The Wildwood & Shuffling Stubborn Decks

Vhyra

I absolutely hate decks that chunk together and the Wildwood is one of the worse culprits I've seen. I want to love the heck out of this deck but I always turn it away because i can't stand to shuffle it. The card stock is downright horrible and as I shuffle I just think about the legitimacy of the shuffling taking place and I just can't get into the reading mindset. Ugh! Watching chunks of cards go by shuffle after shuffle.. I want the cards to flow freely, not all packed together where I feel some cards won't ever have the chance of coming up.

Does anyone else have a deck you love but hate to handle? Is there any way I can try shuffling a stubborn deck to loosen it up a little bit?

Thanks guys for any advice!
 

FaintlyMacabre

Tarot Affirmations

Love is putting it too strongly but I thought I would try using this one to ease myself into reading and it is awful. I bought fanning powder but haven't tried it yet.

It's like trying to shuffle a pile of sticky coasters.

Diana
 

JylliM

Tarot of the Sidhe. I'd use it a lot more if it was a bit smaller and if it didn't clump together during shuffling. I'm hoping that my using it more often this week (it's my deck of the week) will help. That said, the readings I get from it are pretty good, so the difficulty in shuffling doesn't seem to affect it that way.
 

devilkitty

Is there any way I can try shuffling a stubborn deck to loosen it up a little bit?

Thanks guys for any advice!

If you've the patience, they'll separate better as they get a bit "dirty" from use.
if you haven't, fanning powder (from a stage-magic supplier) works wonders.
 

FaintlyMacabre

(I hope this is okay) I needed to look at a deck (I think I was checking something in another one) and got out Brian Williams' Renaissance Tarot. I don't remember where I got it but I don't think I've really used it. It looked okay but my fingers felt really icky - almost oily. I decided someone had used powder on it. My fingers looked chalky.

Since I rarely used this deck, I can't think I would have done this but I've had it a long time. Maybe it was the wrong kind of powder although it didn't seem to discolor the cards. I thought about wiping them - but I never use it. I did find it very unpleasant, whatever it was.

I agree that the Wildwood does not shuffle well.
 

rwcarter

The Son Tarot. Without a doubt. Thick as coasters. I shuffled it every spare minute I got to break that cardstock and lamination in. I conservatively estimate that I shuffled that deck at least 1500 times over the course of a few weeks to get it broken in. (I knew that once my thumbs didn't hurt after a few shuffles the deck was good to go.) Unfortunately, by that time I had lost all interest in the deck. :(

In addition to fanning powder, what you might do is something I do with all decks that are in order(whether new or used) when I go to use them. I randomly separate the cards into 6 piles of 13 cards each then randomly pick 3 piles and shuffle them together then randomly put the remaining 3 piles together and shuffle them. Then I shuffle the two piles together. That both mixes the cards together and separates the clumps. My normal shuffling process for a reading is 21 shuffles. You could repeat the process of randomly separating the cards, bringing them back together and shuffling a few times to see if that helps to break in the cardstock/make them easier to shuffle.

Rodney
 

JackofWands

The Visconti-Sforza deck. Beautiful cards, and a valuable bit of Tarot history, but too large to handle easily (and I'm not a particularly small-handed man). I don't use this deck nearly as often as I would like, because shuffling it is just such a pain.
 

rwcarter

The Visconti-Sforza deck. Beautiful cards, and a valuable bit of Tarot history, but too large to handle easily (and I'm not a particularly small-handed man). I don't use this deck nearly as often as I would like, because shuffling it is just such a pain.
For large decks I tend to shuffle them together at their sides or by their upper corners like they do in the casinos instead of by their ends.

Rodney
 

HallowedNight

The Wild Unknown is like that as well. I used to get really annoyed by it, but after a while I just kind of got used to it! I get passed the feeling that they aren't shuffled well by dealing the cards into four piles so they're all shuffled. Then I shuffle normally for a bit until I cut the deck. It takes a little longer, but it makes them feel nice and mixed up.

I have the Wildwood as well, and I wasn't happy with the cardstock either until I trimmed off the borders and edged the deck. Trimming really helps the cardboard-ish feel of the cards; they feel and look a lot nicer. It still isn't the best for shuffling, but it's a bunch easier to handle, and I haven't had any problems with flaking edges or anything like that. It's actually one of my favorite decks now!

((Here's my WW now, if you wanna see! http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4475803&postcount=710 ))
 

cSpaceDiva

Mary-el. Cards too big and thick, and the deck was a sticky brick. I trimmed off the borders and titles and shuffled the heck out of them. Even after getting to where they are decent to shuffle, they will still stiffen up if I leave them too long. Then I have to shuffle them more than usual to get them so they shuffle smoothly again.