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Playing Card Chat ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦ => Playing Card Plethora => Topic started by: Lee Asher on December 20, 2013, 10:38:34 AM
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A friend from France (http://aethercards.com/discourse/profile/fredv/) just sent me a video that will surely create debate. He promises this is not a joke, and swears it actually works. I have not tried this method, but if you're thinking about it, I suggest you proceed with caution. Make your own judgement call.
Watch Fred Villemin clean his 1965 Sahara Tahoe playing cards with a ripe banana!
(http://www.605s.com/forum/fred-banana-clean-cards.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqxNjGia3wQ)
Fred Villemin using the little-known 'Banana Method' - click image or here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqxNjGia3wQ) to watch video.
Quote me ... "I need to examine what's happening to the paper (under a microscope) before I start rubbing any fruit on my Nuggets!"
Would you try this?
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The quote...ROFL!!!!!
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What's those annoying scrolling word in the video hehehehe
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The banana would have the right skin resistance to clean an old deck of cards. But the oils that it leaves would probably increase the amount of dirt build-up during use. Not on a decent deck, thank you. And the smell.... Not one of my favorites. Can you imagine performing with banana smelling cards?? I don't think so. What's next, a grapefruit? Yeah, put a nice round grapefruit on a rotating spindle and simply pass it over your dirty cards. The rotating grapefruit will do all of the mechanical cleaning. And with a fresh citrus scent. I think I have something there ! ! ! !
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I don't think I would try this. Then again, I don't own any vintage decks and take extremely good care of any deck I use.
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Coming to D&D, The Buck's Cleaning Bananas, only $99.99! Or take advantage of the bulk savings, get 6 cleaning bananas for $594.99!!
That's an unfair shot, I adore D&D's cards.
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What's next? Toothbrushes, steel wool and used motor oil?
I'd only attempt it on a deck that was just barely this side of the trash can.
Actually, D&D's banana will be made by Joe Porper and have all-natural lizard skin and mahogany panels.
"And it can core a apple!"
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Have the special cleaning bananas been added to T11's prize wheel yet? I'm not spinnin' until they're there...
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What's next? Toothbrushes, steel wool and used motor oil?
I'd only attempt it on a deck that was just barely this side of the trash can.
Actually, D&D's banana will be made by Joe Porper and have all-natural lizard skin and mahogany panels.
"And it can core a apple!"
Have the special cleaning bananas been added to T11's prize wheel yet? I'm not spinnin' until they're there...
+1's all around for well deserved D&D potshots. These are really "reputation" worthy.
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Someone needs to find the thread here where we coated cards in fanning "butter" ;)
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Reminds me of bone rubbing a baseball bat. Not sure about the banana cleaning the cards white but it might smooth the finish of an older card for better glide. I'll have to try that.
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Coming to D&D, The Buck's Cleaning Bananas, only $99.99! Or take advantage of the bulk savings, get 6 cleaning bananas for $594.99!!
That's an unfair shot, I adore D&D's cards.
That's why it's not D&D, it's D$D ;)
And these are potshots they've deserved with all of their "luxury" products. Their cards are fine, their business methods - not so much (IMO).
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Wow! I needed a laugh. Thanks. I think it's amazing all the different business techniques that get used to sell cards. Sooner or later if you deviate from the path people will see through you. Ever done this I have:
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Have the special cleaning bananas been added to T11's prize wheel yet? I'm not spinnin' until they're there...
Nah dude, they'll be in the archive for sure. 4000 points each hahaha ;)
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Coming to D&D, The Buck's Cleaning Bananas, only $99.99! Or take advantage of the bulk savings, get 6 cleaning bananas for $594.99!!
That's an unfair shot, I adore D&D's cards.
That's why it's not D&D, it's D$D ;)
And these are potshots they've deserved with all of their "luxury" products. Their cards are fine, their business methods - not so much (IMO).
And some would even argue about the cards!
