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One day when I was working on a card trick, and I spilled my glass of water on my cards. When I pick up one of the wet cards, I relised that the card was made up off two peices, the face and the back. I also noticed the two peices, when wet, were esay to seperate. Since figured the cards were ruined, I seperated a few cards faces from their backs and stuck them to the wall just for fun. Later on when the peices dried I noticed that they were stuck to the wall. The glue still worked and now I had about 8 cards halfs glued to my wall!

Well this gave me an idea. A few weeks ago I was looking online for some gimmicked cards for a few tricks I learned, but I didn't have any money at the time, so I couldn't buy them. But now with my newfound knowlegde, I thought to myself, why dont I just make my own!

So I soaked some cards in water, then carefully pealed the two peices apart, and stuck two backs together and let them dry a bit. Then I pressed them between two pages in book so they would dry straight. When the card dried I found I had successfuly made my own double backed card!

(I've tried this with Bicycle Riderback cards, but I havent tried it with any other brand.)

So I am am sharing this story with all of you so hopefully I can give you a few ideas, and I woud also like see if any of you have done this yourself. So please let me know what you think.

The cards are USUALLY made of 3 layers... the two very thin face layers, and a middle thicker layer.

Bicycle cards, for sure, are easily stripped with moisture. Partly due to the fact that although they are coated, they are still slightly pourous.

Other brands are actually more resilient, and the method won't work.

It's trial and error, really.

There are a few threads on this forum covering the subject‚—and yours seems like one of the more successful tales.

Card stripping is something of a skill... and to be fair, if you're only after double back or double face cards, it's still easier to buy them.

However, there are certain circumstances for which stripping is essential, such as requiring specific gaffs such as a double-face Ace of Hearts, or a card which has a half red back/half blue back—or even 'flipper' cards.

Glad to hear someone else supporting the 'wet' theory

Anyone interested in making their own card gaffs could do a lot worse than invest in Lickety-Split. It's been available as a book for a long time and it's recently been given the DVD treatment. It's pretty much the card splitting bible if you need custom gaffs.

I also failed to mention, it's great for puting things inside of cards, like "predictions". Makes for a great effect... You tear a card in half and a laminated peice of paper inside reveals a color or card or whatever you had them think of or choose.

I also failed to mention, it's great for puting things inside of cards, like "predictions". Makes for a great effect... You tear a card in half and a laminated peice of paper inside reveals a color or card or whatever you had them think of or choose.

Wow thats a brilliant idea. I would have never thought of that in a squillion years.
you could use it as a finally to AC, where the "chosen" card is found hiding in a different card.

Bean

Also usefull for a vanished bill effect. After doing a corner switch vanish a borrowed 5 pound note and then offer to do a card trick that is worth the money they just spent. Force the card, get them to sign it, lose it in the pack, do a simple location (you can even let them shuffle as the thick card will be easy to find), ask them if it was worth the fiver (if they say yes smile and leave quickly ), when they invariably say no, tear the card and ask them to remove their "refund" get them to check it against their receipt (torn corner) then humbly agree that you are indeed amazingly talented

Mark

KODs_righteye wrote:When I pick up one of the wet cards, I relised that the card was made up off two peices, the face and the back. I also noticed the two peices, when wet, were esay to seperate.

This method of card splitting is known as immersion and is pretty much just moistening the glue between cards and then peeling the layers.

However a more reliable and less damaging method is peeling the layers. Generally the way to do it is to bash the corner of the card so the layers fray and then whilst applying pressure to the lower layer, you peel the other two layers off it. Thats just a basic overview but I find that this method is much easier than Immersion. It's also very quick.

This information has probably been circulated dozens of times on this forum but I thought I'd share it here any way because it's an area of magic that I've been toying with recently and to tell you the truth it's actually quite satisfying when you make your firs gimmicked card.

Pealing the layers dry? I've tried that, it doesent seem to work for me. I guess i'll just stick with my method. I also find it help to seperate the wet layers by runing them under water will pealing them apart. I have had great success with this. Once they have dried, they seem as if nothing had happend to them... I gues I just must be doing something right.

And I've also found bicycle cards are made up of actually 4 layers, and if you're careful and know what your doing, you can seperate the two top and two bottom layers with out disturbing two sets. Between the top two and bottom two is where the glue is. I have gotten really good at this, and LOVE puting things inside of the cards. I usally use two peices of clear packing tape to laminate or "seal" the paper inside the card to help protect it and keep it intact while I tear it in half. I usally load the cards with rhine symbols written on small peices of paper for my mentalism tricks, and I also have a few other tricks where I have something written down to reveal.

This make for great looking effect, and you all seem to agree.

I also load miniature cards in larger cards for card revealations.

Tom Lauten wrote:I'm curious as to how you keep the outer layer from warping, wrinkling, losing its satin finish etc. after it has gotten wet?

Do you dry it by pressing it only or do you force dry it?

I simply pat it down with a dry towel, then place it between the pages of a book. Moving it between different pages periodiclly, as the pages will absorb the moisture. While I also occasionally rub it with my fingures going from the inside out to help keep its form. As to the fininsh, it seems to be ok after its dry, but the back does fade a bit, not very noticeable by anyone else than yourself.

For all you intrested in my method, I'm working on taking some pictures of my proccess and putting them on a website along with an explaination on exactlly how I do it. Hopefully it should be done by sunday or monday.

That sounds good, I'll look forward to having a look at that.

It's so much fun messing around making gimmicks!!

Just made a new set of gaffs for Joker Joker using immersion.

I might just be being converted to the light (or dark) side!

wow what fun this is. Endless ideas, that are very impressive. Maybe we could post ideas for this technique here. happy splitting

Talking of ideas, I just came up with one that might be worth something.

Instead of using a book and ruining its pages maybe a small flower press and an airing cupboard would do the trick to the same standard, if not better?

Havn't tried it yyet because I'm sorry to say I don't own a flower press but I'm actaully going to steel myself to go out and buy one. In a very discrete manner.