Opinions on hot laminating cards

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 21 May 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

yve	21 May 2004
I just want to hear some expert and experienced people on sealing tarot cards using the hot laminating machines. Has anyone done it? Why? Do you have recommendations on the best way? I wouldn't ruin a good or collectable deck by doing this. What I was thinking of is that I do a great deal of e-mail readings, and I use a general, plain deck in which I have a duplicate of. I thought it would prolong the life of this deck, but I had concerns about how the final outcome would be. Would it be useable (to thick? to slippery?)? Are there certain thicknesses of sleeves that would work better than others? And how would you recommend trimming it? Right along the card edges? And finally if you trimmed right along the edges, would the lamination seperate from the card? I already have my own hot laminating machine that I use for household projects, and I have a couple hundred of letter sized sleeves (but the box doesn't say the thickness?)...so any advice welcome. Thanks

raeanne	21 May 2004
Hi Yve, I would be reluctant to laminate any regular tarot deck. I might consider it for a deck that is on very thin card stock or heavy paper. First of all, heat will often make the cards warp or curl. Second, as you mentioned, the extra thickness would, I think, make the deck hard to shuffle unless it was originally on thin card stock. The more difficult a deck is to shuffle, the more it is stressed during shuffling and the quicker it will wear out. As for trimming, I don't know. I would probably try to keep a bit of a margin around the edge rather than cutting to the card's edge. I think what I would do would be to go to a half price book store and try to pick up some cheap decks to use and if they got too worn out, well, just replace them with another deck. My son used to play Magic The Gathering. He had card sleeves that he used but I don't think regular tarot cards would fit into those sleeves. I have wondered about clear coat spray. Art stores sell it. Has anyone tried this?

HudsonGray	21 May 2004
I think the acrylic spray would wear off very quickly, it goes on in a very thin coat & is meant to protect, but not be handled (pictures, keeping chalk & pastel from smudging, etc.). I don't think the spray would be very effective for more than a few shufflings. I'd vote to go with an easily replaceable deck & load up on a few cheap copies from ebay or in trade.

The Opinions on hot laminating cards thread was originally posted on 21 May 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.