Advice for Trimming

[Aeric]

How would those with trimmed decks suggest making one?

Looking at the standard size Thoth, if it were trimmed it would be roughly the size of the mini. Is the large deck more preferable for this?

Do ordinary large scissors do the trick or is something more delicate warranted for evenly cutting the card?

 

[thinbuddha]

I did it with scissors, and am happy with the results. Mind you they are not perfect results. One can make nearly perfect results by clamping the deck together and sanding the edges with very fine sandpaper.

I strongly reccomend a corner rounding tool. Use it before sanding the edges, and if you do sand the edges, shuffle once in a while between sanding.

As for size, I have trimmed both a standard and a large sized thoth. I like the bigger one better, but the small one is surprisingly useful and easily packs around, if you are inclined to take a deck on the go.

-tb

 

[Bean Feasa]

Hi Glaucus - I've trimmed my Thoth, Haindl, Druidcraft, Secret and Hudes, and in every case I'm very happy with the results - that's without sanding the sides, lol.
I found a bigger scissors best; when the blades are long you can line them up like a ruler and then cut each edge with just one stroke. They need to be nice and sharp, obviously.
And like thinbuddha, I recommend the corner-cutter - it really does finish things off nicely. It took me a while to find one, but was well worth the search.
Just relax with it, and take your time. It can be quite therapeutic, actually. Good luck!

 

[rainwolf]

I cut many of my decks

Stars eternal
New vision
World spirit
Druidcraft
thoth

I cut them all with regular scissors and a corner rounder. The World Spirit was the only one that turned out really uneven because i went with the lines on the card which were not good. I would use one of those cutting things that has an exacto blade on a track with a ruler; it makes really strait cuts and it probably goes faster.

The pictures jump out after. I dont know why others dont do this or why the publishers still use borders; if i want keywords i'll write them on.

 

[lark]

I used a paper cutter and corner rounder on my 2 Druidcraft's.
Everyone kept telling me NOT to use a guillotine but being the maverick I am I didn't listen.
I got my guillotine in the section of a craft store where they sell the Scrape Booking stuff.
It was only ten dollars, but made very well and has a ruler attached for perfect straight lines and a tab to hold down so the card can't shift when you cut.
I did a whole deck in less than an hour and it turned out perfect.
Used the corner rounder on the edges and 'poof' the Druidcraft is a wonderful usable size.
Went on to do my second stand by deck...and I'm very happy with the results.

 

[Bad_Calvin]

Why do you want to trim your deck? Just curious? You don't want borders? You just want to see the pictures?

 

[thinbuddha]

Why do you want to trim your deck? Just curious? You don't want borders? You just want to see the pictures?

Just my opinion- With the borders this deck seems to be acting self-important. Without the borders it is stunningly humble.

Think about the deck with borders as if it is one of those ridiculous Hondas with a spoiler attached to it for no apparent reason. Once you can identify the card by the illustration, the borders and titles are just a distraction.

-tb

 

[Bad_Calvin]

Well said, thank you. that is a scary thing to start cutting up your cards though. How can you cut them so straight as to make sure they shuffle right and stack nicely?

To each their own.. I do see your point though!

 

[Ventrue]

another idea that i haven't seen mentioned, although it isn't as 'personal' is to go up to kinkos. Standard equipment at kinkos (and maybe other stores of that type) is a big paper cutter type instrument, it has a laser line-up on it. Its like a guillotine paper cutter, but it goes down evenly and it WONT mess up, even if u just cut a quarter inch off. The one here charges like a dollar per cut, and they can do like up to a ream of paper at a time, so 4 cuts...hehe. Anyway its a very "clean" way to do it, although you will have to let them do it because its an employee use type machine cause it will cut fingers and anything else than gets in its way. lolz.

Ven

 

[thinbuddha]

I thought about having a professional printing shop do the cut- but the problem is that you have to assume that each card is the same- in other words, if there is a variation in the width of the border, then some of your cards will end up off center, with white edges showing up on one or two edges.

Another problem with the professional cutters is that they have a very strong hydrolic clamp that holds teh paper in place. Now normally, they have thousands of extras (of whatever) that they have printed, so they don't have to worry about ruining the top 2-3 layers of paper..... but in this case, that clamp will come down and make a warp in your topmost cards unless it is protected by a piece of cardboard... so you have to trust the guy at kinkos do protect your deck.

But yeah- it would be nicer to do it this way, if you could avoid the possible problems.