I have a real sword (I mean not a collapsing one) that I am going to produce as my finale to my act. I am going to steal the sword from the table together with a bunch of silks.

Now the problem is this. I would like to put the silk in a "cloth pocket" so that it can be comouflaged with the other silks when I bring it out. Do you have any ideas how I can attach the sword to the inside for easy removal when I come to produce it. I was thinking of Velcro strips, maybe. Any help?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Velcro will actually make removing the sword from the bag harder.

My suggestion is so simple, but don't let the simplicity put you off it.

Say you have a bunch of silks, streamers and you have made your steal, you have the sword in a multicoloured 'silk bag' (pocket). Leave a few silks in your right hand, and grip the handle behind the other silks in the left hand and extend your left arm upwards - pulling the sword from the bag.

This leaves the bag in the right hand with a few silks and/or streamer, and all the attention will be to the sword in the other hand.

(I once had an idea similar to this - but it wasn't with a sword - the principle is the same, though.)

Kevin

First of all thanks for your reply.

If I understand right, you are saying that I should hold the sword in the bag by gripping it through the bag. Then I just pull the sword free from the bag. Is that it?

Thanks again.

No problem.

More or less.

The sword will be behind the silks and streamers, and as you pull a few silks away in your left hand, you grip the handle and pull the sword out of the bag.

I know it sounds lame or even bad - but give it a try. I'm sure it will work fine!

Kevin

I think I will go with that. In fact I don't like it when a performer struggles with the silks to produce the final load.

Phelston Jones did a sword production in WGM 5. It seemed to be a real sword.. but I watched that a long time ago.. so I don´t remember the method he used. You might wanna try to watch a tape of that...

Phelston had a great routine. He actually stole everything he needed from his receptacle, using methods similar to Kevin's.

Zombie brings up a nice point, that you can use your table, or a well in your table, to make a steal from. This opens up your options.

I also think Kevin's method for the bag steal seems to make the most sense in simplicity of it. You do not want to have to struggle with it if it is intended to be a finale.

You might also want to see the work of Jauquin Ayala. He does an entire sequence with sword productions and such.

Also study the work of the Hamners. They steal a lot of items this way.

Thanks to all of you. I will try that out and tell you all how it goes.

"Simplicity is the key"

I think it's best to use the cleanest and easiest method around, even if magicians say, "Oh that's easy," it still baffles audiences!

You didn't mention how long the sword was.

If it is under 24"—you can simply wrap it up in a 24" silk and have some sort of clip behind your table for the sword to hand on (wrapped up in the silk). When you make your steal it will just look like a normal silk and then you pull up with your left arm and reveal the sword. At the point the sword is revealed, I would (personally) crumple the silks up a bit—especially the 24" one that the sword was really in. You could do this by pushing it against your hip and getting a firmer grip of more silks. This just shows that it couldn't have came from inside the silks (even though it did).

Hope this makes sense to you, if not just ask. Plenty of help available from everyone here.

Kevin

I would just make a load bag out of one of the silks by folding it on the diagonal and sewing the edges together, leaving an opening for the sword. The bottom of the load bag could be weighted with a one ounce fishing sinker so that the sword would pull out of the bag, easily. The load bag must match at least one of the other silks, to be effective.

Why not just glue some pieces of silk, streamers, etc. on one side of the sword (camouflage) and then just turn it over ala paddle move?

No bags, no nuttin'

I can't as I already have something on the other side.

I know you want to use a normal sword but I read this in a post a whille ago about someone who wanted to produce a sword "from thin air." The main idea is a silver appearing cane attached to a sword handle which may be stolen from the inside of your jacket, what do you think?

That's a great idea tom mccarron. And I will certainly use it sometime. But the sword I want to produce is broad, large and solid looking.

Thanks again.

You mean it is solid, the appearing cane would "look solid."

Confused?

Me is!
(I am!)

Kevin

That's it Scot. You sure look confused. What I meant to say was that even if people might it might collapse, my sword doesn't look like that at all and looks very real, because it is real.

Hope that is clearer, because even I am confused now.

Got ya!

I am glad. LOL.