"Aging" Decks... Anti-Bling, if you will

Laura Borealis

I think the Thunder Bay Convers have been printed on more than one cardstock. Mine's a flexible, thin stock and the finish is fairly low-shine; it's really not bad at all. It's funny that you mention it, because I've been working with mine all evening, running the cards over the edges of my desk in between playing World of Warcraft :D It's softening the deck up and removing the swayback that they came with. I don't think I'll age them any further than this, though I may cut their borders off so they look nicer. I'll lose some of the background pattern, but I don't think that will bother me, and it will also get rid of some little burrs on the edges from where they weren't cut very well...

Umbrae mentions in this thread that his tea-dunk method really should only be used with cards that have the thick, USG-type finish. I'd read that thread through, paying especial attention to his posts in it. (I need to re-read it myself).

I'm going to age my RWS deck, the 1993 one sold as the "Original RWS". But I like your ideas too. It would look odd on a modern deck, in my opinion, but any with a classic look would probably work, depending on the finish you have to work with.
 

Anam Cara

emmsma said:
So, for those of you that have Aged your decks, what were the decks you chose to treat?

Whats a good starter deck to play with?

I'm thinking of something like the LS Classic, or Ancient Italian. Or maybe a Marseille deck. Thunder Bay Conver?
I aged my Book of Thoth Etteilla Tarot using the fine sandpaper and tea stain methods.
I also softened the cards using Umbrae's method of curling them back and forth over the edge of a table.
I'm VERY happy with the results, but the sanding was MESSY
(lots of very fine dust - if I do it again, I will work with a mask on)
and time consuming - but WORTH it!

I now have the "old" deck I was dreaming of!

:heart:Cara
 

GadgetGirl

Anam Cara said:
I aged my Book of Thoth Etteilla Tarot using the fine sandpaper and tea stain methods.
I also softened the cards using Umbrae's method of curling them back and forth over the edge of a table.
I'm VERY happy with the results, but the sanding was MESSY
(lots of very fine dust - if I do it again, I will work with a mask on)
and time consuming - but WORTH it!

I now have the "old" deck I was dreaming of!

:heart:Cara


Was this a US Games deck? What grain sandpaper? I'm assuming really really fine? I can't stand the gloss on my Universal!
 

nisaba

How to Umbrae a deck is described there, at the link on his name by the Master himself.

Step one of the process as he describes it, softens the cards and changes the feel of them, which is as important for that well-used impression as the look of them.

Umbraeing a deck has gone down into mythology.
 

Anam Cara

GadgetGirl said:
Was this a US Games deck? What grain sandpaper? I'm assuming really really fine? I can't stand the gloss on my Universal!
GG, it's the LoS deck
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/book-of-thoth-etteilla/

And yes, super fine - sorry, I don't remember the number.

Our hardware store sells a very handy item...
it looks like a sponge, but instead of scrubbing nylon
it has sandpaper on each side. Easy on the hands!

The grit was about the same as a nail file... I hand-sanded
each card individually, front and back, then with the
cards held in a stack, I sanded the edges...
I rubbed off ALL the gloss... and some of the color too,
in places, to make it look older... :)

:heart:Cara
 

nisaba

laura_borealis said:
I think the Thunder Bay Convers have been printed on more than one cardstock. Mine's a flexible, thin stock and the finish is fairly low-shine;
Mine's low-shine, too, but it feels exactly like the kind of lino they used to cover kitchen floors with in the early 1970s. Plastic and unpleasantly soft, while indestructible.

I suppose it would slowly melt if you took a blowtorch to it.
 

GadgetGirl

Thanks Cara. :heart:

I like the idea of sandpaper. Sandpaper and inks for distressing is something I'm very familiar with (experience scrapbooker and rubber stamper here). But until this thread I hadn't considered taking them to a deck. May have a go this weekend.
 

GadgetGirl

nisaba said:
I suppose it would slowly melt if you took a blowtorch to it.


Snort! :D May give that a go too.
 

Laura Borealis

I've table-edged ("broken") my Thunder Bay Conver and nearly all of my RWS this evening.
Note: two decks in one evening is NOT a good idea! My wrist hurts! :( lol!

It really makes a difference. Cards that were stiff and tended to stick together, now are softer and slide easily. They feel so much nicer in the hand. When I was about halfway done with the RWS I stopped and compared the two stacks and I was amazed. To be honest I was worried this would kind of ruin them, but it hasn't at all, it's enhanced them. It's not something that can be photographed, it has to be felt to understand.

I shuffled the TBC several times, turning them various ways to keep the shuffling even, and they pretty much lost the bendy-ness from being "broken". Now they're under some heavy books. I don't think I'll bother pressing the RWS tonight since they're destined for some light sanding tomorrow. :)

If you want to see a RWS deck that really is aged, there's one here on eBay right now... that one looks like it's been through a few hurricanes and then dried in the sun, cars have run over it, dogs have slobbered on it or anointed it with even worse fluids... lol! And missing some cards too. But apparently genuinely aged, anyway. It does have the US Games copyright printed on the corner. When did they start doing that?

I certainly don't plan to go that far with my aging, I want a more subtle degradation. :) But it's kind of cool looking, anyway.
 

GadgetGirl

laura_borealis said:
If you want to see a RWS deck that really is aged, there's one here on eBay right now... that one looks like it's been through a few hurricanes and then dried in the sun, cars have run over it, dogs have slobbered on it or anointed it with even worse fluids... lol! And missing some cards too. But apparently genuinely aged, anyway. It does have the US Games copyright printed on the corner. When did they start doing that?

Did you notice there were only 46 cards to this deck?

So this table-edging that you're doing? Is it just rubbing the fronts and backs over the side / sharp edge of a table? (yes I read linked thread, just making doubly sure.) Wouldn't this completely break the fibres of the card?