I don't know about leather or wood cups, however I wouldn't care to do any of the things you are mention(besides #2)

If your cups are meant for working, I can only think of extreme pounding with the wand and throwing the cups around as a cause of damage. For the collector, there really is no way to damage the cups if they are stored properly....away and out of reach of children, visitors etc...

We all have different relationships with our cups. Some see them as works of art, some see them as tools. Some see them as both. To each his own. Regardless of how we see them... I feel we should enjoy them to the fullest and in the course of doing so, we share the joy with others.

I love my cups and they love me. They seem to understand that we have to work in severe conditions at times. I do my part in protecting them and they take whatever is needed to protect my art.

I do have a couple of "workers" and some "collector's sets". They both get the care they deserve but more importantly... we have fun and create fun. I pretty much let them age on their own from use or by time alone. I stopped using cleaners.

Along the lines of Plungerman....I feel we should be more concerned about the damage we can cause to the art by over zealousness and lack of practice and understanding of the cups. There is nothing terrible about being excited to go out and perform the classics but with practice and understanding... we can protect the art of cups and balls.

Our cups are investments and investments must be given importance and attention...after all these babies don't come cheap.


have fun folks!

mabuhay from Manila,

Rannie

Thanks, Mike for the highly valuable info and the suggestion of starting another list. I'll do that immediately so I can have more info for the website.

I will be a little more specific. Under the methods I listed for "How metal cups can be damaged" is everything in general for copper, brass, silver and aluminum. In other words, maybe one of the metals can be cleaned with one or more of the "not to use items." But I did not want to go thru each metal individually, so I put it all in general to keep it more safe for each metal. For example: Maybe bleach or water will clean one of the metals, but damage the other three.

Thanks, Mike. Really appreciate your contribution.

Wooden mini cups can be damaged if you as a spectator to tap the top and he slams his fist down on it, this is a proven fact.
Leather dice cups should not be put in the dish washer, also proven.
According to Clark Crandell, you should not allow drunks to slice the bottom off of your dice cup while looking for the magnet.
Gazzo said that a large Animal cup may be safely thrown into the Atlantic Ocean by a stoned biker
without damage, however getting it back is a pain.
I once left a set of Paul Fox cups on a bus. As far as I know the were not damaged, although I haven't seen them sense.

Thanks, ringmaster, I'll bear in mind the slamming of the fist on those wooden mini cups.

Do not allow spectators to handle your cups because they might accidently drop/loose one.
http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=6&6

I heard of a magicians wife taking one of his cups and using it to hold chemicals to dye her hair.

^ true story!