Daily Archives: March 31, 2020

Epner, Oscar and Merlin Walk Into a Bar or A Magicians Turn to be Astounded

Epner, Oscar and Merlin Walk Into a Bar or A Magicians Turn to be Astounded

Merlin and the Twisted Fork

Sometimes we’re surprised by the projects that come in the door in need of one or more of our specialized processes. Apparently word of our success with Laser Gold plating the Hollywood Oscar statuette has been getting around…

Like the Oscars, the International Magicians Society also have a statuette that they award to the “Magician of the Year.” It’s called, appropriately, Merlin and is about the same size and weight as the Oscar and depicts a man pulling a rabbit out of a hat. We were asked by Tony Hassini, the Chairman and CEO of the Magician’s Society, to duplicate for their statuette, the plating process that we specified on the Oscar.

When Hassini arrived at Epner to pick up the Laser Gold plated sample, he was accompanied by Robin Channing, one of his students. – Both were astounded by what we had done with their bronze casting of Merlin.

We swapped “astounding” moments when Robin offered to perform a magic trick right at my desk that is still beyond belief. I apologize for some of the language I used in my incredulous mutterings while watching something “impossible” happening before my eyes.

Approaching my desk, Robin took a few cheap stainless-steel dinner forks out of his pocket. He had me select two at random, so that I could examine them, and proceeded to do something truly awesome. I will let the video speak for itself. It’s less than three minutes long and can be viewed below.

They were so pleased with the results that we are now the official gold plater of the Merlin. Like the Oscars, we guaranteed the plating will never wear off since this unique coating of a pure 24Kt. gold is also three times harder than any other pure gold.