Smell the cards

[Joermit]

Here's a trick that works well for me...

With any new deck I get I always annoint them with my favorite oil (Sun's Eye Nag Champa)... I put a couple drops on my hands and rub them together a lot to spread out the oil and let it soak into my skin... once my hands smell all Champaish... I annoint my deck... I shuffle them again and again... touching each card... praying over them... playing with them... I keep shuffling and shuffling and such... it's the way I sorta break them in.... I find any aroma the cards may have had is replaced with a nice new smell... and the oil I use doesn't stick to the cards or leave a residue or make them stick together or anything... be careful not to use too much oil... I overdid it once and had to let the deck air for a bit, but still, it was a nicer smell than the chemically one some decks seem to have... hope this helps...

Joey

 

[Cerulean]

If your deck finish cannot deal with heavier oils...to air your deck.

...some of my linen-finish decks (such as the I Tarocchi Egiziani from Del Vecchi) have a fine paper stock that is sturdy, but I don't want oils to stain the cards. So I would cut sage and rosemary and sometimes baking soda to absorb oders. You don't need the baking soda if you just want to 'purify'.

My suggestion is to place such herbs at the bottom of a shoebox and some material down, then the cards... and it's nice if you have a covered porch, place it on a folding chair or in a wind-proof corner. Some people like to put such things under the New Moon as a symbolic, gentle light and it's less strong than harsher, sun-fading rays. Of course if you are in humid environments, this might not be good...so a see-through plastic box or cedar/sandlewood box and old linen or a towel or paper towel to wrap the cards in a dry, nice room does just as well.

Sometimes I do this with books, cloth or things with a factory or some unpleasant smell that I don't like. I've done this with lavendar and sometimes pine needles, also. I'm not certain of which flower petals or sachets to recommend...but maybe I'll start a thread of favorite sachet scents?

Best regards,

Cerulean

 

[redflash]

I have found that different publishers have different-smelling cards ! Every single one of the LS decks I have absolutely stunk when I took them out of the wrapper. Horrible, chemical type smell, really bad ! USG decks are a bit whiffy too but not as bad as LS. The smell fades once you have handled them a lot. I also tend to have some incense burning while I'm playing with a smelly new deck, it doesn't take long to do the job.

 

[Dwaas]

USG decks are a bit whiffy too but not as bad as LS.

Then you haven't got a new Radiant RWS, do you?
I don't know what they did with it at US Games but that is some smell...!

 

[la-luna]

Till now my worst smells came from my gothic/Vargo and my Light and Shadow not from big publishers but phew what a odeur !

The smell form new LS decks I quite exciting to me nothing repulsive so far from them.

 

[AngelC]

The only deck of mine that had an unpleasant smell was the Zerner-Farber but that one smelled bad enough for all of them.

 

[Grizabella]

I'm seeing that someone says LS decks don't smell and another says they smell terribly. Another says Vargo Gothic doesn't smell, but yet another says they smell awful. Someone said Zerner-Farber didn't smell but someone else says theirs smelled really bad. All are speaking of brand new decks.

I think maybe the reason for these differences is that decks that stay on the shelf quite awhile after they're printed lose the smell, but the ones freshly printed have it. Of course, when buying a deck, you don't have a choice whether or not you're getting a freshly printed deck or not, unfortunately, so there's no way to avoid it unless you just stick to the trading forum and trade for used decks.

 

[Rabbit]

I'm seeing that someone says LS decks don't smell and another says they smell terribly. Another says Vargo Gothic doesn't smell, but yet another says they smell awful. Someone said Zerner-Farber didn't smell but someone else says theirs smelled really bad. All are speaking of brand new decks.

I think maybe the reason for these differences is that decks that stay on the shelf quite awhile after they're printed lose the smell, but the ones freshly printed have it. Of course, when buying a deck, you don't have a choice whether or not you're getting a freshly printed deck or not, unfortunately, so there's no way to avoid it unless you just stick to the trading forum and trade for used decks.

Also people's perception of how much something smells is different. For example, I have a heightened sense of smell, and my friend does not. I'll smell paint, on something that was painted 2 or 3 months ago, and she won't.

 

[Agathe]

Morgan-Greer is on my wish list and trust me I would LOVE to smell it already

 

[TenOfSwords]

The smell that new decks can have comes from excess chemicals from the printing process, mostly solvents.

They evaporate over time (varies) and the smell disappears by itself, but an air-tight plastic wrapping (prolongs shelf-life) will of course stop the process and the deck won't loose the printing smell until it's opened.

The most effective way of getting rid of it is to speed up evaporation by separating all the cards and leave them in a dry, ventilated place until it's gone. The larger the surface area the evaporation can take place from, the faster it goes.

I'd leave the cards spread out for a couple of days before using oils etc. because it might slow down the evaporation process and prolong the "smelly period" and it should reduce the required dosage a lot even if it doesn't completely remove the need for it.