Here's a question

Do you lift your shells a few mm off the surface or slide?

With my SFS shells with the Chenin dip I find I can slide without a giveaway jump of the shell

With la maggiore I've found sliding means that sometimes I push the pea around rather than reload

Is a slight lift recognised technique or is it more practice with a lighter hold?

I appreciate any advice

Rick

Hi, Rick:

The Chanin Dip was designed to make the exit/entrance of the pea from the shells easier. I have around 170 different shell sets in my collection, spanning different eras, manufacturers, sizes, and materials.

I have discovered that exit/entrance of a pea can vary with shell size, hand size, finger/thumb length, and the material the "pea" is made from all contribute to the ease or difficulty of causing the pea to exit or gain entrance back into the shell.

With my La Maggiore shells I have found using a lighter touch with the KD Soft peas made by 3shells.com to be the best for reloading the shell.

Rick,
This is a good question and the shell lift is normally overlooked or not done right by most.

I do a slight level lift with all the shells that I work with. But I prefer to use shells without any visual gimmicks, like the Chenin dip or an exit hole at the back of the shell.

This is because once you master the correct slight level lift technique you can do the shell game with any container or even use a hard cork ball without any visual gimmicks.

Most just lift the back of the shell. This is the wrong way and can be noticed.

How I do the slight level lift.
As soon as the shell is moved the whole shell is lifted up slightly in a level way on the full area of the shell and then the lift is slowly released as soon as the ball comes out of the shell.

The shell is always back flat on the surface before the shell comes to a stop. (I have my own technique for doing this.)

How you grip the shell with your fingers & thumb is important where the shell always stays level to the surface.
If you would like more information on this, just PM me and I'll give you more detail on how I do the slight level lift ball steal.

If I'm trying to keep a shell lifted and level I hold the shell more between thumb and index (supported on first knuckle of middle) and keep the middle phalanges (the middle section of the finger) of middle and ring fingers flat against the surface sliding.

Does this sound practical for the lift?

Having this problem with my sawdling shell set and thimbles.

Lifting is certainly a plus when using thimbles...as stated before, lifting vs. sliding depends on the tools which you are using.

Interesting to see Thimbles mentioned.