I was not sure where to post this, but does anyone know where to get a card cutting device. One that will make short cards. I need the entre card shortened not just a corner. I have been cutting them myself with scissors, but that does not always give me an even cut.

thanks,

David

A print trimmer works well. They can be found at most office or photography supply stores.

Not much needs to be trimmed. You may find you won't even have to re-round the corners.

Several places sell a small corner trimmer for about $15-$18. I think I saw one one the Wizardcraft website. I have found this to be excellent - certainly more consistent than scissors.

There is a genuine antique trimmer and a corner cutter
on ebay right now. Expect to shell out several C notes for the two of them.

David;

Check this link to see how to properly make a short card:
http://www.jamesriser.com/Magic/Card/Trimmer.html

Jim

http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/acatalog/Hole_Punches.html

Another way around this is to buy Bicycle Seconds. You will find that some have been off-cut to a larger size. Compare your Seconds to your regular decks and quite often you will find a card from the regular deck can be used as an all around short card.

Think about the potential for a moment.

I've made up a few sets of Marlo's Lost Intergrated deck just to start with.

I think I might regret this post later and delete it.

Hocus-Pocus is presently selling "Line-Lo Card Cutter" for approx. $100.00. It has five different ways to "cut" a deck. They are: short, end stripper,belly, narrow, and stripper.

It doesn't come with a corner rounder, but I have kornershort anyway.

The directions state that it is designed for medium use. I've only cut a few cards since I only received it yesterday.

It's approx. 8 1/2 inches long and 4 1/2 inches wide.

It looks like the paper cutters that are used at schools.

It's designed to be used with regular poker cards.

Does it have a huge metal blade that cuts in one motion, or is it the type that have a small blade that runs up and down the thing?


I mean, the ones that are used at schools last forever..... how would you go about replacing the one on this unit?

It is like what he said, is it Malini or Rosini, I think - the break must be as big as a house - for to get it wrong is worst.

So when I am making the short cards I sometimes just use guillotine (not like in French Revolution, ha ha !!!) but for paper cutting and cut off maybe one or two inches.

Then no way Jose can you miss it. Like Rosini said, "I will wait a week if people tell me to".

So am I the only one who just uses SCISSORS?!

Steven's Magic Emporium has just listed a full deck of short cards. You'll get 52 short cards and you just substitute one card from the short corner deck for the one in your regular deck. I would imagine a full deck of short cards should last well over a year.

On my CD called "Scruffy", I detail a methodology that you can use
to make a key card that is VASTLY superior to the short card.
Most of the stuff needed you can buy at a drug store for less than 15 bucks--
and you don't use scissors!

http://www.cardguy.net/products.htm


Steven Youell

Short decks - well I personally prefer the narrow deck I make myself - are a very secret weapon!

Perform with a stripper and get caught; do the same trick with a narrow deck, and (after palming away the dirty card) you'll see that nobody will see anything!

Syouell thanks, I am sold.
A tip for plastics is a nail foil, not metal, but I don't know what you call them.

The templates that come with the line-Lo card cutter let you cut the cards consistantly the same. I cut a deck to belly strip the aces the other night in under 15 minutes.(you have to cut every card in the deck narrow and the belly cards 4 times) Works like a charm.

There will be a video and/or DVD available later demonstrating how to use the cutter and some neat effects with the different types of decks.

I have no financial interest in this product.
Van

That's a great web page, Jim, thanks for letting us know about it. I love your card gear.

A cheap way to make a corner rounder (if you're poor like me and this is the one I use as the short card is one of my favorite locators) is to get a piece of thin walled brass tubing the same diameter and grind off one end leaving a quarter of the diameter and use the "punch" with a hammer to trim the card. Costs less than a buck. Make sure you match the inside radius. This works well for a few cards a month and you can't beat the price. Enjoy!!

-=tabman

I am sure if you took a deck into a small printers they would cut it with an electric guilotine for next to nothing. Not sure if they could round corner thrm.

I just use an emery board (Nail file) and I short them like it is explained in Dai Vernon's Ultamate Secrets of card magic...

I favor a short card over a crimp in effects like Sam The Bell Hop. Crimps can fail but a short card is 100% and works...

I have been using it on and off this way since I got my first copy of Ultamate secrets back when it was first published. I consider Vernon's short card work as one of the great secrets in all magic.

Ultamate secrets of card magic is worth many times the price of the book for the ideas and the way Vernon used a short (Key) card...

Don't tell anyone!

A thick and short card is about the easiest locator imaginable. It's impossible to miss.