Looking for Reverse Svengali Deck

[Guest]

Anyone know of a US dealer that carries reverse Svengali decks in Bicycle?

[Brad Henderson]

Can't you just riffle from back to front instead of front to back???

That was a joke.

I am unfamiliar with that term "reverse Svengali"? Depending on what you need you might just be able to find someone with a card cutter to help out?

What exactly are you looking for?

B

[Guest]

I'm guessing that he's interested in this and perhaps wants a deck for it.

This fellow might be able to help him.

[Guest]

Absolutely Chris.

[Brad Henderson]

I would just find a guy with a card cutter and send him a one-way force deck. 10 minutes later, you'll have what you want.

[Guest]

Try Daryl over at Fooler Doolers. He doesn't describe it as such but I believe that's what it is if you read between the lines. Or Bond Agency www.cards4magic.co.uk in UK.

[Larry Stangel]

Contact "Haines House of Cards" they made one for me several years ago. I got to choose the type and color of the deck as well as the duplicate card.

[Martin Kaplan]

I got my deck at Martini's Magic. Here is the link Martini\'s Magic I am certain that if you contact him he will have what you are looking for. You might also want to inquire about his Rainbow Deck -52 different backs all with Bicycle faces plus 4 bonus gaffed cards.

-Marty Kaplan

[Guest]

Thanks for the lead Marty. Received an email from Martini's Magic with a great price and will be placing an order. Neil Lester also carries the decks.

[Roger M.]

Also, you might consider the purchase of a Line-Lo card trimmer.....one of the best investments I've ever made in card accessories.

http://www.hanklee.org/xcart/product.ph ... t=0&page=1

I've made up a couple of reverse Svengali's from an unused two-way force deck I'd had laying around.
I've already used David's effect on a few folks over for a holiday visit, and it's a winner.

It's really only magicians who understand that this is an "easy" method for an ACAAN effect.........laymen are as amazed at this one as any of the other more complex ACAAN iterations I've got in the kit.

[Guest]

Is there a way to round the corners after you've trimmed cards with this Line-Ho cutter?

[Roger M.]

It's the #45CR
http://www.holepunch.com/cornerrounding.htm

[Guest]

Thank you Blair. I have two questions. Is the curve of the one you cite, the same curve as that of a playing card corner? Also, I couldn't find any pricing information on the website, or any information about ordering. Do you know how much they are?

[Roger M.]

John,

Yes, it's the 1/8" rounder that's the identical match to a Bicycle card corner.
It was around $75.00.

It's one of those items that's handmade, high quality, and will last a lifetime.
(there are other rounders available, like Llasco, but they're not close to the quality of the Mieth, and they're not that much cheaper)

The Line-Lo and the M.C. Mieth rounder are together less than $200.00 and will provide you with countless hours of screwing around with various gaffs and decks of your own making.

Slightly off topic, but with this set up I've made some decks Stewart James talks about in "The James File" and "Stewart James in Print" that I've not seen any of my fellow magi use in my entire life (and I'm an old guy).

[Guest]

Great info, Blair. Thank you for posting.

[Guest]

Again, thanks for the info. One more question about the card cutter. For some applications, I want to make short cards shorter than for other applications. Is there a way you make adjustments to how much you trim, i.e., how much shorter you are making the card?

[Roger M.]

John,

No, there's no adjustment on the templates that come with the Line-Lo.
The "no adjustment" aspect of the Line-Lo is a big part of why it's so inexpensive.

I have a greatly modified (read: butchered) X-Acto paper cutter that I use for "off" straight cuts such as you're describing.
It works fine and was about $60.00.
The X-Acto won't do angle cuts, but will do any repeatable straight cut you can come up with.

[Mark Collier]

John,
I have a Line-Lo cutter and to make a shorter card you could just add a shim the the template you are using. You could make a shim by simply glueing cards together until you have the desired thickness. Let it dry under a stack of books. Then, trim the glued block down with scissors and lay it next to the guide with the factory cut side down for a tight fit.
Mark

[Guest]

An other way to make a short card is to visit your local printer. They all have big power trimmers & will usually do the trim job for you at little or no cost. Just tell them you are a magician & do a trick or two for them. These large commercial cutter's can do many whole decks with just one cut and are more accurate than anything you can get yourself. They can probably cut off as little as 1/32.

[Roger M.]

These large commercial cutter's can do many whole decks with just one cut and are more accurate than anything you can get yourself. [/QB]

That's not an entirely accurate statement.

High end card work (with a few specific exceptions)is done one card at a time.

A Porper, Owen, or even Line-Lo purpose built card trimmer will surpass a print shop paper chopper by a huge margin.

1/32" is considered a MASSIVE chunk of card for a number of quality gaffs, and there are some gaffs which offer work MUCH FINER than 1/64"!

[Guest]

If the above is true & I have no reason to believe it is not, then I stand corrected.

I might still try a print shop. The 1/32 is an amount I am pretty sure of however, larger shops might be capable of 1/64. It cost nothing to find out, it would only take a phone call.

You would still have to round off the edges, but I think that has already been covered.

At very worst, this might be an inexpensive way of trying out an idea before spending the bigger bucks.

[Tim Hannig]

The Feb issue of Genii has the Britland column which uses a Reverse Svengali. (all of the force cards are long and the indifferent cards are short.)

I thought I would bring this back up.
Where can these be purchased in the USA?
Yes, I know I can make my own, but I don't want to.

Do any USA dealers have these?

Is Haines still the place to contact?

Thanks!

[Martin Kaplan]

Try Martini's Magic. Here is Marty Grams e-mail address Marty@MartinisMagic.com He made up a couple for me and I imagine he will be able to help you out.

-Marty

[Richard Kaufman]

I bought mine from the UK business that Britland recommends, The Bond Agency www.cards4magic.co.uk .

Rather than having them send it to me (which they would have done), I just told them I'd pick it up in Blackpool.

I've seen their stand before at conventions--they have an ENORMOUS stock of decks of every kind.

[Mark.Lewis]

I just read Roger's post above.
Dunno. I have seen a commercial cutter and was astonished at how good a trim of the whole deck was made all in one go. I have made my own svengali decks in the past (for many years in fact) and I simply used a paper cutter from Germany that would cut 12 cards at a time. To do one card at a time would take forever and the result wouldn't be very good anyway.

Of course in the pitch business the quality is of minor importance. In fact I don't think I could sleep at night if the punters actually got value for money.

[johnbrown]

Hi Reverse cut Svengalis are on E bay Johnnyboy

[Don Hendrix]

Reverse Svengali: Williams Magic in Tucson, AZ
www.williamsmagic.com
520-790-4060
Open today from 1 to 5 PST
Very nice folks to work with.
Tell them I sent you.