I have been working with pewter lately.

So far I can make awesome thimbles and hot rods.

Check them out and tell me what you think.

http://www.raincloudmagic.com/products-page/artistic-magic

Randi

Very nice.

Beautiful, Randi. I'll be contacting you shortly regrding the HotRods.

Sure thing.
If you have a specific color you want the gems to change to, just let me know.

On another note...

How does the 'Jumping Gems' routine go again?

Randi

I made pewter chinese coins too.

These are sweet!

Randi

Talk about quick service. I sent my order to Randi for a pewter hot rod Wednesday morning. It was in my mailbox Friday at noon. It's PURTY too. (More details at a later date.)

I like the timbles a lot. great work.

The pewter coins look very pretty.

I would like to make a few comments about oriental coins. I have been fascinated with them for years. I came up with a trick called Cone and Coin.

Here is that routine.

http://youtu.be/NL_isdqiF0A

This routine is explained in the L&L book “Al Schneider Magic.”

To sell it, I struck some oriental coins. I did the art work and gave it to the company that did the work. I encountered several problems.

Before I discuss that, I would like to address your coins. First off they are beautiful. However, I would like to see the edge around the hole a bit wider. Also you have left space on the edge of the coin to be ground down to a silver dollar sized coin. You have probably found out that striking coins the size of American currency is illegal. A little bit of a problem is that the drill hole is shiny whereas the other surfaces have a pretty, rough look. I assume when you turn the coins down, the edge will be shiny as well. Somehow, getting rough edges would be nice to match the other parts of the coin. I do not think milled edges would be wise. It would hurt the old oriental look and I have found it is not necessary for palming. If the present edge is left sharp, the grip can be very good. This is what I discovered when I made my coins.

I suggest that when the coins are turned down, they are slightly smaller than a silver dollar so they will fit in a non-expanded [. Then, the set looks totally real when lying on the table. It has really sucked in a lot of magicians. I am often asked how I show the other side of the coin during the cone and coin routine. I never do.

Now about my coins. The major problem is that I had to strike 3000 to make one. The holes were a major problem. I had the company punch holes in a few with a punch press and that warped the coin out of shape. That can be fixed but is beyond my capability. I was also on fire to make square holes instead of round. There is a drilling process that can do this. I did not do this because of price constraints. So I essentially got coins that appeared like blanks with filled round holes. I have also realized that if I had made square holes, turning off the edges would have been a lot easier.

A fried magician got me in contact with a metal worker in Texas. I sent him a bunch of coins to finish. He sent them back telling me he could not work with the coins for the price I was paying. After he drilled the hole, there was a burr. One can use a de-burring tool to cut the burr off. However, when he attempted that, the burr flipped over and was not cut off the coin. This problem was due to the fact the coins were struck with bronze metal.

I decided to do the work myself. A friend’s father owned a manufacturing company that used metal lathes and drill presses. We set up a drill press to drill the holes. I went to a hobby shop and got some little grinders. I put one of them in a hand drill and ground the burrs off. It was a task and I went through a lot of little grinders.

Then I had to cut the edges off the coins. The coins fit perfectly on a steel rod that was inserted in to the chuck of the lathe. It worked great until we took the coins off the rod. They were all marked due to the pressure of being held on the rod. So, we put tape on the coins before they were drilled. Then put them on the rod to be turned. That kind of worked but the coins slipped because of the tape between coins. Through brute force and ignorance, I got a bunch that was OK to sell.

My friend then told me that it would be unwise to ask him to do more.

Well, so much for that.

You bring up Jumping Gems.

I love this trick. I, however, find the two sticks awkward to carry. I developed a routine with one stick. I wanted a routine with one stick that I could do impromptu. The idea was to carry the stick in my pocket with my car keys. Then, I could put my hand in my pocket, hold it in the right position, pull it out, and go. It is not a card trick. It is not a coin trick. Several magic effects can be presented in a short period of time. I put the routine in a book titled, “Al Schneider Close Up.” It has been out of print for many years. I did this routine for awhile, but the gems fell out of the stick. I got another stick with the same result.

Well, I hope you guys found this fascinating.

Later.

Al Schneider

Wow... Thanks for taking the time to write all that.
That was very nice.

I hear what you're saying, but there are a few "buts".

For one, the coins are not struck, they are molded.
The pewter is melted down in a furnace and poured into a high temp silicone mold.

When melted, the pewter is like water. It has a surface tension to it.
So it can't get down into the tight corners.
So the coins are going to have a "soft" feel to them, because everything is slightly rounded.

I use the hole in the center as the pour spot.
When it's poured, there is a little "nub" left behind.
I just cut it off and drill the hole with a drill press.
Then I use a large counter sink to smooth out the hole.

