Roughing Sticks – Harry Robson

Product description : This is the next thing in magic ! I'm not joking, forget what you think about roughing fluid, this is a must buy, I'm really excited about it. Imagine having a roughing system in your pocket everytime and that you can rough from 50 to 100 decks for $15 and in less than 3 minutes. I may sound excited but this product is really a little revolution on its own.

Price and where to buy it : This is sold at $15 and you can find it in nearly every Murphys partner (so you can get it at your favorite magic shop).

What you get : You get a nice little box with the roughing stick inside, it mesures approximately 10cm*5cm and it will last you, what they say in the video, 100 decks minimum ! So you can get a lot out of it. You also get a link to an online video which explains you how to apply it and various tips about it.

Teaser : No trailer for this one.

The pros and the cons : Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.

THE CONS :
Errr.. I don't have anything bad to say about this product, really.. It's one of those few products that are just perfect. Sorry guys, I know you like me when I destroy products a little bit but here I can't find a single con.

THE PROS :
It's not expensive at all, let's say 100 decks with it so 15/100 and you get $0.15 dollars per deck ! How ridiculous is that ? You do get a lot for a small amount of money.
You can setup a brainwave deck, an invisible deck, a packet trick which requires roughing fluid in less than 2 minutes ! Imagine you're at a gig but you forgot your invisible deck.. No problem, a quick trip to the toilet and you have a freshly made one.
No funny smell, no residue, no waiting time for it to dry, I told you this stuff was perfect.
You are much more precise than with roughing fluid, you can decide where to put the stick and the amount by applying pressure.
I found that if you roughed only one card, the others will still stick to it, even if those are not roughed. It opens up a whole new world since it acts kind of « Science Friction » (which is great by the way), having stuff on only one card and do miracle with this card.
The shape of the stick is made in a such way that you can decide the size you will put on card, it's really awesome.
$15 ! Do I have to say anything else ?

Overall rating : This little baby is now inside my case and will stay for the rest of my life, this is such a no brainer, I just don't know why it flew under the radar since this thing will get all these cans of roughing fluid in the bin ! 4/4 hearts for me and a very strong recommandation, you won't be disappointed (for the price, you can't go wrong)

There are no difficulty at all, 0/5 stars (well, if you consider applying stick on a card is hard, maybe 1/5 stars)

Similar products : Don't even bother buying roughing fluid again, roughing sticks is the way to go ! But you may consider buying « Science Friction » which a very cool set and a very cool product.

Thanks to Murphys Magic for sending me this product !

Absolutely agree with you alex! This is so good and so cheap. One stick will last a very long time.
The best ID I have ever made and Bill Goldman's monkey in the middle is awesome with this.
James

I just bought one off of amazon and am looking forward to using it. Thanks for the great info.

Hi guys

has anyone tryed to do the poker test with it??

I have. It works great.

Yup, agree what MScapes !

Also makes a huge improvement with Gary Jone's Shock Twist.
Great stuff. I love that it's so quick and easy to apply. So much easier and less messy than sprays.
You can try out an idea in seconds.

Mine simply does not work well.

Ordered direct from Harry. It came in a zip-lock clear bag, and the instructions were on one side of a small piece of paper, and are entitled "Easy Rough".

Is this the latest/greatest version? The instructions are easy to follow...the stuff just isn't holding the cards together securely. Tried re-application, but no improvement.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? The stick is something I would really love to work well

I think you got the previous version and not the latest one from Vanishing inc

Sent an email to Vanishing and got a reply. Alex is correct, I do have a previous version, confirmed by Vanishing.

Main differences are

- the hold/grip (hopefully, anyway)

- no white residue left behind on the cards. I didn't like that, but I could live with it.

I noted with a grin when the reply from Vanishing stated that Harry has been working on perfecting this for 20 years...I bought mine a couple of years ago, so I guess that was being perfected for the last 18 years So, we'll see. From the reviews, it sounds like a definite improvement - it just needs to hold the cards effectively to accomplish that!

