THE ART OF LYCO

The loud ‘woosh’ of the club, providing a hot, bright and powerful – relatively short duration flame effect. It’s called lycopodium powder – also known as lyco, dragons breath, or fire powder (fire effect powder). But what is it and how do you do it?

Club moss – a spore powder, is actually plant matter. It is only produced outside of Australia (predominantly in the northern hemisphere, seasonally), and then undergoes a process to make it of higher flammability, by making the powder drier and more fine – suitable for fire effects.

Due to its limited production, seasonal production, and increasing demand for its effects worldwide with the popularity of its use in fire shows increasing – the price of lycopodium powder has skyrocketed in recent years – soaring to prices as high as $250/kg in some countries. The main country producers for export these days are China and Nepal.

Club moss is usually harvested late summer/early autumn (remember northern hemisphere). The drying and production process can take some time, making most harvests ready for market by late autumn/early winter in the Northern Hemisphere (November/December here in Australia). Harvest times also effect purchase prices around the world particularly for importers.

There are multiple different variants of lycopodium powder and it's important to know that only a small percentage of lycopodium powder on the market is suitable for fire effects. The powder is also used in Chinese medicine for digestive, liver and kidney support. There is heavy grade lycopodium powder, and light grade lycopodium powder. Light grade lycopodium powder is what is used for fire effects; however, it is important to note that the term ‘light grade’ still does not make it suitable for fire effects. There are still multiple production processes that need to take place for the powder to be effective when used in fire effects.

Lyco, is classified as a dangerous goods substance – falling into the category of a flammable solid. It only ignites through the air over an open flame when separated by air particles. If you were to try and set fire to a pile of lycopodium sitting on the floor, it would just burn slow (if at all), not providing anything as close to the effect produced when utilised in specific lycopodium clubs and props.

Lycopodium powder is also easily affected by humidity and moisture. Exposure just to ambient air particularly here (in humid Queensland), can severely impact the quality of the lyco! It's super important to ensure that during storage, the product is kept incredibly airtight!

There are numerous different methods to the preparation and delivery of lycopodium fire effects when it comes to shows. So I’m not going to say other methods are wrong – I’m merely going to explain what we personally do, and the reasons why we do it. A lycopodium powder club (or any lycopodium prop), is a hollow prop that is filled with the powder. There is a wick on the end (of course), and as the club moves through the air – the powder falls out of the club, over the flame and consequently leaving a beautiful fire trail.

First, we generally fill the club or prop with lycopodium powder. Some people fuel the club first, however we don’t – we fuel the club last. Keeping contact between the powder and moisture to an absolute minimum is essential. Depending on the desired amount of the fire effect, once the club is filled – you can gently knock or tap the club so that the lyco settles and you can fit more effect powder inside. It's crucial not to overdo this. The more lyco that you put in the club, the less air particles will separate the powder when coming out over the flame, and as a consequence you will have a greater amount of fallout.

Fallout is the amount of excess lycopodium powder that ends up on the ground after the show. This is the powder that hasn’t ignited. In our experience, fallout typically occurs when either over-filling lycopodium props, or the powder is of lower quality and is not igniting (such as affected by moisture).

After the clubs have been filled with the desired amount of lyco – it is then time to fuel the wick. For this part, we like to use a fuel dispenser (a product similar to the link below). This enables a very specific and gradual amount of fuel to be place on to the wick, as its important to know that over-fueling a lycopodium prop can easily lead to clogging (due to the fuel interfering with the powder). When applying to the wick (depending on the size of the wick), we like to only fuel about 2/3 of the wick size – starting from the bottom and moving upwards. This will result in the bottom 2/3 of the wick being fuelled and the top 1/3 of the wick is dry.

Fuel dispenser example: Justrite Fuel Dispensing Bottle | Fire Frenzy

Another thing that many overlook is the screw holes in the wick. Screws in the wick can really ruin your day when it comes to lycopodium. If you fuel over top of a screw, the fuel can actually makes its way down the screw, through the hole and in to the prop, causing clumping and blockages. So, when fuelling a lycopodium fire prop, it’s worth nothing that we try everything possible to avoid fuelling over top of the screws.

