Locked Books Release by Magikraft Studios, Eric Lewis

This is a beautiful version of Eric Lewis wonderful effect Locked Books Release from his book A Choice of Miracles, built by his son Martin Lewis at Magikraft Studios in 1993.  This version really looks and feels amazing and unlike the P&L version (The Books of Ching Soo, c. 1930) it uses real books instead of blocks of wood styled to look like books.

Effect: The books can be freely displayed and the pages riffled to show they are real.  This effect works using an old block release method and although I’d be the first to admit it takes a little finesse to make it smooth, when you put the time in you’ll have a beautiful effect that looks really stunning in your collection.

This is the second release from Martin Lewis’ Magikraft Studios. Major collectors like Ken Klosteiman and Robert Albo have commissioned Martin to fabricate special pieces for their conjuring archives. This is your chance to own a fine example of Martin’s sumptuous woodworking.

Martin’s father, the late Eric Lewis, created this effect in the 1930’s, and you can find it described in Eric’s book, A Choice of Miracles, released by Magical Publications. Based on a block release, it uses three books, wooden bookends, and a length of ribbon attached to a wooden needle. Each book has a hole one inch in diameter drilled through from front to back; the stand has similar holes in the bookends. When the three volumes are placed in the stand, a tunnel is formed which goes through the books and the bookends. The ribbon is threaded through the books and stand. At the baffling bibliophile’s command, the tomes melt through the ribbon which remains threaded through the bookends. The books, bookstand, and ribbon are now entirely free of guile.

Though this is a legitimate mystery, THE LOCKED BOOK RELEASE is more for collectors of fine apparatus than working pros. When Martin demonstrated this for me, there were some aspiring woodworkers present who touched the equipment, particularly the beautifully crafted walnut stand, with such appreciation that I thought for a moment I was watching awed rabbis caress the Ark of the Covenant.

(David Avadon – Genii Magazine, August 1993)

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