But, all things being equal, they have a book selection that I have yet to see matched online for magic and cardistry instruction. If only people still read books...
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Someone needs to find the thread here where we coated cards in fanning "butter" ;)
Butter...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/the-lol-a-query-um/fanning-butter/
Soap...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/playing-card-plethora/soaping-a-deck/
Bananas...
Be right back. I'm experimenting with "Fanning Lube". These cards will be gliding like air in no time!
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Someone needs to find the thread here where we coated cards in fanning "butter" ;)
Butter...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/the-lol-a-query-um/fanning-butter/
Soap...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/playing-card-plethora/soaping-a-deck/
Bananas...
Be right back. I'm experimenting with "Fanning Lube". These cards will be gliding like air in no time!
Hey, don't knock the soap - it works!
I am not shaking your hand until you clean off that "fanning lube" with some bleach...
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Someone needs to find the thread here where we coated cards in fanning "butter" ;)
Butter...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/the-lol-a-query-um/fanning-butter/
Soap...
http://aethercards.com/discourse/playing-card-plethora/soaping-a-deck/
Bananas...
Be right back. I'm experimenting with "Fanning Lube". These cards will be gliding like air in no time!
Hey, don't knock the soap - it works!
I am not shaking your hand until you clean off that "fanning lube" with some bleach...
There's another idea. Purell on cards, for the poker deck from that wild bachelor party.
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Isn't that the very reason why plastic cards were invented?
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How do you come up with the idea of rubbing a banana against your cards? What genius thought about this while eating a banagna? Honestly! It is such random thought that can go through your head. What's next? Putting them in coke like they are pennies?
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And some would even argue about the cards!
But, all things being equal, they have a book selection that I have yet to see matched online for magic and cardistry instruction. If only people still read books...
Hey I still read!! But... Vanishing Inc has a really nice collection of books! Plus I'd rather give my money to Joshua Jay than D&D.
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All I could think of while watching that
was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY)
I mean what if someone comes at you with a banana and a clean deck of cards.
Do you have to eat the cards too?
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All I could think of while watching that
was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY)
I mean what if someone comes at you with a banana and a clean deck of cards.
Do you have to eat the cards too?
But what about the crazed attacker with the loganberries?
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All I could think of while watching that
was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afi7_01GnxY)
I mean what if someone comes at you with a banana and a clean deck of cards.
Do you have to eat the cards too?
But what about the crazed attacker with the loganberries?
In the case of the cards, I think you have to do the first half of a torn and restored routine.
In the case of the loganberries, you're screwed.
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I asked my buddy Fred to come in here and give you guys more details on the highly controversial Banana Method. Stay tuned.
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Hello guys,
thanks for making my afternoon so funny
Who would have imagined a few months ago that today, the great Lee Asher would ask me to come on the forum and discuss with you about my strange way of cleaning cards ? Not me.
Who would have believed that i would be working with Lee to make the most definitive guide about Golden Nugget playing cards ? Not me.
Life is funny.
A few months ago, i came here to ask people about Golden Nugget. As beginner magician, I was fond of these cards as well as all other Nuggets from the 60’s and 70’s. I was surprised that not too many people were collecting them and had information about them.
So i began looking for these cards everywhere, especially on ebay. And i began buying some. And trying to understand the history of these cards. And i made mistakes. And i bought expensive cards that were not this good. But i also made good deals, buying cheap cards which were very old and never played.
And i understood when the classical finish of Jerry’s Nugget stopped being used and when the Golden Nugget cards stopped being legendary to just become really good.
The problem was that sometimes i had < 1970 decks that would not shuffle correctly. If you have some of these decks maybe you would compare shuffling them to shuffling sheets of sandpaper. Do you feel what i mean ? if you understand then you have already bought old, dirty decks :)
The first deck i had with this particular feel was a 1970 Hotel Thunderbird Bee deck. An absolutely not interesting deck. It was awful to shuffle. A big piece of old cards which looked correct but felt ugly. I did not care about this deck and put it on the bottom of my card box.
