whip cup- dice

[Guest]

I recently purchased a dice cup and two sets of dice. The cup is heavy leather with a cloth lining. There are two sets of dice that are still in their original, hand-wrapped, gold foil paper. They are 5/8 inch, red, straight-edged, and look like casino dice but smaller. One set of six dice have 1's, 2's, and 3's whip dice written on the wrapper. The other set says 4's, 5's, 6's whip dice. There was a bill of sale (from Paul Diamond) dated 1983 with a price of $225. There were no instructions or manufacturer information. I understand that these dice are somehow gimmicked to be able to control rolls. Any info on where to find information on these would be appreciated.

[Robert Allen]

I have a whipcup as well with a set of gimmicked dice. If you have what I have it's a cup (without an inner lip to cause the dice to tumble on pouring them out) and a set of dice with edgework, where certain edges have a very thin edge ground or polished or trimmed off. It's hard to see but visible if you look close. To use this you put the dice in the cup and use a circular motion that simulates shaking and the edgeworked dice will roll around the inner circumeference of the cup until the force numbers come up, at which time they will continue to slide around the cup, but will cease rolling, then you 'pour' the dice out in a line with those numbers up.

The motion you need to impart to the dice is sort of like a centrifugal spin so they roll around the inner circumference of the cup, rather than just 'shaking around'. Sort of like how a laundry dryer works.

Developing the proper shaking method and still making it look like real shaking is the hard part here. I can make the dice work, but I can't do it in a convincing manner, let alone one handed. But at least you know approximately how it's supposed to work now.

[Frank Starsinic]

I'm making some of these cups for someone as a custom order and they are amazing.

You can dice stack with the dice as well.
An interesting set of effects is possible here.

I'll know more after the final prototype is made.

sachs dice routine
whip cup routine
dice stacking

wow. you would look like you were a dice-master, nobody lets you in vegas, type of guy. just willing the dice to do your bidding.

so.. we'll see about the whip/stack combo options.

I'll be doing this for sure. Luckily none of it is difficult. Just amazing.