Can someone send me a pm where I find instructions for the phase that starts at 1:03 minutes and ends at 2:25 minutes ie where the chain apparently penetrates the thumb from the clip provided ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Jr7bbKmEY

I don't have a source for you but I would imagine a Rope Worker would know it in an instant. It looks like he is doing rope stuff (and even some rubberband principles) with a string or chain. cool video though.

Thanks for the advice I'll try posting it in the rope section.

This looks like a move from the street gambling effect, "Fast and Loose", the chain trick that is made in a figure 8 and the sucker has to guess if their finger will catch or the chain will pull loose and off.

The only difference is, he is doing it standing and not putting the chain on a table. One of the other moves, I think it was the last one with the lady, is also from "Fast and Loose".

Thanks Bill,I've performed almost the exact same routine for many years but had never seen that phase..I'm familiar with fast and loose so maybe I can figure it out but surely it's in print somewhere

Ask Vince Mendoza.
He's an expert with both strings and rubber bands.
He's a member here on the forum.

Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks p323

What Edition is that or Author? I have a softback version "Abbott's EORT (for magicians)" Dover 1975 by Stewart James and p323 is nothing like the effect on the video as far as I can make out.

Phew I was about to purchase it..... Lucky for me that I read all the posts

The book I am talking about is a compilation of the 3 volume set that was put out by Abbot. This trick is NOT in the Dover reprint, it may be in the 3'rd volume by Abbot(but that seems to be a hard volume to get a hold of). The book I'm talking about was put out in 2005 and has 435 pages.

Full title is Stewart James' Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks, but people just refer to it as Encyclopedia of Rope Tricks, and is for sale at Penguin
http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/1094

The name of the trick is Thumb Amputation. An author is not specifically named, but Jean Hugard's name is mentioned as using it. On page 323 you have the basic method, but in the referenced video, the magician makes a nice addition to the handling by doing it on a spectator and using his thumb. I suggest that you first do it just as it appears in the book, then add the placing of your thumb on top of the spectator's thumb (and motivate this move by saying that you are preventing the rope from slipping off the spectator's thumb). It works and looks pretty good (if you do all the moves.) But, like a lot of magic, if you do it w/o tugging on the rope prior to the penetration, it looks downright silly!

John

Although I didn't manage to get the book as I wasn't 100% sure which volume or if it was indeed the correct effect the good news is after playing about with it for the last few days I've managed to finally figure it out.

I'm pretty sure I've got it exactly the same as what I could see in the video and if it's not it's extremely close and includes all of the subtleties so I'm pleased regardless