From this you should have a filled, fuelled, and completely dry lycopodium prop. Its worth peeping in the hole a couple minutes after fuelling the prop to ensure that no fuel or liquid has created any kind of clumping towards the top, the powder should look exactly how it was when you filled the prop. Between this point and show time its important to make sure the club stays upright, away from people that might knock it over – and away from moisture. If its raining - this can become difficult!

When using the club, don’t smash it! People often think for the largest fire effect you need to hit the club hard, but if anything this is counter-productive and can lead to large amounts of fallout, wastage, and lycopodium powder falling to the floor. And at over $200per/kg here in Australia, you don’t want to waste it! If you just easily manipulate the prop through the air, the lycopodium will gradually fall out of the prop, over the flame, leaving a nice, consistent, prolonged fire effect – maximising the amount that will ignite over the flame.

A safety consideration – when filling the club with powder, we recommend wearing a mask. Inhalation of the powder is known to cause spasms in the lungs with some people, so its crucial not to breath the powder in. Further to this, a consideration should be made when using lycopodium powder close to audience/crowd members.

-            Ensuring adequate ventilation of the area.

-            Assessing wind direction and ensuring excess powder is not travelling in to members of the crowd.

In addition to the above, good quality lycopodium powder can be incredibly hot! Making sure that there is sufficient clearance from the audience is crucial, and also assessing wind direction to protect yourself. If for example, there is a wind blowing towards you – a big swing of the prop in front of your body will encourage the particles to blow towards you, and you can end up with a face full of fire. Limited wind and breeze is ideal, however not always obtainable. Choose your body positioning and the direction of the club according to the wind direction for the safest use of the powder.

Like everything that is being used in your shows, particularly when it comes to dangerous goods – ensure all risk controls are highlighted in your risk assessment/safe work method statement and are provided to the client. It is also industry best practice to supply a safety data sheet for lycopodium powder, which can be obtained easily from the supplier that you purchased the product from. If a safety data sheet is not available online, then a simple email to the supplier will have it provided. Regardless of the product, please note that it is a legal requirement for a supplier to provide a safety data sheet upon request in Australia.

Further notes – we love our fire effects, and for a prolonged period of time we were known for selling lycopodium powder ourselves, under the name ‘Fire Powder’. We do often get requests on when we will next sell it, or when we will next have it in stock – however I am incredibly doubtful that we will ever sell lycopodium powder again. Basically, importing goods comes at a risk – and even when you think you have found a good supplier and are ordering bulk amounts of quality product for resell, all it takes is one average quality batch to arrive and you have lost thousands of dollars.

We managed to obtain a good quality producer that was sending us high quality lycopodium powder and we (along with everyone else), were super happy with the effects! We increased our order last year (2024), only to have a batch arrive from the same supplier – that was not the same quality/standard of the previous powder we had imported. That very large import (from the USA), was a complete waste of our funds. Further to this – when dealing with internation suppliers, sending back dangerous goods and receiving refunds/exchanges with these kinds of products and of that value, is almost impossible. We had blown many thousands of dollars on sub-par product that we were unable to use, and we did not feel comfortable reselling the product to other Australian performers. For the time being, we have decided that we will only be purchasing lycopodium powder from Australian suppliers for our own Flux contracts & shows.

Final notes. Lycopodium is epic! But there are also many considerations that need to be taken when deciding to incorporate the effect into your own shows - to not only get the most out of the commodity, but also for the safety of everyone involved.

FIRE EFFECTS AUSTRALIA | FIRE EFFECTS BRISBANE | FIRE EFFECTS SYDNEY | FIRE EFFECTS MELBOURNE | FIRE EFFECTS CANBERRA | FIRE EFFECTS GOLD COAST | FIRE EFFECTS SUNSHINE COAST | FIRE SHOWS BRISBANE | FIRE SHOWS SYDNEY | FIRE SHOWS MELBOURNE | FIRE SHOWS CANBERRA | FIRE SHOWS GOLD COAST | FIRE SHOWS SUNSHINE COAST | FIRE PERFORMERS BRISBANE | FIRE PERFORMERS SYDNEY | FIRE PERFORMERS MELBOURNE | FIRE PERFORMERS CANBERRA | FIRE PERFORMERS GOLD COAST | FIRE PERFORMERS SUNSHINE COAST | LYCOPODIUM POWDER | LYCO POWDER | FIRE POWDER