Hi, I'm NPR. I'm new to magic and the forums. I have a bit of a problem:

I've been trying to gaff my own cards for a magic trick I (think) I made up and want to perform. The problem is I need a card that's pretty specialized. Basically I'm trying to 'combine' two or more cards into one. My initial thought was to use an exacto knife and some glue...which didn't even reach the glue stage. I know some specialized people have the ability to gaff cards, so are there any resources out there? I've been doing Google searches for some time now and haven't come across anything. Thanks for any help!

i dont know of any resources, but have you ever checked out the [url=http://www.penguinmagic.com/product.php?ID=543&[no-affiliate-links!]]Specialty Assortment Deck[/url] here on Penguin?

I hadn't seen that assortment yet. While it's definitely something to look into, it doesn't quite have what I'm looking for. Thanks for the link though!

Hmmmm........i've had this discussion before but things are kinda cloudy. You could try heating up the card via a blow dryer or something(heating up the glue). That in turn should should make the card easier to pry apart. When trying to glue the other one I would use rubber cement instead of oridinary white glue.

Check this place for gaffs: www.cardsbymartin.com. The guy here is named Neil Lester. He can tell you if what you want can be done.

This is a link that explains basic card splitting: http://www.wowbound.com/split.html

Instead of splitting, I've had some luck with sanding cards. Just don't do it too aggressively, or you'll ruin the cards.

I'm not really sure what you are trying to accomplish, so I'm not sure if this helps.

thanks, that second site is pretty cool. Maybe I'll try some of those out. I got like..8 spare decks.

This method I learned awhile back, and it's worked wonders for me.

Assuming you want to have a double faced card, or a half-faced card or something of that nature the following might be of interest.

1.) Begin by rapping the corner of a card sharply onto a hard surface, such as wood. Do this repeatedly.

2.) Look closely at the corner, the card will begin to separate at the corner. (Works with Bicycle cards, I have not tried others)

3.) Carefully peel the face off of the card of interest. You will now have 2 pieces - a face and a back. My experience is that the face will be thinner than the back.

4.) Prepare either of these pieces in any way you need for your particular effect. (e.g. cut them in half/diagonally, etc.)

5.) Now you have two options:

5a.) Ruber cement the prepared card directly onto another card.
OR
5b.) Prepare another card in a similar manner, and rubber cement these cards together.

My experience favors method 5a.) above. While this method does make the card slightly thicker, it often looks cleaner and will be less likely to be noticed. Also, when using method 5b.) above, you may have trouble with the card being too flimsy (if you are using two faces). In that case you could cement each face card onto a third card. This again will result in a thicker card.

The only time thickness might be a problem is when making a back-back card, but you can buy these easily enough.

Your mileage may vary, so experiment on a deck of cards. If you are careful when peeling the card apart, you should have little or no problems. I used this method to prepare a set of Aces for Aces in Their Faces and it's worked wonders. (I needed it for my pack of large index Bicycle cards) Have fun!

-bryan

wow i didnt know penguin had that special deck, where did you find it?

NPR, I know exactly what you're looking for, it's called Fako Sheets. Be sure to buy some blank cards too.


Here is the description:

Everyone wants to make their own gimmicked cards. You know, for that special trick where you need a Three of Hearts with an Ace of Diamonds index. Well, now you can make your own gaffs. In Bicycle poker-size cards! All you need is a deck of Blank-Face Bikes and our FAKO Sheets! Included on these sheets are a zillion different pips and indices. You get a giant sheet of transfer letters and symbols, and complete instructions for their use.


If you can't find the Fako Sheets just Private Message me and I will give you the link, I can't say it here because it will be edited.