Smelly deck

avalonian

On another thread someone recommended Papier d'Armenie (sorry, can't remember where I saw it). It's basically little strips of paper that you tear out of a little booklet,

I put just one strip in with a deck that had a very smoky smell and within days it was beautifully scented. I'm now totally hooked and keep a piece in with decks even when they don't smell of anything. Wonderful stuff - I bought it through Ebay from a seller in France, only cost a few pounds including postage.

:) :) :)
 

Carojulie

On another thread someone recommended Papier d'Armenie (sorry, can't remember where I saw it). It's basically little strips of paper that you tear out of a little booklet,

I put just one strip in with a deck that had a very smoky smell and within days it was beautifully scented. I'm now totally hooked and keep a piece in with decks even when they don't smell of anything. Wonderful stuff - I bought it through Ebay from a seller in France, only cost a few pounds including postage.

:) :) :)

It is true that Papier d'Arménie will cover most smells, it is VERY strong. Actually it might be the only thing capable of masking that cigarette smoke smell ! It is capable of masking the smell of cat pee.

But, be warned that it has a very strong, heavy scent itself, and that, while some people like it, many other (me included) just cannot stand it. And the scent is very, very tenacious. Once you put a strip of Papier d'Arménie between the pages of a book, the book will keep the scent FOREVER and EVER, the smell will likely never go away, and no amount of charcoal or cat litter will clear it !

If you leave a pack on a shelve, it will scent the whole room. It will strongly scent a cabinet if you put a strip inside. If you want a stronger smell for a whole room, burn the strip as incense in a saucer.

But beware that if you just use it as unburnt paper, it can stain a little., especially under hot weather. The scent is made with benjoin, waxes and oils on a paper base, and if you put the strip between the pages of a book, they can be stained after a while. If a tarot deck is laminated, it probably should be ok though I would not give it a try, but I would not advise to use it on matte cardstock.
If you want to scent your deck, you can just put a strip in the tarot pouch, not in direct contact with the cards, and it will work.

It used to be burnt, in France, long times ago, to clear up the air in sickrooms. And indeed, it is strong enough to cover the gangrene stink in a hospital hall full of wounded soldiers from the first world war, or to mask the smell of plague in other centuries hospices.

I personnaly cannot stand that scent, it makes me gag. I love benjoin, but I cant stand Papier d'Arménie. I hate it so much that it gives me a Pavlov reflex : when I remotely smell the scent it repulses me, really. I would much prefer a deck that smells of cigarette smoke, anytime (and that is saying something, because I would really not like that).
But I know people who are addicted to it, they like it so much. It is one of these scents that will not leave you indifferent, you will either like it or hate it.

If you like the scent, then it is worth a try because it is indeed very pungent and will cover up anything.

The packs are very cheep, and you get a lot for your money because a little goes a long way. And each strip of paper will keep its smell for ages (honestly, they can keep their smell for 20 years, no kidding. It is that strong !)

Papier d'Arménie comes in the traditional scent, and for the last few years it had also come in rose scent. Be warned, the rose scent is even stronger than the traditional, if possible (and does not smell like rose at all IMO, but I have yet to find a rose incense that smells like rose, and that is another story)

See if you like it, and good luck in your fight against bad smells !
 

zhadee


I just bought a tarot second-hand, and it smelled of cigarettes. I've put it into a bag with some incense sticks from a local dealer.
After 24 hours, the smell is completely gone. Or rather, masked with cinnamom and frankincense.
 

BeyondtheVeil

I had a deck that came that way. It smelled horrid! It was a combination of cigarette smoke and OLD, musty, stinky "dirty" smell. There really isn't a good way to describe the stink. :(

I put it in a freezer baggie full of baking soda. I changed it out every couple of days. It took about two or three weeks to get most of it out. It smelled so badly that I almost threw it away.
Maybe a baggie of Rice with baking soda? I did put the baking soda directly into the baggie on all of the cards. It does take some time to wipe the baking soda off each card, but worth it when the smell goes away! :thumbsup: It is just not a 'fast fix".

If you don't mind Incense smell.. I would use the baking soda to get most of the smells out and then let the incense to store it with for a week or so. {I just put it in a baggie with a box of incense}.

You will definitely have to let people know if you sell/trade the deck away.


If you can and don't want to go through all of the trouble.. ask for a refund and send them back.

I guess it depends on how badly you want that deck and how much you spent for it. I got mine in a trade otherwise I would have definitely gotten any money I spent on them back. Or if I had traded away a nice deck for the stinky one, I also would have gotten my deck back.


Good luck!
BeyondtheVeil
 

nisaba

They all work - they are all from people's personal experience. Whichever one of these methods you try, it's obviously a good idea to separate the cards out and spread them separately: if you have them bunched up in a deck, the middle ones won't be affected at all, and will keep their smells.
 

zhadee

update: I've just received a battered old deck, and its smell matches the looks. I'm not annoyed by the smell as it reminds me of childhood days. But its memorising effect on me is so strong I cannot properly see the cards at all.
The cards spread out in a fan, put in a big pot for 24 hours under a pile of baking powder has had very little effect on the odour.
They are too old for alcoholic wipes. The smell seems to be ingrained to the paper, or perhaps be the paper's smell in itself.
Now I've put them on the balcony, following Nemia's advice that time and air will do their thing.
 

Nemia

I hope they will. Let us know! It might take weeks though.
 

JMI_Tarot

Years have passed, and it still smells faintly funky, like a ghost of that old stench. I doubt it will ever go away. It's haunted --by a smell.

Nicely put. :smoker:
 

zhadee

Another update: I've put them in the oven for 3 days, together with some ground coffee and layers of paper. That helped a lot. Then I put them back in the pile of - renewed - baking powder. After that, I've spend some hours shuffling them outside on the balcony.
Now they smell like old paper, but not as overwhelmingly mouldy as they did when I first received them.
It's fun reading these cards, I'm glad I got them
 

Carojulie

Another update: I've put them in the oven for 3 days, together with some ground coffee and layers of paper. That helped a lot.

Thats interesting, thank you Zhadee! How exactly did you do, how did you arrange the cards and layers of paper and coffee ? Did you just use the oven as a closed space or did you turn it on low setting, at some point ?
I am interested because I have tried getting rid of a scent on a deck and had zero success, despite trying for several months and using coffee and baking soda, amongst other things.