Any bad deck-trimming trips?

[Bean Feasa]

I'm still dancing around the idea of trimming my Druidcraft, Rohrig, and Thoth but I'm just scared I'll ruin them. It strikes me, reading the trimming threads, that everyone seems to always do a terrifyingly good job. What I want to know is... have there been any botched jobs, any trimming regrets? Are there no bad trimmers out there? Out of your closets at once!

I'm asking this question partly so that, if I take the plunge, I can avoid mistakes that were made, but partly also from sheer evil-minded curiosity .

An additional quick question - do you think it's better to trim a deck in one sitting, or to break it up and do about ten cards a day for a week or so?

 

[Emeraldgirl]

Ok coming out of the closet not as a bad trimmer but someone who is also afraid of screwing up the deck by doing it. I have the druidcraft that i have considered trimming. I have drooled over peoples lovely images of their trimmed decks but I can bring myself to do it yet. I have unsteady hands with scissors and are too scared I'll end up chopping a card in half or someting.

 

[cyclamen]

Hey,

I have trimmed a few decks - specifically the light and shadow and a marseilles deck that came with an awkward white border. With the Light and Shadow, I made the mistake of not seperating the majors from the minors right off, because the pictures of some of the majors are shorter. Unfortunately this resulted in me accidentally trimming too much off of two of the cards. But it hasn't really bothered me too much, they shuffle fine, and I just don't look at the edges too closely - they blend pretty well when they are all in a pile. Anyhow they are all not trimmed perfectly even and I figure if you can live with that, there's not much to fear in trimming your deck.

I found one trick was to cut in one or two long smooth strokes. Better lines that way, and just be careful - "measure twice, cut once"

 

[Eco74]

I've been considering sometimes to get a Thoth just to trim it, since I'm not overly excited about the keywords. Though making a Crowley-Oracle would be a possibility. *s*

If I were to do that, I'd firstly make sure by cutting very close to the edge that the scissor or cutter I used would be sharp enough to make clean cuts, and then the "measure twice and cut once" methid would be put into play - as best it could.

Still, I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to it because it feels a bit wrong to buy a deck just to cut it up.. So, when I'm rediculously rich, or atleast have enough "waste-me-money" it might happen, unless another deck is more appealing for me to have at the time...

 

[rainwolf]

I've trimmed many decks and I have only had one where I was unhappy with the outcome, but it wasnt really my fault: it was the world spirit deck and the border lines were not even--i use them as a guide.

Its not hard to do a good job, just have good scissors preferably and a corner clipper that makes them lobbed. You can get those at staples.

About cutting sessions--I usually just do it all at once, but if you notice yourself starting to cut fast, stop and go back later. Its kinda relaxing, esp when you see them afterwards and they appear more vibrant.

If you want some of my past cut cards, just reply and I'll post it.

 

[Bean Feasa]

Thanks for your encouraging replies Emerald girl, Eco cyclamen and rainwolf. Eco I agree about the money thing - especially as I've just moved house and need all my pennies for some new bits and pieces other than tarot decks. I just cant afford to make those trimming mistakes right now. And rainwolf, I'd love to see scans of the cards you've cut, please do post 'em if you have a minute.

I was looking through my collection last night, and I think what I'll do is practise on the Triple Goddess Tarot which has very cumbersome borders and which isn't one of my favourite decks anyway. It also has only thirty or so cards, enough to give me a feel for trimming, hopefully, but not to keep me up snipping all night. I have a scissors with long sharp blades, but I haven't been able to locate a corner punch yet. There's one craft shop I haven't tried, might have a look at lunchtime.

I'll keep you posted

 

[Little Baron]

I have trimmed a few decks in the past, and have gained some useful information from the boards here about ways of doing so.

- Start as early as possibly. If you start late in the day or evening, light is not so good and a deck such as the Rohrig might be hard to see in poor lighting - especially if you have had to make pencil lines on it to cut (drawing in the corners from a template, for example). There is a good thread about trimming the Rohrig somewhere but I don't remember who posted it or where it is. That was mentioned there. Someone else may know.

- I did all of mine in one shot. Just because I hate waiting.

- Choose a time to do it when you are awake and not feeling tired. Little resting periods are needed. You won't believe how much your hand aches after carefully cutting 78 cards. You're eyes need some time to themselves as well as you perform this exercise, so maybe do a suit, then go have a coffee and walk in the garden, if possible, before you return.

- Use two sets of scissors, unless you have a corner cutter - long ones for the sides and a smaller set for the corners, to avoid them being large chunky nips.

- Don't worry .. just enjoy.

I would be interested to see scans of The Light and Shadow. I have often thought of trimming that but can't imagine what the different size illustrations would look like - how do the backs work?

LB

 

[Imagemaker]

All good suggestions here. I've trimmed many decks, maybe 12, including the Rohrig and Thoth, and they all came out beautifully even.

But the most recent one I did was the Druidcraft and it WAS the most difficult because of that teeny, teeny inner border that, on some cards, colorblends into either the inner image or the outer border.

I innocently cut it off on the first cards when the cutting line was really distinct. Then I started to hit the cards with no distinct line and I had to be super accurate with maintaining a straight line.

Trimming another deck first is definitely a good idea! I use supersharp scissors and a corner punch.

Here's a scan of the relative size of a small Thoth, a Robin Wood, and a Rohrig
relative sizes

the Spiral

I can probably scan a sample of the Druidcraft today and show you. I totally love the result, but I had LOTS of practice before I attempted that one.

 

[DarkElectric]

Another one here, who wants to trim those annoying borders off her Druidcraft!
However, I live in sheer terror of messing it up, and destroying one of my absolute most fave decks of all time!

 

[Imagemaker]

Another point is that on the trimmed Druid cards, the back logo is no longer centered. If it's important to you to not know from the back of a card if it's reversed, then trimming isn't a good idea.

Here's a scan of the trimmed Druidcraft Star and Moon. It's slow to download if you have a slow connection, too big to attach, so I put it in my website's directory.

Star and Moon