So that being said, that's all I am doing to them.
No other milling, no rolling, no nothing.
They are what they are.

I just made them for the Chinese coins and string trick.
They are great for that.

Coin workers are way too picky for me to make palming coins for them.
I'll let other people do that. Other coin workers.

As for paddle tricks...
Isn't there a paddle trick that is like Jumping Gems, but only use one paddle?
I know I have seen it.

Randi

Yes, there was single gem stick trick also made by Ken Allen Products. It had a red, green, and yellow gem on it. It came with traffic light patter. I have it someplace, not handled it in years. Can't remember the name of it, so I will have to dig it out.

They were nice shiny plastic sticks, when a gem fell out, I got another, but they were making them with white plastic. They did not look as good in white.

A friend of mine bought Al Schneider's Cone and Chinese coin trick. Don't believe him, the one I seen was beautiful with a dragon on it and Chinese writing on the other side. The cone was 1st rate as well. He should have had Johnson Products make the coins for him, they do a nice job on their Chinese coins. The originals were not as nice as the current ones. The originals only had Chinese symbols inscribed on the coins, it looked like a brass washer with Chinese character on each side.

Randirain
I am glad you are pouring the coins.
It seems worth the effort.
I really did not like striking the ones I did and doing all the metalwork.
I wish I were brave enough to do that.
Sorry to jump to conclusions.
Al Schneider

You mentioned the Chinese coins and string trick.
I came up with a version of this that is a bit different.
Your coins would look fantastic with this.

http://www.worldmagiccenter.com/shanghai2.wmv

Sorry, there is no sound as this was an experiment in process.

Al Schneider

Al, Fantastic as only you can do. Very magical.

Bill and Bill
Funny you should mention the old coins. There is a story behind that.
I made the dragon coins when there were not any other coins available.
A guy by the name of Presley Guitar made some very nice magic stuff.
To my knowledge, that was his real name.
He made an elegant cone for Cone and Ball.
And a coin tray.
I have both and they are very well done.
He also made an oriental coin with a [ to go with.
The oriental coins had oriental looking characters on them.
It looked like a large washer. At the time, that is all there was.
The characters were his initials PG jazzed up to look oriental.
The coins that Johnson Products made were copies of Presley’s coins.
So, Johnson Products was selling coins that had Presley’s initials on them.
I think there was a lawsuit.
They were of course quickly dropped and they made the nice looking ones they now sell.
I have considered Johnson Product coins should I bring out Cone and Coin again.
I sold my batch of dragon coins to Todd Lassen. I only have a few for my personal use.
Al Schneider

Hello all> I believe Ken Allen's "traffic light" trick was called CROSSTOWN.

Julie

No, cross town was another paddle trick that came out years later. The manufacturer was anonymous. I have an idea who it was, but never verified it.

Ok, here's the "official" word:

(I pulled the original instruction sheets for both Jumping Gems & Crosstown.)

Jumping Gems (and the later FLASH ROD) have the Ken Allen Products notation at the bottom of the page.

The bottom of the Crosstown page states (all caps)> "ANOTHER QUALITY PRODUCT FROM THE MAGIC WORKSHOP WHERE YOU GET A LIFETIME GUARANTEE". I wonder who MAGIC WORKSHOP was?

There's also a copy of a magazine ad that has a quote from Ed Mishell> "This is the first paddle trick I have ever given four stars too (his misuse of 'too'). But it is not really a paddle trick. It is better, and it is not merely better, it is exceedingly better.****"

Bill, I still believe they came out around the same time.

Update: I just came across another by Ken Allen released in that same general time frame and may have been the one I remembered initially. It is JAMBOREE JEWELS and is a Traffic Light-like effect. It, too, uses a red, amber and green jewel color change and winds up with all three stones in a line. Mystery solved?

Julie

Julie, that is it, Jamboree Jewels, a great single stick routine. I will have to see if I still have it, I may have sold it some time back, but I know I did not sell the black one I tried to repair the jewel that fell out.

Yes, Mystery solved.

I have a nice wooden "paddle" that is similar made by Michael Baker (I think) at The Magic Company. His is called STOPLIGHT STICK.

It's a tad larger than the old plastic ones we've been discussing and much more attractive.

Julie

Sorry, I did not make myself clear. When I said I wanted a single stick to carry around and do, I was implying I used one of the sticks from Jumping Gems to carry around in my pocket. With that one stick, several magic effects can be presented with that one prop that is not cards or coins. To me having a peweter bar with the right stones in it that will not ever fall out would be valuable.
Al Schneider