These sticks are light, they work absolutely smooth and they are really beautiful with the exception of the ugly top-knobs. When I received them I replaced these by simple wooden pearls and now the sticks are perfect and not almost any more.
If you like elegant and decent props these Chinese Sticks are a "must have"!
I am doing shows with tricks of the trade dated to around 1900 for the Art Nouveau day here in Darmstadt and never used my Chinese Sticks for they looked to modern. This Year I had the Mikame Stick, they look absolutely timeless and it's a real pleasure to perform with them.

I received recently my chinese sticks.
One of the best product that I bought. Works very well.
Easy routine and people loves it.

Thanks again

Michel Belley

I love these sticks they are a work of art. Really beautiful craftsmanship. But I got these because my first pair would jam sometimes and I am doing a run right now so needed back-ups. The cool thing is that the new pair a different than thd original. The wood is a little different color, you can see the wood grain, and thd strings are a little longer. So I got to see first hand that these are hand made and no two pairs are identical. Thd other cool thing is that Penguin Magic sold them for less than the first pair I got just 6 months ago.

Very good.

The quality, while certainly better in operation than the other models, is good not great. The first criteria for buying any set is the smoothness and soundlessness of the modus operandi. Second is the degree of visibility of the string. Knocking sounds from the gimmick striking the internals are always the giveaway in low quality sticks. These have a bit of a rattle which required opening up the apparatus and adding a tape coating and lubricant to obviate the unwanted noise particularly when moving the sticks from hand to hand. Tassels are flimsy and lack the visibility that sells the movement of the strings. My solution, after trying to change the tassels to bigger ones which I subsequently found gave too much weight for the gimmick to work, was to thread orange sponge balls through the strings to sit at the top of the tassels. It created a high visibility Chinese lantern effect which suited the effect and made the up - down movement of the strings much more pronounced.The mechanism still worked fine carrying a 2inch sponge ball. Overall quite happy with the item but like many veterans I was spoiled when I first bought my first set of sticks in the seventies (silent in operation, handsome and still working beautifully - perhaps the secret is for the gimmick to be square like my beloved older ones). Back then magic shops sourced high quality low price sets hand made by cottage workshops. My original set from Aladdin’s Magic Shop in Melbourne cost $7.50 in 1973. Beautiful to look at, large white tassels that sold the effect for tv, kids shows and stage - wonder if some of these wonderful sets are lying around forgotten in Australian basements? Last thing - the Japanese authored instructions that accompany the Mikame sticks should be replaced. The syntax and malapropisms would confuse a beginner.