Trimming and Edging cards

yourwildlifecoaching

Trimming decks

I trim decks mostly because of size -- pretty much all of the Alana Fairchild decks got the trim. The only deck I've really regretted trimming was the House of Night oracle deck; the art is ok, but I think without the extra goth fanciness of the black and yellow around it it just looks meh.

My favorite trimmed deck is the Anubis Oracle. With the borders it was huge and I just couldn't see actually *using* it (and it just sat there for a long time). I trimmed off the borders and the names, and now it fits in my hand in a little organza bag and has SUCH a wonderful feel to it.
 

Draven Rising

I recently edged my Tarot of Vampyres with a sharpie. Waited a few days for it to dry and was thrilled with the results. It was so beautiful and I was so excited. Until I realized it bled.

Finally I had to get a new deck because I read with it everyday, and jet black hands after each session was becoming unreasonable. I think I'll probably give it another whirl (with a different ink source) at another time, but for now I'm a bit gun shy.
 

FLizarraga

Trimming and edging is sort of a slippery slope. You don't think you can do it, then you try it, and the next thing you know, you are completely addicted. In a nutshell, that was my experience.

First, I didn't dare. Then I got the Flornoy Dodal and those sharp corners started digging into my fingers. It took me weeks of suffering before I dared to round those pesky corners (to the horror of Marseilles purists).

Next, I tackled trimming the gigantic square cards of the Light and Shadow Tarot, which are simply impossible to shuffle unless you are the Engineers from Prometheus. That proved to be a doozy, because the minors are basically all different sizes. After that I lost all fear and was hooked.

It is a very soothing experience, and also very intimate. A fellow ATer has said that it is like making love to your cards, and in a way it is.
 

Nemia

One (obvious) tip for irregularly sized borders: take your cue from the pattern on the cardback. That's always regular.
 

gregory

Also, it seems that the italian company with a beetle name who was famous for inscribing names of trumps and suits in 100 different languages on its cards, probably in the hope of reaching an international audience..... is nowadays releasing more and more decks with nice classy borders instead of these unhappy multilingual margins. Could that be an after effect of all the trimmed decks showing off everywhere ?
Lo Scarabeo. And no - AFAIK it was the result of feedback from this forum from people who didn't like the multilingual titles - and I WAS glad to see that they did not go the route of "English only because most of us are English" that many people here had the unmitigated gall to demand. :D Now they are almost wordless.

Backs aren't always regular. ANY asymmetrical/non-reversible back - and there are many - is a huge risk.
 

FLizarraga

One (obvious) tip for irregularly sized borders: take your cue from the pattern on the cardback. That's always regular.

Backs aren't always regular. ANY asymmetrical/non-reversible back - and there are many - is a huge risk.

In my experience, both pieces of advice are really useful. I use the cardback border (which my computer insists on making "the cardiac border" :bugeyed:) many times for that very reason, but sometimes it doesn't necessarily overlap with the front borders, and sometimes it just doesn't work, so you have to really study each deck first to figure out how to climb that particular mountain.

What I do with hard-to-trim decks is essentially what I did with the Light and Shadow: I use a card trimmed to the desired size as a guide and go from there. You blunder here and there, and you learn from your blunders, but don't experiment with your HTF decks. ;)


Lo Scarabeo. And no - AFAIK it was the result of feedback from this forum from people who didn't like the multilingual titles - and I WAS glad to see that they did not go the route of "English only because most of us are English" that many people here had the unmitigated gall to demand. :D

Oh, DON'T get me started. That "English only" thing is a pet peeve of mine. I'd rather not go there... šŸ˜”
 

Nemia

Often, decks have extra cards with some information or advertisements... but the same cardback. I use them to gauge the right size.
 

Dogs&Coffee

Hello! Has anyone ever trimmed 78 Tarot Nautical? Just wondering if there might be any examples out there before I go all Edward scissor-hands.
 

Mya Papaya

Hello! Has anyone ever trimmed 78 Tarot Nautical? Just wondering if there might be any examples out there before I go all Edward scissor-hands.

I don't know if you already trimmed them or not but just in case someone else is curious, I trimmed mine since I found the borders a little distracting.
 

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Trogon

This is interesting to me. For the most part, I don't feel I would personally go this route with any of my decks - I like them as they are. However, I can definitely see how the aesthetic of a given deck might be improved upon with these methods. But I will say that if I were buying a previously owned deck that had been trimmed, I don't think I would pay as much for it. It's not that it's damaged, but it is altered from what the original artist intended and that changes it for me. Just my personal feeling on it ...