What Are the Best Thumb Tips?

[TJay]

What are the best thumb tips on the market? I'm looking to do some close-up bill transformations.

(Please no lectures on how you used a bright orange thumb tip and fooled everyone in your magic club)

[Doomo]

It was blue...

[Dave V]

Standard hard Vernet is perfect. Soft ones have too much friction and the bill binds up.

[erdnasephile]

This is a good question, and to me, the answer is (like so many things): it depends on your personal preference.

I don't believe the particular brand matters as much as the material the tip is made of. There are advantages and disavantages to each material: most end up using either vinyl or hard plastic or a combination thereof.

I would refer you to John Lovick's great book: Switch (which should be required reading for anyone wanting to learn to perform the bill switch IMHO), as he goes into detail regarding this question (and passes along a great Roger Klause tip in that section of the book).

[Mark Collier]

I haven't done it yet but I've been meaning to try coating the inside of one of the softer thumb tips with shellac, nail polish, enamel or something to make it slick. I like the softer thumb tips but Dave V is right about the bill getting stuck.