to cut or not to cut??...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Mar 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

yaraluna	07 Mar 2005
hi there! i have some tarot decks that have some key word at the bottom.ie: thoth deck oshezen deck etc etc...personnally, i find them limiting and distracting. has any of you cut or covered teh key word(s) in your deck??? how has that worked for you? blessed be yaraluna

WolfSpirit	07 Mar 2005
Hi yaraluna, I have also cut the borders off the Thoth. I think it works better without the keywords, and looks better too. We had two long threads about trimming or not trimming decks: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=31217&highlight=thoth and http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=36821&highlight=thoth Hope these are helpful for you.

Tsuzuki	07 Mar 2005
I'd only do it if I had spare deck.

Kiama	08 Mar 2005
Although I know many people who have either covered (with, say, post-it-notes) or cut off the keywords on decks, and although I personally find the keywords quite limiting, I have never considered doing this. Maybe I might try it one day on one of my Thoths...? I just tend to ignore the keywords if they are not useful. A lot of the time I look first and foremost at the images, so the keywords don't enter my mind. But when I get stuck (and I do with the Thoth, because it's only recently I've started reading with it) then they can stick me even more! Well, good luck trimming your cards! Blessings, Kiama

psychic sue	08 Mar 2005
I agree I don't like the keywords on Thoth. In fact I gave my Thoth deck unused to a friend. My fave at the moment is Morgan Greer. No words, no borders. Each to his own I suppose ! Sue

Rachel Nguyen	08 Mar 2005
I 'rectified' my Osho and found it improved the deck immensely. Now, though, I have realized that all the trimming in the world isn't going to get me to use the deck anymore. I'll tell you though, Osho is one that trims up nicely. (And seems to have, for me at least, particularly objectionable key words. I don't seem to mind Thoth's at all.) I used a cheap, fiskars slide paper trimmer and then a cheap corner rounder and the cards came out so well that noone ever knows they were ever different. The Thoth, just to warn you, has different sized images, so trimming off the whole border leaves very uneven sized cards. Plus, in that case, you have to trim all four sides, rather than just the bottom. I experimented with one of the old, ugly green Thoths and really can't use it because the images are so muddy. These days, Osho sits in a drawer and I use a beautiful Swiss Thoth with Crowley's crazy key words intact. Love, Rachel

Cerulean	08 Mar 2005
Over time, I've come to enjoy the U.S. Games Chinese deck, all cards, but not all the cards from the Lo Scarabeo (LS) Journey to the Orient (Marco Polo) deck. I cut off the white border of the U.S. Games deck. Using this reduced size as a measurement, I found that I could chop off the two colored borders on each side of the Journey to the Orient cards lengthwise. The width of LS deck then matched the width of the smaller U.S. Games deck. I was also able to reduce the size of the upper and lower borders of the Lo Scarabeo deck. The size of the cards are now 4.25 inches by 2.25 inches. I had selected all the majors, aces and nines of the Lo Scarabeo deck, which makes 30 cards of the original 78 Journey to the Orient cards. So 30 plus 78 of the Chinese Tarot, makes 108 card deck...I may for fun see if I can find 36 other images from the Lo Scarabeo deck and make a Mah Jong seasonal oracle or an 'art-study' book of seasonal poems and card illustrations for 144 illustrations..kind of like the same fun with my Japanese Game of 100 Poets notebook. Regards, Cerulean

Michelle	08 Mar 2005
I mentioned to my husband that I may trim one of my decks , he laughed and (jokingly yet seriously) said that is something a perfectionist with slight OCD sould never do. LOL. I would probably end up with confetti. Happy trimming :).

rainwolf	08 Mar 2005
I cut my thoth, and i never noticed an uneven cut...they looked immensely better too, i recommend it to all the fundamentalists that want their ''original'' deck back. :) I also cut my world spirit, which had uneven borders, so its like those books with torn like edges where they are different sizes. They dont look bad, but i like clean cuts better. Im in the process of cutting my Liber T deck, which is looking nice, and the cards were big to start with, so they remain big, which is a plus. Thats one thing to look at before cutting: will it still be a good size? Good luck and dexterity with your cuts.

Maggie Bell	09 Mar 2005
Oh, Cerulean, I love your idea of mixing the Chinese and Marco Polo decks! Would you mind elaborating? What is a Mah Jongg seasonal oracle? How would you use it (I would love to have the Fortune Teller's Mahjongg Cards By Derek Walters & Amanda Barlow, but alas! Cannot find them anywhere!) And more, please about your Japanese Game of 100 Poets notebook. I so love anything oriental. Regards, Maggie

yaraluna	15 Mar 2005
thaks for your answers and ideas. i think i will put some small labels on black on the key words and then see how much i like them. then i will go for the cut off if needed hehe yaraluna

tarotbear	15 Mar 2005
Are you guys using a paper cutter with its big blade to cut the edges off in one swell foop? Or are you relying on scissors? If I was going to mutilate a deck, I'd opt for a paper cutter to keep cuts straight and dimensions equal.

WolfSpirit	15 Mar 2005
I used scissors and the result is quite good. I showed the deck to others and they did not see I had trimmed it - but if you start looking for flaws, you will probably find a few (tiny ones). Also depends a bit how used you are to cutting with scissors, I guess. A thing to beware of with a paper cutter - the little white borders (which is often the only thing I get rid of when trimming a deck) are not always the same width on all sides. That is something I would worry about - my own eyes and hands sometimes are more reliable.

Rosanne	15 Mar 2005
It took me a lot of convincing myself to trim a Deck ( and two whole read threads)- so I finally did the evil act with my Thoth. The Deck is now usuable for me- it was not before its haircut. I started with a zip zap cutter and finished using scissors. Looks great too!! I jokingly call it my O deck 'cos it is missing th and th. ~Rosanne

RedMaple	15 Mar 2005
I also use scissors and find it kind of meditative. I tried a paper cutter on one card and it was a disaster -- not enough control, I guess. Also, I find that while I cut each card one by one, I learn a lot more about it.

Imagemaker	15 Mar 2005
Only scissors for me, and I've been happy with all the decks I've trimmed (about 8).

rainwolf	15 Mar 2005
Forgot that i already posted....:D

The to cut or not to cut??... thread was originally posted on 07 Mar 2005 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.