Hi Everyone! My cards don't seem to be fanning nicely and seem to be a little clumpy. I have Fanning powder and the direction say to do one card at a time. I read elsewhere (I believe in the Secret Sessions) to put some in a paper bag and shake the cards around a bit. Is there one standard or prefered method?

Paper bag method is best, but use VERY LITTLE POWDER. Most over do it. A shake can be enough for a deck. You might need to take a kleenix and wipe each off a bit after the dusting. A little goes a very long way with fanning powder.

Very cool. Thank you. When you say a little bit are we talking like a teaspoon or less?

Much less than a teaspoon. literally one shake at best, and not a hard one at that.

Ok. Thanks.

One last question. How many decks will one shake take care of?

At least one, probably a couple to three, but that is a mess to sort out.

I can imagine lol. I would do one deck at a time anyway, I just wondered how long the powder in the bag would last for me switching out a couple of decks.

After retrieving the cards from the bag, a good tip on getting all the extra powder out of the cards would be to gather them up, square them up and smack your hand on top of the pack a couple times really hard. Excess powder should fly outta there. Also riffle the ends of the deck kinda hard. Do that on both ends and all the extra powder should be gone.

Use the plastic bag from your local Wally-Mart. Spring the cards into the bag. Fanning powder goes a long way. One "tap" ought to do it. Blow up the bag with the cards and powder in it. Twist it closed. Do some "shake and bake", turning the bag upside-down and all around. Open the bag away from your face so as not to breathe any powder. (That stuff does not belong in your lungs.)

Sort the deck. Riffle both ends of the cards to knock off the excess powder. Cut the deck. Repeat.

Make fans like you've never made them before!

Cool. I'll do that when I get home. thanks!

If you are going to do the bag method, do it outside. You must be in a well ventilated area.

It is best to use rubber gloves while getting the cards set up with powder. Because without the gloves, it will be hard to grip the cards when rubbing the powder "into" the cards, not "onto".

I tried both. I like one at a time the best. It does take some time, but to me it is worth it. My method is rubbing the cards together real hard after placing the powder on the card. After placing on the rubber gloves sprinkle specks (not lines) of powder across on one card. Place a second one on top. Rub them together real hard for about seven seconds. Next, rotate the cards, put powder on the top of the other card and repeat. Put those two away and repeat with two other cards. When you finished all the cards, shuffle them together and mix some face up and face down. Rubbed about six cards together the same time using a lot of pressure. Go thru the whole deck doing that. Take off the rubber gloves, and you will find it is easier to spread. A lot of people think sprinkleing the powder on will make the whole thing work automaticaly. It does not, rubbing the powder in is what counts.

The bag method makes to much powder to get off the cards. It will be harder to get off the excess, making it harder to rub together (because it is to slippery to grip) and making it harder to spread. Sprinkeling about 10-12 small specks on the cards, then rubbing is best for me.

Keep the cards in a dry area. Do not keep them in a plastic bag. Do not place them in your pockets, unless in a box because if the powder gets moist it will "stick" to the cards making it harder to spread.

The bag method is good in a pinch for application of Fanning Powder, however, like Dynamike said use it in a well ventilated area. The key ingredient in Fanning Powder is zinc stearate. It was used in baby powder many years ago until the FDA took it out. It can damge the lungs when inhaled. So use it sparingly. The best way is to use a fanning powder applicator. http://www.madhattermagicshop.com/magics......_id=6413

Above is one source for an applicator. There are others or you can make one yourself. In a rush use the bag method, but just a "sprinkle" of powder.

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't get to do it last night because we had company. I'll try these out tonight.

Shake in bag...by the way the amount used to do an entire deck is like the tiniest bit. About the amount to match the size of a match head, maybe a little more. Most folks overuse and waste it including my self.

Here's the missing piece. After you shake the cards in the bag coating them with the powder.....let it settle for a bit and then take each card and wipe both sides on a bath towel. Just one quick swipe on both sides to take off the excess. You can't blow this...it's almost if not impossible to wipe the stuff off a card once you have it on so what you will do is just get rid of the excess.

Although they seem to work for some, I have never been able to get the little 'applicator' things to work well for me. They basically are a little rectangular box that you put fanning powder in and then you push a card trough and it's supposed to apply the powder. It always seemed to leave patches untouched and clumps of powder. Bag then Towel seemed to work perfectly every time. Best,

Ok so I put the powder in a bag, shook it around, got the excess powder off and the cards feel a little sticky to me. Maybe I thought they would feel smoother but they feel a little "tacky". Did I do something wrong or is there a fix?

No, that's exactly how they will feel. The way that fanning powder works is kind of odd. What is happening is that the cards are actually made able to 'stick' together, but evenly as you fan them. The powder in effect makes all parts of all the cards to be evenly 'tacky' so that when you fan they move out evenly.

It's anti-intuitive really, but it seems to work. You will find that you will want to ONLY use the powder for stage work as it gets on your hands and makes it difficult to do regular close-up stuff. Some guys like it, but I hated having the stuff on my hands for non stage work. Best,

Oh, ok thanks. I thought I did something wrong. I'm guessing the more you use the deck, the more the powder will wear off.

Just wondering; I used to use fanning powder, but that was a really long time ago. Now, as long as a deck is reasonably new, it fans very nicely. Granted, I'm not a hardcore flourish guy, but for most uses, a reasonably new deck works well.

I use regular bicycle rider backs, that I get in boxes of 12 at (here in the US) Costco for slightly over a buck a deck.

Have not used fanning powder in years. Is it really necessary?

As a general rule the only reason to use fanning powder is when using it for stage manipulation purposes. Many times the cards prepared for backpalming will be so stressed that an application of f. powder will aid in them working smoothly, etc.

For close-up purposes it can be fairly problematic especially if you have very damp hands or work in a damp environment. Best,

I am wondering if people feel confident enough about powder to use them on their Gerry's Nuggets?

What about the top XC guys like Dan and Dave, Devo etc? Do they use it?