the tongue, it makes back to the future trails, lights quickly and lasts just about the same time on standard wicks. It burns with less soot and smoke, and is nearly as clean burning as isopropyl alcohol, though it's flame size and brilliance are much closer to white gas than alcohol. Unfortunately, despite being a polar solvent, BioW will still not dissolve the normal chemicals needed to make colored flames. Also, the most serious downside to Ethyl Acetate is that it's a wonderful solvent for making Meth-amphetamines. So purchasing it in any quantity may get you put on a narcotics watch list.

We use the following "recipe" for our fuel:
2 parts White Gas to 1 part Lamp Oil
Why do we do this? We like many of the qualities of spinning with White Gas; however, if we mix White Gas and Lamp Oil together, it raises the flash point. This mixture makes the fuel more stable, and also gives us a longer burn time.

* What is a flash point? The flash point of a flammable liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can form an ignitable mixture in air. At this temperature the vapor may cease to burn when the source of ignition is removed.