Then i bought a very nice green Golden Nugget of 1967. I was really happy to have such an old deck with the great finish and this beautiful color. But when i received it, it was not nice to shuffle. It was not as ugly as the Hotel Thunderbird but almost. And of course, i had an almost new black Golden Nugget from the same year to compare with. The black was great whereas the green was a sh*t.
Then i asked people on a french forum about magic about a way to clean cards and make them become as new again and the story began. Sorry for being long about telling you the background but i think it was important to tell you that before.
In that forum, there were discussion and someone talked about the banana. And that way of cleaning the cards.
Is it a joke or not ? i don’t know. On the french forum some people were serious, other were laughing. Some people were talking about even more stupid ways of cleaning the cards. It was more a comic topic than a serious one.
In magic don’t we say that sometimes we just have to believe in something to make it happen ? :)
I tried the method on the Hotel Thunderbird deck. And as strange as it may be, it worked. No smell of banana on the cards, no (visible) oil on the cards, just a better deck after the work. I used two bananas to do that, and the skin of the bananas after the work was dirty.
So i decided to try it on my nice expensive green Golden Nugget. I tried on 10 cards. Shuffled the ten cards and compared to 10 dirty cards. Even a children could feel the difference. Even a children could tell that the old deck could only be used to feed the trashcan whereas the cleaned one was nice to play with.
After that i did that work on a few other decks, always with nice results. And talked about that to Lee. And decided to make a video of it because my friend Lee was not believing me.
The video is a comic video. I can imagine some people won’t believe me, or other people (collectors) will say that it’s evil to do such things to $50+ cards. I understand you, that’s why i wanted the video to be more a comic thing than a very technical and serious video. Take it as a joke or not. Tell me i’m a bad collector or bad magician (i know that :) it’s easy to see).
is this secret i’m talking about a real secret ? of course not
is this video a joke ? maybe
But if you find in your boxes an old deck of 1967 Golden Nugget that makes you cry when you shuffle it, just try my method on 10 cards, and tell me. Maybe you would understand it may not be a joke.
Sorry for the long article, i hope you won’t ban me from the forum for doing such nasty things :)
(and to be serious, the thing i truly agree about what people say in this thread is that it may clean the cards because of the texture of the banana skin but what about the oil that would go from the banana to the card ? I totally agree with that and that may be the thing that makes my method totally not usable. And also i only did that on old <1970 cards, i never tried on Air Cushion Bicycle cards for example, maybe that’s the very old finish that makes my method seems to work)
(and i’m about to clean a 1966 red GN deck, if you want me to make photos or tests about before and after, tell me)
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And, Lee, i'm happy to make you laugh but how can you imagine somebody selling me a Golden Nugget deck now ???? :)
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You know, I actually do have some moldy old GNuggets somewhere that I bought in my early days of collecting. I might just give this a try.
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Fredv Bienvenue sur nos forums. Ca fais toujours plaisir de parlez (ecrire) en francais
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Will this make Silver Slipper cards actually fan well? Haha. :-[
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Will this make Silver Slipper cards actually fan well? Haha. :-[
The big question there would be "Did they perform well in the first place?" If the answer's no, a cleaning may not be enough to turn a crap deck into anything other than a crap deck. I can call a weed a rose all I want, spray it with rose perfume and paint its leaves red - but in the end it's still a weed.
And, Lee, i'm happy to make you laugh but how can you imagine somebody selling me a Golden Nugget deck now ???? :)
If I had one, I'd sell it to you!
I'm glad you made your post and posted your video. Information such as this can be invaluable. And just in case you haven't read some of my novel-esque posts, writing a long post will NOT get you banned here. Though I think a post has a size limit of either 50,000 or 500,000 characters, I forget which. I actually hit that limit once or twice!
