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