The first card punches that I made were of this design utilizing a straight pin and knurled adjustment knob.
These marked the cards fine but punches were troublesome to get adjusted as the tightening knob would tend to slightly bend the pin thus changing the depth of the markings.
I played with refinements of this design for a number of years (can not find picture of all the variations made).
This variation used a much smaller locking screw which required a hex wrench.
The pins still bent when tighteded. Notice the reduction in overall size of the unit.
The next major change was to make the pin itself the adjustment control. A hex wrench was still required.
Various sizes and types of points were supplied with this model as required by the user.
The size remained the same.
To meet the needs of those wanting to mark the cards during a performance I developed my Ultimate Card Punch. This punch came with both a point and blister tip. Either could be used when adjusted by a hex wrench. This was designed to be used as a gravity holdout with the punch itself being the weight.
Since most performers end up using only one size of mark on the cards and do not seem to switch between the finer and blister marking points, I redesigned things yet again.
This is the current 2008 version
of the Riser Card Punch.
It is lighter in weight and can easily be adjusted without any tools.
A number of performers have indicated that they are using this during performances and not getting caught.
This new version comes with the robust point as needed by magicians or a special order blister point as is often used by platform/stage magicians and mentalist types.