Title: The Magic of Ascanio Knives and Color-Blindness
Medium: Book, hard cover, 132 pages, illustrated
Arena: Close up, walk around
Available: Any shop, distributed by Murphys Magic Supplies

Arturo de Ascanio will be remembered as one of the great thinkers and practitioners in the art of magic and is considered the ‘father of Spanish card magic’. A lawyer by trade Ascanio was mentored by the great Fred Kaps and was very well respected by magicians around the world. He wrote a number of books which have been out of print for some time, unfortunately for those who didn’t have them, Four volumes have been released of Ascanios work, Knives and Color-Blindness being volume four.

Knives and Color Blindness is a collection of moves with knives, some basic and some requiring a bit of practice. Pretty much everything you will want to know about working with knives is in this book and the explanations are very clearly written. The psychology of the why and when to do a move is included which is often the key to successfully presenting an effect. A number of routines are also provided by some of the big names in magic as well as by those you may never have heard of, all well written and solid routines. I’ve been doing paddle moves and knives for many years and found out I was doing some things wrong and also found new ideas to improve my routines. If you want to learn how to work the knives this is the best source I’ve ever seen. The index is clear and complete, the illustrations drawn and enough to get the job done but not too many as to insult the reader.

The book itself is beautifully printed and put together. The binding is sewn not just glued like you see too often. This is a quality book. I have to salute the individual, Luis Iglesias, who translated the book from Spanish as he did an outstanding job. Many times books are translated without care given to make sure everything is clear and flowing correctly but in this case you couldn’t have asked for a better translation. Quality is not found as often as it should be, this is a quality product.

I highly recommend this to anyone doing knives, paddle moves, or are interested in learning or just wants to read the works of one of the greats of magic.

Thank you for review. I currently have this on order. mind pm'ing me or posting what knife set one might need for most of the routines? just a 3 set ? or 5?

Yes, I would like to know which knife set works best with his routines too. I am currently using Mogars.

Best,

Sean