Magic Tricks

So I found that I was finally running out of my supply of Liquid Forks that I've used for years, as I'm now using up at least 4 a week instead of every couple of months. Came back to Penguin to order a larger supply and found them out of stock (no surprise), so I bought 2 boxes of Killer Forks instead.

Not exactly thrilled, but I guess they'll do as backups if I run out of Liquid Forks before I receive a new order of them direct from the UK. Here's my evaluation.

To start with, Liquid Forks are strong enough for laymen to agree that they're genuine metal forks, look almost exactly like an inexpensive restaurant fork, right down to the shaped printing on the back of the handles. Bend force needed for handle, tines and corkscrew bend always seemed perfect -- most important, handle width narrow enough for fairly easy corkscrew (similar forks with wider handles at that point VERY hard to corkscrew by comparison).

So, now Killer Forks... first off, Appearance: they seem strange -- oversized tines, a flat stamped appearance of handle (unlike more authentic 3D shaping of Liquid Fork handles) and lack of writing on back of handle all make the fork look a bit fake to me. The whole business end (tines) of the fork looks really oversized to me, never have seen a restaurant fork with these proportions. Also, the printing on the box saying "the ideal fork for practicing metal bending" was a surprise, as I got these for performance, not practice.

Bending: Also strange. Handle is oddly very easy to bend, TOO easy if you ask me. Corkscrew okay, but again that flat stamped metal feels weird to me. Strangest is that while the handle seems soft, the oversized tines are VERY hard to bend, especially one handed (with the thumb). I can quickly bend two tines with my right thumb, one-handed, with my old forks, but these are really hard to do without major strain, and only bend part way.

So I know many others may love them and disagree, but I just contacted David Penn in the UK and was able to order two more boxes of Liquid Forks direct from World Magic Shop. I really hope that Penguin can reestablish that connection, because I'd prefer to buy them right here. Killer Forks will stay in the drawer as emergency substitutes for now.