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My answer to this topic's question: YES!
As soon as I got a banana I tried it - but not on an old vintage deck, I don't have any of those.
I tried this method on an old pack of fulton's chinatowns (I used this deck because it seemed to be the "dirtiest" deck in my collection).
After trying it out, I think there was a modest increase in performance of the cards - they still don't glide like a newly opened pack of magic finish USPCC cards, but I wasn't really expecting that.
I'm not so sure that this method "cleans" the cards because some of the cards I had had marks etc on them that weren't cleaned off by the banana but could be gently scratched off.
My guess would be that rubbing the banana on the cards bruises the banana skin (hence the colour change on the banana) and releases oils or something that act as another finish on the cards. I accidently rubbed a green bit of banana on a card's back and the card felt quite different, stickier, compared to the rest of the cards. Once I rubbed that bit with yellow banana the stickiness went away.
I do have a 2010 phoenix deck of cards with air cushion finish that fans like crap that I may try this banana method out on later, but for the moment... my arm is tired from cleaning the first pack -.-
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Haha, I'm not the only mad man here anymore :)
You're probably right about the "oil" of the banana skin. The result is not perfect of course but it is noticeably better and even if it may not be very good for cards, it can transform a totally useless deck into a quite playable deck (at least to play poker with friends)
I have a Golden Nugget cleaned a few months ago and it is still far better than before and it remains playable. The 'oil' of the banana doesn't seem to become sticky or bad.
(and it doesn't smell at all of course)
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Haha, I'm not the only mad man here anymore :)
You're probably right about the "oil" of the banana skin. The result is not perfect of course but it is noticeably better and even if it may not be very good for cards, it can transform a totally useless deck into a quite playable deck (at least to play poker with friends)
I have a Golden Nugget cleaned a few months ago and it is still far better than before and it remains playable. The 'oil' of the banana doesn't seem to become sticky or bad.
(and it doesn't smell at all of course)
Oh yeah - I agree with fred - No banana smell whatsoever.
I'm not sure how long the "cleaning" will last though but it seems pretty good to me.
Like I said in the next week or two I'll try this on a 2010 phoenix deck that was an air cushion finish.
I honestly do wonder what the banana method would do to a new magic finish deck hahaha. Maybe I'll try that next when I have time and more bananas - I have a few blue LTDs lying around to experiment on.
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It will be intersting to see the results on Air Cushion type.
I have never tested because i have no Air Cushion deck which has the same 'sandy dirt' feel as very old decks.
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It will be intersting to see the results on Air Cushion type.
I have never tested because i have no Air Cushion deck which has the same 'sandy dirt' feel as very old decks.
Only my fulton's chinatowns were starting to have that sandy dirt feeling.
The air cushion phoenixes aren't as bad... but they handle/fan clumpily like they're dirty. They don't really have the full sandy dirt feeling.
Dammit I'll go do the phoenix deck now - I could use a banana for a snack anyway :D
EDIT: Just did this with my phoenix 2010 air cushion deck... it improved it moderately.
I've attached before and after pics of my thumb fan with the deck.
(Now I'm not making any claim whatsoever to being expert/proficient at a thumb fan the photos are to try and illustrate the point)
I don't know how to post a picture followed by text haha so the first one is before banana - you can see there's a gap at the 7 of spades.
And after banana; smoother fan, less clumpy.
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I have an old and rather dirty Jerry's Nugget. I have two small children, so naturally I have bananas.
You know what I will be doing this weekend.
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I have an old and rather dirty Jerry's Nugget. I have two small children, so naturally I have bananas.
You know what I will be doing this weekend.
You shouldn't leave people to guess - we have some rather imaginative people around here... :))
Let us know how it goes - before and after video, perhaps?
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Oh yes, a video of Jerry's Nugget cleaned by banana. That would be great.
Some people may have heart attack :)
(although a banana cleaned deck is probably better than a dirty deck in an old shoe box)