how to make spring paper fans magic spring paper fans magic fans manufacture

You should be able to cut the spring steel with a pair of sharp scissors. My springs start out as strips that I have cut out measuring 5 inches by 1/3 of an inch. The strips are then cut down the centre of the strip to within 1/3 of an inch of the other end, to produce the two leaves of the spring. When you cut the spring steel make sure that the longest part of the spring runs along the grain of the metal. If you make the spring across the grain then you will get a very inferior spring.

I take the rough edges off the springs with a piece of emery cloth or a fine file. To form the leaves of the springs into the shape that you require, pull them either between your thumb and index finger with a curling action, or between your thumb and a round rod. The shaft of a screwdriver is good for this. It may help if you wear some gardening gloves to do this so that you don't cut yourself.

The inner parts of my fans are made from a piece of tissue paper 15 inches wide by 20 inches long. I concertina fold this into pleats approximately 1 1/2 inches wide along the length of the paper. When this has been done I fold the whole 15 inch long packet that is left in half. This gives me a 'V' shaped packet, each leg of the V being about 7 1/2 inches long by 1 1/2 inches wide. Now comes a very important part, do not forget it. Open out the pleats slightly and put a thin line of paste along the line of the central crease of the V. This will stop the bottom of the fan from coming apart when assembled. I now apply a thin line of paste along the whole edge of one of the inner faces of one of the innermost pleats. When the two halves of the V are pressed momentarily together, the two innermost pleats will stick to each other. After this I have to carefully open out the pleats on either side of the join to make sure that they are not stuck together as well. That completes the construction of the tissue inner section. The tissue, by the way, I buy in multi colour packs from a local stationers.
The outer sheath of the fans is made from a harder wearing material and measures 15 1/2 inches long by 1 inch wide to start with. This like the tissue inner is folded in half to end up as 7 1/4 inches long by 1 inch wide. My best fans are made with a plastic coated leatherette paper, but I have also used brown wrapping paper and coloured cartridge paper. The choice is yours as to what you use.

details of fan construction

To assemble the parts of the fan I first lightly paste both inner faces of the outer sheath. I then place the tissue inner pack as far into the V of the spring as I can.

The next stage is to roll the spring up each side of the tissue inner, trying to keep it central all the way up. Keeping hold of the ends of the spring between thumb and forefinger, lay the tissue inner down onto one of the pasted leaves of the outer sheath with the base of the spring central to the crease in the outer sheath. Carefully fold up the other leaf of the outer sheath over the whole packet, keeping it central to the width of the tissue paper all the way up. Let the fan spring open and take care to separate any pleats that have got stuck together in the assembly process.
When the fan has dried you can close it up again and cut the ends to the final shape and size that you require. My fans are cut as shown on the dotted lines in the diagram.
The fans are excellent production items and you can fill a stage with them from a very small load space. My main production of these is made from a tarbell cone but they may be produced from tubes, boxes or other production props. They reset very quickly and if you look after them they will last for many years before you have to remake them.

	Fellowship of Christian Magicians (United Kingdom) Spring Paper Fans

by Peter Gardner

	I purchased my first set of paper fans back in 1967 from Davenport's magic shop in London. They served me well for many years, but when I wanted to buy some more, I found that they were no longer produced. Not to be outdone I decided to make my own. After a lot of messing about I found the correct materials to use.
The springs in the original fans were made from bits of old steel measuring tapes. The material that I use is 5 thou thick spring steel. Do not try using brass or mild steel shim stock these are no good.

Revised: July 29, 2007. Copyright © 2006 FCMUK

Revised: July 29, 2007.
Copyright © 2006 FCMUK