Cut and restore rope trick

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The cut and restore rope trick is a magic effect where the performer will cut a piece of rope, tie it together and then magic away the knot leaving an untouched rope.

The performer sometimes asks a member of the audience to try to perform the trick with him on stage, and they are inevitably surprised to find that the magician's rope is restored at the end of the trick while their rope is not.

There are two ways this trick is commonly performed. Both methods involve misdirection of the audience to suggest the rope is cut in two when it is in fact not. This is usually accomplished by looping the rope in the palm of the hand while showing two additional rope ends to give the illusion the magician is holding 2 separate pieces of rope.

The additional ends either come from one end of the rope which was cut as though it was the middle (the simplest way to accomplish this is by tying an ordinary square knot between one end of the rope and its midpoint, then making the cut in the short end), or by palming an extra piece of rope of the same type.