Charlier cut

Learn the one handed Charlier cut.

The Charlier cut is often treated as a fancy flourish, for it has an undoubted fascination for the average spectator.

It is of far greater value in card magic, however, when used as a method of openly controlling cards, and we shall discuss it in that light.

To perform the cut:

Hold the card pack face down in your left hand. The long sides of the card deck are between the tips of the thumb and the ring and middle fingers. The tips of the index and little fingers press up against the face card on the bottom of the pack (Fig. 1).
Allow the lower half to fall from the thumb onto the palm of the hand (Fig. 2).
Press upwards against this packet with the tips of the index and little fingers, moving the pack into the position shown in Fig. 3.
Allow the other portion to sink down onto the palm by slightly extending the middle and ring fingers, with the index finger at first supporting it but moving out of the way as the packet nears the palm and the original lower portion folds downwards on top of it.
Square the cards by moving the index finger beyond the outer end. There is a great set of videos where you can learn more about the Charlier cut and many other card flourishes.

This sleight is often incorrectly referred to as the Charlier pass.

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Where to go from here:

Learn to do the Charlier cut with both hands smoothly.
Learn to do card magic using the Charlier cut with Acrobatic Aces.
Learn to multiple one handed cuts.
Learn more card flourishes.

Magically yours,

*card magic and related material selected, adapted, and modernized from The Royal Road To Card Magic by Jean Hugard and Frederick Braue.