It depends on the type of performer you are and what you want to spend.
Kovari, Owen or Norm Nielsen make what I consider the best. I use a modified set of Kovari bamboo and sometimes my modified Owens. My modification is to make one NO TILT and my way of connecting them together is original and radical.

Pete Biro is absolutely correct.
Except that I would add General Grant.
If you like Brass sticks, his is the only way to go.
Of all the sticks I have,
General Grant Sticks are the ones I use in my shows.

ACE

Thanks very much for the recommendations Pete and Ace. Ace -Where do you find the General Grant sticks?

Email him at ggmagic@aol.com

Tell him Joe the stick collector in New Orleans sent you.

Everything he has is 100% guaranteed.

ACE

Many thanks for the email address.

Great sets of sticks and an unbelievable collection. You have to be single or living with a wonderful woman or you shower her with jewelry. I'd love to know your "secret."

David

I do have a lady, and it is both,(living with a wonderful woman or you shower her with jewelry.) lol.

ACE

And never tell them how much you really spent.

Ace, I recently saw a closeup magician perform with a small cheap set of Chinese sticks and his act was superb. I liked his act. I say cheap because they look like the kind you can get for about $7 anywhere. So I picked up a couple of cheap sets like them and they failed miserably. The caps came off, and they were, well just crap.

Do you have any recommendations on a quality set of sticks I can pull out of my inner jacket pocket (6"-8" or so) that I won't have to worry about them falling apart during a performance? Thanks!

Bob1Dog... perhaps you just need to do some work on them.

Perhaps you're right. a little glue on the end caps I guess, but they weren't smooth either. Thanks Pete.

You can often find the "vintage" Royal Chinese Sticks on the big auction for $5-$10.

Truth be told, these work as well or better than the ones selling for relatively large sums of money...

Julie

I still have the set of Adams' Chinese Sticks that I bought when I was a kid. Still work great, too. The cord seems tougher than the Royal sets, although those are still real nice. I have a vintage set of those I bought from that auction site, just to add to my collection. They are somewhat worn (the cords and tassels), but a modest refurb would give them another 30 years of service, I'm sure.

Not sure if any Adams' stuff is still being made although I just found this set on Amazon. It's probably old store stock.

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Magic-Stic......07V8BIL4

Aside from the packaging differences, from the time I bought mine back in the late 1960's, there was very little difference in the sticks themselves.

Good catch Michael! Looking at the picture, my observation is that the Royals have neater, more "finished" appearing ends than the caps on the Adam's version. (Your audience will most likely never notice as they have nothing with which to compare.)

Julie

An interesting design would be to create a set that appeared to be solid sticks with simple holes running through them, not potentially hollow. This would of course eliminate any reference to the string running down and across to the other stick, but I think it could be a fooler. However, the only way that I could imagine such a design that would accomplish this was if they appeared to have been cut straight off a tree, complete with knots along the sides.

What else would trigger a reasonable conclusion from the audience that the sticks were solid?

Roy Benson said that the sticks should be square in cross section and with visible wood grain to look more like a length of wood. He believed that the round sticks telegraphed the methodology.

Good, visible wood grain and rectangle/square cross section should be more than enough to throw the average audience member off. Sounding "solid" as they were tapped against something would also help with the illusion of solidness.

I've still got the Adams sticks in the trunk, too. And yeah, they DO work better than my other sets!

-Philip

I wonder how practical it would be to build a square "tube" around a set of the Royal/Adams sticks to simulate a real wooden stick?

Julie

I am looking at a couple of my old square sets, and the maker, or someone, put that wood grained "contact paper" over them, so they look like solid blocks of wood when you are on stage.

I also have a set from Tim Star that looks like pieces of wood:

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Joe Fenichel used to make square sticks. I bought a set from Gene Gordon about 1965. They were made from what looked like square "towel bar" stock. They were painted silver and had wooden "plugs" on the ends. They worked "OK". but I did some modifications after discussing them with Jay Marshall (who had made his own from chrome towel bar stock (round). He had used the little plastic caps that came with Polaroid camers film "sealer". He used homemade yarn tassels. His point was that the longer tassels made the strings look longer, and somewhat defeated the spectator's "thinking" that the strings "went inside". (I think that if you search U tube, you'll find him doing his routine,

I covered mine with wood grain contact paper, and replaced the tassels as Jay suggested. They worked fine.

I picked up a set of SILENT MORA'S STICKS (Louis McCord) STAGE SIZE. They're longer than the ones that you usually see. They do not have the usual Chinese Characters or the "proverb", but they are Mora's.

My first set of sticks (1945) came from Harold Sterling. They were CARDBOARD, tubular, (apparently made from some sort of mailing tubes) The string and tassels were from gift box tying cord with dinky tassels. To perform, they had to be held at a near vertical angle.

I also have a set of the BREMA sticks that Mike Kanter sold in the '40s. They are the "ROLLS ROYCE of sticks, with all the bells and whistles!