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I dug a packet of fanning powder out of cupboard yesterday. I got it a couple of years ago with something I ordered. The owner of the shop gave me a waterproof bag full of it as a sample.

I powdered a pack of red Bikes, following Jeff McBride's advice on how to prepare cards with powder. This was the first time, I've never used powder before.

I am still in two minds as to whether it has improved the cards. I tried it after watching Jerry C's fanning workshop, as I had issues with my pressure fan not spreading evenly.

Suprisingly, the cards seem to stick together more with the addition of powder, and I can see it's applications if you were into XCM more than card magic. I don't think it has improved my fans, but it helped me with moves like the one-handed shuffle, fancy cuts and flips. This is because the cards are now adhering better to each other.

What are your opinions on fanning powder? Do you use it all the time, or only for specific decks? Any bad experiences?

I'm still trying to make my mind up, but it would be good to know what you think as well.

I've only just started using and so far have only used it on old decks as I don;t have a problem fannin new decks. So far I've found that it does improve fanning but the effect tends to wear off after abot one week of heavy practice (2 hours a day).

i've found that you need to reapply powder to the deck pretty often if you use it heavily and also that decks only seem to need it powder if they really old, such as rare discontinued decks, and frankly and dont think it is worth the time or effort.

I've used it once, thinking to revive my old sticky unusable deck.

After powdering i found the cards had a strange feel to them, don't know what exactly. Also the cards were just as sticky as before.

I tried powdering the way the instructions of the powder said by rubbing each cards through the powder, then brushing of the excess powder.

When that had no effect, i picked another unusable, still unpowdered, deck and tried it the way Jeff McBride shows on 'the art of card manipulation'.
This had the same result.

The powder i got was from Murphy's Magic Suplies.
Maybe other powder works better ?

Although I haven't got any powder, it seems to me that the way you're doing powdering the card Bundy, isn't the best.

XB contains a section with a novice called Q and Jerry Cestowski. There, Jerry teaches a good way of powdering cards. I'm assuming that's how Mark powders his cards too?

Also, one question for Mark. In which section does Jeff McBride teach how to powder the cards in XB or is it from another video?
Thanks

StEvEbO!

On the second tape of the art of card manipulation, Jeff show you how to prepair cards for manipulationsand how to make them smooth again to be able to fan and manipulate them.

He tells you to take a big plastic bag, drop your cards in the bag with some powder and shake it all around. Then take out the cards and riffle the deck a few times, slap it a few times to get the dust out off the cards. When no more clouds of dust apear after riffeling the deck, the cards are ready to use.

Didn't work for my cards
Maybe they were already to old and worn out to revive them ?

Bundy wrote:Maybe they were already to old and worn out to revive them ?

Fanning powder is NOT used to revive worn in cards. Their only purpose is to make cards smoother for fanning etc.

StEvEbO!

I know, but the old cards fanned better without the powder.
I ordered some powder because the site i ordered it from said it would make your old and worn out cards fan like a new deck again.

I'll just get some new decks of cards instead of playing with powder again.

I needed something to make cards slippery and found french chalk did the trick (excuse the pun).
You can get it in a cycle shop for a few pence, its used when you mend a puncture to remove the sticky effect of excess glue. It comes as a small square stick and you just rub it against a nail file to produce the powder, don't use sandpaper as that releases abrasive particles. Only a small amount of powder is needed for a good effect.

Hope this helps.
Spike.

Stevebo... sorry for the late reply, but I see Bundy answered the question about Jeff up there.

I powdered my cards the Jeff way, and the Jerry way. I'm still trying to make my mind up whether I like it or not.

Cheers,