Wax may work OK. You can get several different hardness of wax at a ski shop that has older wooden x-country skis.

I have also heard of people using a specific hand soap. I think it is Cashmere Bouquet. Using the corner place an X from corner to corner of the backs of the cards, work with the cards, if you need more put it on the front.

I have read this entire thread, thank you to everyone who has contributed. I just started working with an Oil and Water routine that included a kicker that involves a stripped deck. I'm a beginner and it has been hard to consistently strip half the deck perfectly. I'm frustrated. So, I'm wondering here, would fanning powder help me get a more perfect and consitently accurate strip? The stripped deck I have is a new bicycle deck. thanks for any advice you can provide. Some of you seem to like fan powder and others not so much. I'm wondering if it will help specifically in the effort to strip 26 and 26 cards in opposite directions. Thank you.

Notasperfectasyou, have you broken in the deck yet? In other words, shuffled the heck out of the cards, using the riffle shuffle, over hand shuffle, Hindu shuffle over and over, so the cards are more flexible. Shuffling also helps you learn to control a deck without worrying about dropping any of the cards.

It is very hard to get a perfect 26-26 divide even with a stripper deck. That has to do more with your thumb and second finger placement, along with amount of pressure you place on the strip action. It might help if you riffle the ends of the deck before you square and start the strip action. Don't hold the deck very tight, but loosely, as you don't want to squeeze all the air from between the cards out. Many new people hold the deck in a vice grip, don't.

I have not ever tried using fanning powder a stripper deck, so I can't answer your question with certainty.

For a close up deck, you would apply the powder with a powder puff, and work the powder in the cards, it may seem like you are removing the powder, but you are working the powder into the cards. Don't use a lot of pressure with the puff, just light circular motions.

This is the best fanning powder available, try it if you desire, it won't hurt the cards.

https://nnmagic.com/store/manipulation-s......-powder/

Thank you Bill. I'll do more shuffling. Heck, I've been springing and dribbling the cards too. I haven't tried riffling the ends. Will try that! I'm still thinking about fanning powder too. I appecaite your thoughts and help. Ciao, Ken

Fanning powder doesn't help with stripper decks. It makes it harder to strip-out, not easier. Also, Ivory soap works well for fanning. You just have to draw an "X" shape on the front and back of each card. To me this was as good for fans as the Zinc Stearate.

The only stripped deck that I use in my fanning routine is Peter Ernst/Ed Mishell's Fanorama. I spring the deck after fanning it red, white and blue. That creates some air space between the individual cards and facilitates stripping the cards out for the double fan of the American flag..

Having said that, I believe some magicians prefer to rearrange the order of the Fanorama cards so that they can make the double fan by weaving the halves together. The stripper deck feature was intended to help magicians who had trouble weaving/faroing the two halves together.

----- Amado 'Sonny' Narvaez

Yes, learn the Faro. And Bill is right, if a deck is broken -in well, it will fan without having to use powder.

This has got to be one of those "whatever works for you is correct" things.

Back when I was doing my cards-and-doves act, I did the split fans (half a deck per load) wearing gloves. I must have tried every trick in the book, from splitting the cards, to the pencil technique, to different types of powder and different ways of applying it, not to mention every type of white glove I could find. What finally worked for me was just plain poker Bicycles right out of the box with white cotton parade gloves, with a snap, from an Army/Navy surplus shop. Go figure.

Well, sure, gloves change the equation. By right out of the box do you mean not even broken in? Do you have big hands? p.s. I once spent some time experimenting with white rubber gloves and blank back cards. Worked great too.

After I figured it out, the cards weren't even broken in. Just out of the box. And I do not have big hands. I just practiced and practiced, over and over, until I got the hang of it and it looked natural.

I think that's one of the problems: people looking for short cuts, where good old-fashioned practice and rehearsal work every time.