I'm sure this must have come up before, but the Café Quicksearch didn't help me much.

Before committing to making up a new pair of decks for the "Cosmic Connection", I decided to experiment with the Harry Robson "roughing stick".

I knocked out a quick R/S MT deck but, in my haste, applied the stick to both sides of one card. I tried to rub it down with a cloth, and with lens paper; not much success in either case. I finally decided to live (very) dangerously and use a tiny bit of solvent--denatured alcohol, in this instance.

It worked but it wants to take a bit of the ink from the card (Bicycles) and dulls the finish a tad. It isn't serious enough to be noticed, I think, but I'd like to know if there is a better method.

Hi Russ--you probably have a shoe box filled with decks and loose playing cards. I would have just fished through it to find a replacement for the ruined card. I noticed that roughing always seems to dull the finish of playing cards. Not an issue for me.

By the way, how did Robson's roughing stick work out? Do you recommend it? Sprays are messy and smell toxic.

Oh, DUH!

Thanks, Leo! I don't know why I didn't just do that. You're right; I've got lots of loose cards, some partial decks, and even a couple of bricks of new ones (It wouldn't break the bank to rob from a new deck . . . ).

I'm very impressed with Robson's roughing stick so far: Clean and odorless, easy to control. For the price, I'd certainly recommend trying it. (But I'll miss the high from huffing those fumes! No, just kidding.)

After experimenting by rubbing with some different scraps of fabric, I found that a piece of felt works fairly well.

But the simple solution, as per Leo, is still to simply replace the card.

Glad to be of help Russ! Not worth fussing over one playing card. Thanks for the review of the Robson roughing stick. Will give it a go. Yeah, those spray cans do get you high! I can't afford to lose any more brain cells...

Thank you for posting these. I was working on an effect and accidently roughed 10 cards (5 sets) incorrectly. Saw your posts and based on the scraps of fabric suggestion I decided to try a kitchen towel - and it worked well. I put the card on a flat surface and with the kitchen towel did a circular motion with even pressure, and the roughing came off very well. No real visible change to the card, and the surfaces did not stick any more. FYI - I used a clean part of the towel for each card.

I think it worked because a kitchen towel is "rougher" than a piece of cloth or rag. The idea came to me because Russ mentioned he had some success with felt. Felt has many surfaces, and a kitchen towel is generally not smooth like a piece of cloth. Hopefully this will help someone.

PS - A 10 card mistake was enough cards for me not to rummage through my box of loose cards to replace 1 or 2. Plus knowing myself I knew I would make more mistakes in the future LOL.