Deck trimming

I have trimmed the Alchemical Renewed, and the Ancient Italian...both were easy to get all the cards the same size by following the lines...I used big scissors and a corner rounder...The only thing I don't like is the Ancient Italian has numbers on the corners that the 5mm corner rounder clipped. I wish I has a smaller radius corner rounder, but have not found one yet.

I am working on a RWS printed in China deck. I trimmed with a razor-knife and straight edge, but there was so much variation on the size because I followed the black outlines on the images that they were many different sizes. I found the smallest card and re-trimmed with scissors and used sandpaper for the final dimension so that they are all the same. Now I am in the process of preparing it to look aged and feel broken in... I plan to post pictures of the steps. I want to see if that plastic lamination can actually be aged! b.t.w.: Corner rounder clipped part of the text on the RWS cards too!

I thought about trimming a whole deck at a time at a print shop, but if the images were not all exactly centered there might be a part of the border left on some cards...

Kissa said:

My two cents: if you can, trim a big Thoth. Really worth it!

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Bought one (newer brighter printing) just for that purpose!

RexMalaki said:

I wish I has a smaller radius corner rounder, but have not found one yet.

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I also think 5mm is a bit too big but have never even seen a smaller one. 2,5 ~ 3 mm seems ideal.

I was curbing the urge to trim after two somewhat successful tries at trimming the Druidcraft and the Mythic. Trimming really brought the images to life for me. I'm thinking the Thoth deck might meet the same fate. I'm not attracted to the images but maybe they'll pop out better after trimming (I think it's the large deck I have).

Alta said:

That is the only deck that I have trimmed and I am very pleased with the result.

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Me too but a medium one. I can see the geometry now !

I've trimmed a few now, and have liked all of the results. My reasons are mainly about size -- I'd love to have my favorite decks in a pocket or playing card size, and trimming borders gets me closer to that. The images and colors really do "pop" once the borders are gone, so that's another great benefit. I've done the Spiral (hated, HATED those borders!), Rohrig (to make it smaller), Robin Wood (because I liked pics I saw of it trimmed), Sacred Rose (to make smaller) and my PCS Commemorative (to make smaller). I think everyone should try it at least once. If you're afraid you'll do a bad job, choose a deck that you don't love and might get rid of anyway, or one that has borders you despise.

I tried a bunch of methods when I did my first deck: a few different sliding razor trimmers, freehand scissors, and a guillotine paper cutter. I prefer the guillotine because it gives me the most consistent size for all of the cards, and cuts the edges cleanly. If you get one of these, I'd recommend one that has a movable guide. I cut one edge from the first card (the tops, for instance) and set the guide, and then cut the tops off all of the rest. Then move on to the next edge, set the guide, and cut all the rest, etc. I have this relatively cheap one (cheap for a guillotine cutter with a guide, that is), and it does the job just fine. I also have a 5mm corner trimmer.

The sliding razor cutter allows you to be pretty precise, but I didn't like the edges it gave me. I wasn't very exact with my scissors, and with scissors you can pretty much only rely on image markers rather than measurements, which means your cards may end up different sizes because of the way they're printed. My hands got tired, too. Other people have lots of success with these methods, though.

Good luck if you decide to go for it! And be sure to post your results if you do! (Which reminds me, I need to post pictures of many of mine! )

-Nicole

Sounds like most people go for scissors and a corner rounder. I think I would agree, having now finished trimming Tarot of Mermaids (yay!) - I rounded all the corners by hand. It turned out pretty well, but it was a lot of work. If I ever feel the urge to trim again I will definitely get a corner rounder!

The reason I decided to trim this deck was because the titles were incredibly tacky (and there were the usual LS four languages at the bottom, which is one of my pet peeves). I mean, they were in Papyrus font. The definition of tacky. But the artwork is very beautiful and the deck is important to me, since it was my first deck, so I didn't want this to keep me from using it.

Here's some of the cards from the finished deck:
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/reyan62/100_0783.jpg

And close-ups of the same:
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/reyan62/100_0790.jpg
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/reyan62/100_0789.jpg
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/reyan62/100_0782.jpg

This is the trimmed back next to the back of an untrimmed card:
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb402/reyan62/100_0791.jpg

Here's a link to the deck on Aeclectic, to see the original borders:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/mermaids/

I happen to have a large Thoth deck. As I was working, I thought about which of my decks I would consider trimming, and ironically I decided Deviant Moon and Thoth would be two decks I would never trim. But it seems that Aeclectic trimmers do not agree with me After having looked at the pictures of trimmed Thoth (via the link that Cat posted on pg 1), I guess Thoth isn't all that bad trimmed, although I don't think I'll do it myself (still sticking to my opinion on Deviant Moon).

Personally I think the main purpose of borders should be to accommodate for titles, and titles are fine as long as they're useful (ie not multiple translations) and integrated into the design in a tasteful way.

Reyan, the Mermaids deck looks wonderful. You did a great job, perfect trimming! I agree it looks much better - I hate those wordy LS borders too.

Reyan, great job for a first trim!
Would you please also post your images in the thread I linked so AJ can add them to the index?

I'm not an obsessive deck trimmer, however if a deck I like and intend to use has obtrusive white borders then I trim them. I am a giant fan of the way a card looks without the border.

I've trimmed two Thoths, One RWS, and a few others. I just finished trimming the Cat's Eye tarot, which looks amazing trimmed.

I use a small Karl rotary trimmer and a 5mm corner punch. I got both at Staples (US) for under $20.

I could NEVER use scissors, any size, for trimming, I'm just too shaky. The rotary trimmer is awesome because the cut is always straight and perfect.

I would definitely recommend buying a cheap deck you don't care about and trimming that one first. You can learn about how your cutter works and such and if you mess a card up it's no big deal. Leaving tarot cards in random locations for people to find is so much fun!

Happy trimming. Once you trim a deck you'll never go back.

alec...