When you happen to collect cards you will tend to notice that there are indeed diverse types of card stock finishes and qualities. A cheap card stock can make for a terrible deck making handling a nightmare. I think I have so far been exposed to several types of card stock at least sufficiently to be able to differentiate between a quality deck and a poor mass-produced deck.
Paper Stock
Let’s start by considering some of the more common types of paper card stock and just go over what they are all about. First and at the lowest end of the food chain so to speak we have cards which are simply plastic coated. The plastic coat offers a minimal level of usability but in most instances the cards don’t glide well over each other, they feel awful. With few exceptions, a substantial quantity of Chinese mass-produced cards are made of this stuff. Poorly laminated cards that simply have nothing going on for them except price. These decks are usually dirt cheap but the quality of the stock says it all. Having said this, and as you will be shown in one of my upcoming video blogs there are some very high quality card manufacturers in China which goes to show that when a company puts heart into what it produces it can be from anywhere in the world.
On step up from the “vanilla” plastic coated cards, again I have a few in my collection they have been added because of some other intrinsic feature which does not include stock quality, we get the linen finish cards. It’s still plastic coated cards we’re talking about but now we have a slightly thicker, somewhat durable plastic coat which may additionally be textured. This thicker coat makes for a deck that can take a sensible amount of handling and actually feel quite good in your hands. One of the decks brands I have grown fond of and which uses this kind of finish is the Piatnik & Sons bridge size decks (No.1352) which as I explained in a previous blog entry are quite common in Malta. Since I have handled various decks from this particular brand and finish over the years I can actually say that they do in fact last long even though they are essentially just plastic coated paper stock.
As we progress one step higher in terms of quality, we arrive to another interesting progression which has made paper stock cards from Bicycle popular among card handlers and enthusiasts. Bicycle paper stock cards are coated with a special plastic coat that offers increased ease of handling, holding a fresh deck in your hands feels incredible. For starters the cards glide easily one over the other, if you are not careful you could end up dropping cards without noticing. Shuffling these decks feels smooth and you realise that in spite of handling paper cards the experience is definitely that of handling a superior deck. If you happen to be dealing these cards, the slightest flick can send a card gliding over a felt covered table with ease, again a very satisfying experience. Bicycle aren’t the only company that produces such cards but I happen to have quite a few decks in my collection so I know these decks somewhat better.
Plastic
There is plastic and plastic and nothing could be more noticeable than when you handle plastic playing cards. Most playing cards are made of PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride to be more exact) plastic but the manufacturing process adopted differ substantially from one brand to another. Unfortunately while not really wanting to denigrate Chinese products, I must say that once again the less impressive plastic cards I have handled were produced in China. The plastic adopted in some of the decks that come from there is rather stiff, perhaps too stiff to be manageable in my modest opinion. Shuffling them using a classical casino style shuffle or a riffle shuffle feels awkward at best and the edges feel like they are trying to cut through your finger tips. Thankfully there are a lot of good card manufacturers out there who use a sensible stock that is indeed a pleasure to work with.
By far one of the best plastic card stocks (at least in my opinion) must be the one used by Copag. Copag plastic decks are very durable, it takes a lot of game play to start seeing some card warping which is very important for me at least, they are washable and they are really a pleasure to work with and deal. I believe I have over a dozen Copag decks in my collection, all distinct and offering some a specific feature that makes them stand out from the rest.
Another reputable brand that produces great PVC cards is Fournier from Spain. I love the vibrancy of the colours on these decks and again the quality of the plastic is really good even though I must admit they tend to gum up slightly faster than the Copag decks I have. Still they too are washable (warm soap and a sponge only) so worst case after some time you could always clean them in this way to return them to their original state. Additionally if simple washing does not do the trick you could always use a very small quantity of what is known as a fanning powder (Mostly a Zinc stearate powder) that restores that easy gliding sensation to old or heavily used cards. One drawback is that you cannot use these powders on a black deck (such as the Copag Epoc reviewed in my first video review) because they will give it a greyish patina that will impair the aesthetic of the deck. Card magicians use these powders to improve the manageability of the older decks they use.
Another manufacturer of plastic cards worth nothing is KEM. To be quite frank I don’t like KEM decks, the
material they employ feels thinner and too delicate for my tastes and the deck tends to warp immediately, again something I don’t quite fancy in a deck of cards. KEM do not use PVC in their decks but they claim to use Cellulose Acetate instead. This substance feels significantly finer in your hands but is also the reason I do not fancy them all that much. I have two types of KEM branded decks in my collection, a double poker-sized set with an arrow motif in red and blue on the back and a replica of the bridge-sized poker decks with poker peek indexes just like those that had been used in the World Series Of Poker of 2007. To be quite fair with KEM, the bridge sized decks have a lesser tendency to warp (maybe something to do with the width of the cards) and feel much better in your hands than the other set I have. Also, and this is something that really got to me in a strange, good way, KEM use some kind of additional lubricant on their cards that smells waxy. In fact the first time I opened a KEM deck I could not help but notice this very distinct odour that reminded me of wax crayons or pastels. While writing this blog I came across a number of sites that claim that KEM cards are more durable, last longer so on and so forth. I personally would not go so far as to glorify the qualities of this brand, I’m still not convinced these cards are worth having more than, let us say, a Copag or Fournier deck. In my opinion they’re just more expensive.
Another two brands that produce plastic cards and which I have used in play are those produced by Modiano and Dal Negro. Both are Italian brands, and offer a sturdy stock that is comfortable to handle. The Dal Negro decks are trusty and take on a lot of games without losing too much of their spring. My first ever plastic poker deck was a Dal Negro twin set I had bought from Sicily. I used these decks during a number of friendly poker evenings back at home and they still feel fairly good to shuffle and handle showing only minimal warping after several hours and rounds of play. The Modiano decks on the other hand feel very firm in your hands and keep their spring and shape. I have not used them extensively so I cannot judge their durability as at this time.
That is basically my take on the materials from which cards are made. Maybe in time card manufacturers will come up with something else, a new shape-retaining material that remains perfect even after years of usage. There again, maybe it would not be such a good thing for business because people would not buy more cards then.
Will be posting a new video review soon, I will be focusing on more decks from my collection and perhaps explore some more interesting titbits about cards, games and all that.
Until next time!
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