Anyone have any tips on how to avoid knotting, during the reveal? During prep, I'm making the ball by just rolling the strands in my fingertips. I've been trying to avoid much side to side movement during this process (relying on up and down movement, as much as possible) to minimize the possibility of tangling--yet it still seems to happen at the most inconvenient times. Is there some sort of system that others use? Or a particular kind of thread? (I've just been using whatever cheap thread I've found in the sewing kit...)
Thanks,
Damian

I wrap mine around the tip of a pencil just where the paint starts. Then I pull it off over the point (Try to get a smooth tipped pencil some pencils will catch on the thread) and give it a half twist to make a figure 8. Fold it in half on itself at the x. Then I sort of roll the whole bundle gently between thumb and forefinger to make it more ball like.

I've found that if you dredge the part of the thread you intend to break through sortkwik (for counting money) it makes the rolling up of the pieces easier with out resorting to water or (or spit). It also keeps my bundle a little more cohesive

Works for me every time.

Do a search for the best thread in this forum. There are a lot of suggestions, even some that glow under black light.

You may want to search secret sessions as well.

-Mary Mowder

Are you sure you have learned the correct way to prepare the thread? As the correct method will not create tangles at all. So invest in anyone of the several sources available on the market, if you have not done so already. If you have, then go back and learn the correct preparation method, because in all the methods I have, none of them say to make a ball by rolling the thread. If you are trying to make a short cut, then that may be your problem.

Also, when you pull on the ends, do it slowly and in a steady pace. This will prevent it getting tangled onto itself. It is not a lighting restoration.

Having not seen your presentation or preparation, I can only guess at solutions for you to consider. Your question is kind of like, saying I have a flat tire, how do I correct it. Well it could be because it has no air in it, or it has a nail, or the seam needs glue, or it needs to be mounted on the rim. Without enough information to know where you are in the process, it is very difficult to give advice, except to guess. So that is why I started as I did, as your posts sounds like you did not have the available instrution. or you wanted to come up with your way of doing it easier, and now want a solution for your method. And I would see that as an unfair question to ask of others without more details.

Then do a search for a good source in this thread topic. It is mentioned several times.

Having large fingers, I made a device out of a 4" piece of coat hanger that allows a small figure 8 winding and only needs one fold. Works great.

As to thread, any fabric store will have weak thread that is good for this.

Great idea, Mary, on the Sort-wik..

Jim

Thanks for tips and advice. Lot of good food for thought, here.

Mary, I'll try the pencil method. That makes sense. I hadn't thought about having to prepare the other end of the thread, as rolling it into a ball seemed pretty doable. But I'll see if I can find whatever they use for money-sorting, over here, to see what the difference is. Thanks for the tip. Also, I know there have been a number of threads about thread--I found them before I posted my question, although they seem to deal with visibility issues and not so much knotting issues. I hadn't checked the Secret Sessions, though; I'll have a look.

Bill, I guess I don't know if I've learned the correct way or not. I thought I had, but it seems now that there are other ways. I learned the technique mentioned about 5 years ago from Arthur Tivoli's DVD, Tivoland. I did the trick a few times, then forgot about it. More recently, I ran across it again, in Apocalypse. Harry Lorayne seems to describe the same method (he actually says to prepare the thread "as you usually would," and refers to a diagram--a drawing of a guy holding the thread between two fingers, apparently balling it up). So, it didn't occur to me that I might not be using a standard method.

Anyway, apparently, I don't have any other references. I thought I would find it in Tarbell, but couldn't turn it up...

I am pulling lightly and slowly--both to reduce chances of knotting (sometimes unsuccessfully) and also for the beauty of it. It's an incredible thing watching that ball get smaller and smaller until it disappears.

Jim, thanks for the tip. That makes sense, too. I could probably just do a figure 8 on my fingers...

Anyway, thanks all. Pretty sure I'm on the right track, now.

Damian,
Please don't try to just use your fingers. Like Mary I use a piece of pencil. The painted surface is perfect for slipping the thread off. I've been doing it for more years than I care to remember and never had a hang-up.

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks, Acolophon.

Remember you can just set the bundle and pull it out over and over till you've solved the problem without breaking any thread. This will speed up your practice in your problem area.

-Mary

Yeah, that's true. Since it's a new routine for me, the unwinding, the breaking and the palming are all useful for muscle memory. Still, sometimes it's good to zero in on one aspect for awhile. Thanks for the reminder.

The picture you refer to would be best discribed as "winding" the thread, not "balling" the thread. I cannot go into detail on an open forum like this. Do you know the Café has a Secret Section on the Café. As a matter a fact, to much has been said already. If secrets are revealed on an open forum, then they will be deleted people.

So all I can say at this point is buy this book, it is great, beside tons of great magic, it has several methods discribed.

http://www.llpub.com/zenshop/index.php?m......_id=2691

If you need a video, then this is a source also.

http://www.llpub.com/zenshop/index.php?m......_id=2519

Why struggle when it is all explained in detail.

Thanks for that, Bill. Looks like a great book--and they have it in ebook format, which is perfect for me. In fact, you reminded me that I have a Ganson's Unconventional Magic. Had a quick look, and what do you know--it's got exactly what I'm looking for! So, thanks again!

Yes, I have Unconventional Magic as well, and being it is out of print, I don't like to reference out of print books, as is no help to new comers. If you are smart you will make up every trick in that booklet and blow people away. Some great magic there.

Good tip, Bill, thanks. I'll be sure to have a closer look.

Great tip, Bill. I just ordered it from Amazon!

Jim

One tip that Alan Alan gave me in 1982 on the Gypsy Thread. was "When you do it ten times a day right for a week, You know you have it mastered" Having said that. nothing is fool proof, at some point you are going to have the thread tangle during a performance. It perhaps take a thousand times of doing it perfectly but it will happen.

This is one of my all time favorite effects. I've probably done it 500 times over the past 20 years and have never had a tangle. Using waxed dental floss is the way to go. Super easy to set up and you can carry it in your pocket and you are always set to go.

On his Greater Magic Video library dvd, Eugene Burger gives a very simple remedy for this; I've used it for nearly 15 years, and never had a tangle issue.