How to Mark Bicycle Cards

Big Bicycle Cards

If you are a magician, it's imperative that you are able to pull off even the simplest of card tricks. Illusion is key to magic tricks, even ones involving cards. Marking a deck of Bicycle cards will make it easier for you to memorize and identify every card in the deck at a glance.

Things You'll Need

• Bicycle cards (full deck)
• Exacto knife or razor

Instructions

Etching The Wheels

1. Identify the four wheels on the back of each Bicycle card and determine which wheel will represent which house in the card deck. For example, the top left wheel could represent spades, top right hearts, bottom left clubs and the bottom right diamonds.

2. Use the razor to connect the center dot in the wheel to the top line of the wheel to represent the ace card. If you did this to the top left wheel, that would be the ace of spades.

3. Etch each card from two through eight with a single line from the center dot to the outer edge of the wheel all the way around the wheel.

4. Returning to the beginning of the wheel, etch a full line from the top peg of the wheel straight through to the bottom peg to represent the number nine. Repeat this from the left peg to the right peg to represent the number ten.

5. Carve a line from the second peg of the wheel to the sixth peg to represent the Jack. Carve a line from the fourth peg of the wheel to the eighth peg for the queen.

6. Make a cross using two diagonal lines on the wheel for the King.

7. Repeat this process on every wheel of the card to help you identify the number and suit of each card in the deck.

Tips & Warnings

• Write down your information for future reference when memorizing your deck.

• Do not use this method to cheat at card games.

References

• Meta Cafe
• Instructables