Owning your deck part 2: Edging

Some decks profit a lot when edged

Many decks are great the way they are, but just need a little something that will give them a lot more atmosphere. This little something is edging.

I often edge my decks

After cutting borders (which I do all the time), edging is my second-to-top most common way of customizing my decks. Right now, I edged 4 or 5 decks using inks.

Some of my decks are already gilded, which looks like this:

Obviously this level of edging cannot be achieved with the simple technique I use.

Unlike cutting off borders, edging a deck will give the edges a little stickiness to the texture. This is not only true for self-made edged decks but also those that are gilded in the printing press. Decks with edging or gilding tend to stick together just a slight bit more than normal decks. So if you are a riffle shuffler or overly concerned about the integrity of your deck, this technique might not be for you.

The inks I use

Memento Dew Drop and Distress Ink

I use a numner of different inks for edging, but if you are cheap like me I recommend Memento Dew Drops. You do not need a huge ink pad to edge your deck. These small ones will do and they are available in many colors. BUT!! The Memente Dew Drop Brilliance bleeds a LOT so I do NOT recommend it for edging. It's just on the pic because I bought it for edging and then thought better of it.

My tips from experience:

1. Edge your cards one by one by pulling the edges along the inkpad

2. Watch your hand!! The ink will definitely leave a mark on your hands and fingers. Be cautious and work slowly to avoid splotching ink on your cards.

3. Keep a towel or paper tissues at hand to wipe your hands clean regularly.

4. If you notice "bleed" on the edges of your cards, don't panic. As long as the ink hasn't dried, you can still wipe the extra color off using a clean tissue!

5. Do NOT stack your cards right after edging them. Put them on paper to dry first for at least 10-15 minutes.

6. Because of no.5, it is advisible to work in groups of 20-25 cards each. Do 25 cards, lay them out individually to dry, wait, then stack them and move on to the next group of cards.

7. Do not use metallic inks (like Memente Dew Drop Brilliance). For some reason, they bleed a lot and will smudge over the cards.

8. Work lightly. Instead of pushing the cards into the inkpad, work the card across the pad multiple times.

9. Try it on Memo cards, paper or the "extra" advertisement card that comes with the deck. Or, if you intend to take off the border but haven't yet, try edging the border before taking the border off.

10. Do it slowly. I've said this before, but the slower you do this, the less likely you will be to ruin your cards.

This is how it should look:

Arthur Rackham Oracle, edges

This is how it shouldn't look:

Obviously this was done hastily and only once. Because of this, the edges don't look boldly aged but rather just smeared with color. I will repeat the procedure with this deck once more in order to get a good coloring to the edges!

 If these cards from the Rackham Oracle look a bit dirty or smudged on the borders, it's because I haven't been doing a very good job keeping the ink off the cards. I just stacked them on top of each other without letting them dry one by one on a paper first.



Now the bleed and smudges are okay on the Rackham Oracle because obviously with the borders you hardly notice. But it really bugs me that I didn't use more time and brains to edge his deck (it was my first!)


If you follow these tips you should be fine edging decks.

The difference between debordering and edging

I dislike borders to the point were most borders make it impossible for me to work with a deck at all, so debordering is a no-brainer. Also, cutting of borders with scissors or the paper guillotine feels meditative to me and I really enjoy doing it. And I love the result. Cards that had been useless are transformed into a lovely deck of cards.

Edging is different.

First, I do not enjoy edging cards. It's a task that is about concentration and precision. The waiting time inbetween groups of cards anmoys me. I often mess up and have to wipe bleed off the cards. It's a task that goes on forever and you have to repeat the edging process on each individual card in order to get nice coloring. The end result is also less of a revelation than the debordering: a new edging is just a cute and nice extra. It doesn't transform your deck. From the front, you can't even see the result.

So while debordering is a requirement for me, edging is something I often put off because it feels like cleaning and polishing shoes. Repititive and annoying. However, I really like the result so it's worth it. Ink is rather cheap to come by, so even if you end up edging only one deck it's still worth it, while investing in a paper guillotine might be too pricey for you.

If you are a card purist and prefer the deck the way it is, that's fine. I personally like to think of my cards as a canvas for my personal worldview.

What do you think? Do you edge your decks, and if so, which ones?

Blessings and balance ~

Peachess