I apologize for not noticing this question earlier! If you have the book called Rings In Your Fingers by Dariel Fitzkee you can find a description of what I consider to be the stronger routine. It is also found in a book called The Silence of Chung Ling Soo ($150 last time I saw a copy available).

This was a routine that had gone through many different changes and restructuring in the hands of the venerable Mr. Robinson (a.k.a. Chung Ling Soo), and it became his standard over the years. It has a lot of smooth transitions, a great way of counting the rings as singles, and it makes use of many beautiful figures, such as the Mask, the Hourglass, the Chinese Gong and the Fireball. It is well routined and was performed silently, no dialogue and no music. That was also the way I did it. I always strive to create my own magic with each effect that I do, but you have to agree here - when you have a classic (or at least what is nowadays considered classic) effect and it is done so perfectly, and you can do all the moves/motions in the routine extremely well, why change it? Imitation may be a form of flattery, but my intent was to preserve the very nature of the perfection of the effect and the routining as put forth by Chung Ling Soo.

Just as an example of someone taking a well-known and established routine and performing it exactly the way the creator did: Dan Watkins, a coin magician, performed The Tuning Fork exactly as set forth by David Roth in his Exoert Coin Magic book. He did it as a surprise at a previous New York Coin Magic Seminar and David loved it. It was just one of those things that was so perfectly routined and fine-tuned that there would have been no justice done if it had been even slightly altered.

I hope this information is useful to you and that I answered your question. Thanks for asking and I look forward to seeing your work with the rings when it comes out!

I agree on both counts

I wonder how Levents DVD is coming? If it would be half as good as the Billiards, it should be wonderful.

This looks pretty interesting: http://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S18679

Chris Capehart's The Rings by Kozmomagic

Capehart's Three Ring Routine is the closest thing to magic.

I've "read the thread".

No one has even mentioned Karrell Fox's 3 ring routine.

I never owned any rings, until Jay Marshall returned from buying an estate, in 1970. He had a set of 10" Merv Taylor rings. I liked the "feel" of them. Jay said, "You get the "friendly" price." ($40.) I said, "Well, if I skip lunch, I can afford them." He said "I'll buy lunch." I said, OK"

I played with them over the summer, I worked out a non technical 5 ring routine. (not Jay's) That fall, I waited until I had an exceptionally good high school audience. I did the rings. INSTANT SUCCESS!!! I used them every high school the rest of the season.

About a year later, I was booked in a shopping mall in the Detroit area, Karrell Fox said, "Don't get a motel! The boys are at a summer camp. You can have their room. We'll have a convention every night! We did.

He GAVE me his 3 ring routine. (Two less rings to carry!) I sold the MT rings (at a handsome profit!) and, I've done Karrell's routine SINCE.

When Karrell died, I inherited HIS set of rings (now I have a backup)

J Neal's is marvelous! Dai Vernon's was beautiful. I like Chris Capeheart's too.

Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Dick Odlund! You have put me in good company there! When I created that 2 ring routine , I was an 'artist'... Now many years later, I don't use it very much... So sooner or later, I'm going to put it out as a book or Dvd. Maybe lecture on the significant aspects of it.

What a lot of people don't know about me is that I did the Blacksone/ Gibson. 8 ring routine for years and I did a three ring routine as well as a store demo for Hollywood Magic when I worked there.

Chris Capehart's The Rings & Jeff McBride Magic on Stage.................

Jeff McBride Magic on Stage dvd is very good source of ideas.

To answer the original post, there is no "best" routine, the performer makes his routine the best for him and his audience.

Every published Linking Ring Routine is the "best", that is why they published it. It was the best for them and they were gracious enough to share it with the other magicians in the world.

Here's a youtube video of Ralph Adams doing the linking rings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kV7kPOMCqc

would love to see your tai chi if a video is out somewhere ? thanks

I’m a fan of Pop Haydn’s Routine. 4 Rings seems a bit more streamlined for todays audiences.

My new "F.U.N Ring Series" of eBooks offer an entirely different approach to Linking Rings as to Framing and Premise,
plus many new Sleights and Moves. There is a Free eBook available to explain the advantages (Reverse rings Mystique)

"Best" is relative and subjective. I can only offer "different" and "better."

I am now working on an "Ancient Rings Series" that will take "must be magic" to an even higher level. Too high, perhaps, for many.

Imagine linking two rings and immediately handing them out to a spectator. How about a ring of three?
How about having the rings in the hands of spectators at the start, gathering them up, linking them and handing them back out?

Have the Links occur in the hands of spectators with you across the room? Sure, why not?

Would these approaches be "best?" naah - they would be wasted on most audiences.

At the 8:00 mark is Harry Anderson's routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCPSZaeAulI&t=821s

If you like small rings, Shoot Ogawas original Ring Routine on DVD is fantastic.

Cardini's routine was where it all began.

I agree Whit Hayden's is the very best.

Vernon's routine was great because it was really Cardini's. Vernon was staying at Carlini's house and when Cardini got up in the night he found Vernon reading his notes.

Make up your own routine and tweak it over time. It will eventually fit you more than someone else's. We see so-and-so's routine which works for them but we're not them. Catch my drift?

As mentioned in the Demon Wonder Box thread, a group of us saw Jonathan Neal & Liane's show at Marvyn's Magic Theater last week. My personal favorite routine was Jonathan's Demon Wonder Box routine. Probably because it was a complete surprise (I had not seen nor read the topic about his routine until AFTER I saw him perform the Demon Wonder Box). But the favorite routine mentioned most by the friends who attended with us was, by far, Jonathan's Linking Ring routine.

Jonathan is now doing a 6 ring routine. It is sheer poetry in motion! It is decidedly different than most Linking Ring routines. Jonathan avoids the clanging and banging that is common to most routines. And to wonderful effect. It's as if the rings are silently melting through one another right before our eyes! It was absolutely gorgeous and extremely well executed!

Jonathan, is your 6 ring routine on video anywhere?

Mark