I love it. Just made my own brainvave deck the other day and I have so much more confidence using it now. I was able to operate the original brainwave/invisible decks pretty good but once in a while I would have the "premature spreading" or the "can't separate" blues, but no issues now with the roughing stick. Sometimes when just playing around with the deck I purposely try to spread the deck or separate the cards sloppy and it still works! I made a deck up for my uncle last week who all but gave up on using his invisible deck, and he has bought quite a few over the last year. (Thinking the problem was the deck). He just could not separate the cards when he needed to. The FIRST TIME he went through the deck he was able to do everything perfectly. He flipped out. I also have quite a few packet effects I do in which you turn the first card face up, (DL), then turn it face down, (2nd DL), deal the card to the table, and at the end of the effect it changes. Most of those I took and gave it a swipe with the roughing stick, and now the DL's are pretty much automatic. This is really good.

When making your ID or BW decks, just curious if you are applying the stick to the entire card or only half, or just the center, etc.?

Can't do the whole card with the stick. I do the center. You can even overhand shuffle with this method. Great video included.
James

Well, my new version Harry Robson Roughing Stick arrived today. Ultra-quick shipping, as usual, from Penguin. Here are my initial thoughts.

I was a bit worried - yes, despite the good reviews - that it wouldn't work well, as did(n't) my older version of the HRRS, but as of now, I am very happily surprised.

The stick seems to be made of a completely different material than his older version - it looks VERY different - and cards really hold like crazy to each other. I wondered about seeing Harry on the instructional video running the stick once down the center of the cards, thinking that it wouldn't be sufficient, but after my (brief) time with the stick, I can certainly see why he uses it as he does.

Now, it has been said that it doesn't leave a residue. Of course, it has to leave something behind or there would be no effect. However, it is MUCH improved over the old stick. I did see some very tiny (repeat: VERY tiny) flecks, but they were much less, much smaller, and very easy to remove when compared with the older version.

Harry says to use 'moderate' pressure (and later adds you can vary pressure according to your needs), but for me, moderate pressure was too strong to allow the stick to move across the card - the grip was too good! No worries, though, I soon found proper pressure.

I did find that after running the stick across the card about half-way, the stick would begin bumping rapidly on the card, as would a car when going over many rows of speed bumps. Surely this will go away, and involves technique. Didn't affect performance, that's for sure.

I did have some pieces come off onto the card - what you might call very small chunks, but they were easily removed, and the more I worked, the less issue I had with it. The first time or two, there were some bigger chunks (obviously, the bigger chunks were still very small ), but that was likely due to the edge I used not being worn in. I mention this to other buyers so they will do their first few tries on cards you don't need, so you can work in the stick and little bit and get used to it. Get to know the stick before you use it to touch up or make up an effect.

Less is more seems to REALLY apply here.

The stick is kind of a honey color, not grayish-white, as in the older version.

When only a portion of the card has been treated, you can notice it, but only very slightly, and it it (to my eyes) MUCH less noticeable than sprays. To me, a spectator wouldn't stand the slightest chance of having his/her suspicions raised. It doesn't have that reflection that you notice when light hits sprays at the right angle.

I'm not sure about the durability of it, but we'll see. If today is any indication, I don't have any worries, whatsoever.

Thank you, Harry, for making this available to us!

Yes, it applies better when the edge of the stick has been worn n and rounded over.
The durability is pretty good but it's almost a moot point because the stick itself will last so long and it is so quick and easy to reapply that durability is not an issue IMO.

Absolutely! I was using too much at first. This tuff needs just really light strokes to make it work. I can't even imagine needing another for a really long time.
Excellent product!
James

I have to agree with all of the positive reviews posted here. I made my own ID deck and it works great! I can see eventually needing to buy another one but not for a long, long time (unless you are making up many decks at once). I find it to be one of those products that does what is says it does without any caveats! I highly recommend it.

Dave

One thing that does need to be said.

Both the roughing stick and standard roughing spray reflect light in a different manner than the card itself does. So at the right (wrong?) angle, specs can see a difference in the reflected light where the roughing stick has been applied. Just the nature of the beast. With the stick, the pattern is much rougher looking.

The ad copy for the Harry Robson stick says 'no residue' and this is true, there is nothing visible that is left on the card. However, the applied areas do reflect light differently, and shine at certain angles where the un-applied areas do not shine, just as roughing spray will do unless applied to the entire card.

So in this respect, when specs are able to view the roughed side of a card, there is no particular advantage as far as reflected light is concerned.

Thank you for the review!
I was looking for a review of RS for a long time, and here it is.
I'll manage to order it.
Thanks Again

I just checked the website,
there's a "Easy Rough" and "HR Roughing Sticks"....what's the difference?