Cracking Card Varnish
I host a regular poker game, and recently upgraded my gear, when Chelsea, for my birthday, bought me a sweet set of BBO clay poker chips, and a pair of new KEM arrow playing cards.
A blurry picture of me and my new chips :)
When it comes to playing cards there are a few brands with reputations that stand out – KEM, Copag, Modiano, and more recently Faded Spade. KEM cards hold a special place in my heart as a deck of their red arrows were my first real deck of cards, gifted to me way back in ~2003 by my good friend Max who passed away in 2019 (if you are an oughts & twenty-tens poker player, you may know Max as Slider).
I still have the deck, complete with bite marks on the seven of clubs from Max’s cat Choppa.
Choppa bites
Despite seeing years of play, the deck (seven of clubs not withstanding) has held up remarkably well. The cards are crisp, snappy, and despite some face wear perfectly serviceable (seven of clubs not withstanding). The cards really are the kind of made for life component we all love in our games.
Varnish Crackling
My new deck of red arrows is a different story. After only two plays we cracked open the deck and found substantial crackling on the face of cards.
To understand what is going on with this, we first need to talk a little about how playing cards are made. First a long roll of card or plastic stock (in this case PVC or a similar plastic) is taken. It’s rolled through a printer, and then is finished with either a varnish or a laminate.
Varnish crackling on a new deck of KEM red arrow cards
I go into full details on the process of making cards, and the various kinds of stock, finishes, foiling, varnishes, etc. in a previous article: The Anatomy of a Card.
Plastic cards don’t have a core with a PVC or similar sheet acting as the entire card stock.
Cross section of a KEM card - no core in sight
My understanding of plastic card printing is more limited than regular paper products, but my understanding is that ink is applied to the plastic cardstock directly, and then a separate varnish layer is applied after – i.e. the only difference in printing is the material of the cardstock and the inks and laminates that are able to be applied.
The crackling issue appears to be a defect in the varnish used on the face of the cards. It’s likely that KEM uses a different varnish on the backs of the cards (as none of the cards have crackling on the backs). And, it’s interesting that the crackling is only appearing on the newer set of red arrows. Here is a side by side of the six of clubs from my 2003 deck, my new red arrow deck, and my new blue arrow deck, all KEM.
While my old deck is clearly worn - the cards remain in relatively good shape.
I’ve reached out to KEM, and expect they’ll replace the deck in question. I still love the company’s product - but find it enlightening that despite a well established process and product, sometimes manufacture errors can still slip through the cracks.
Comparing Decks
Since I’m writing about playing cards anyway, I thought it would be interesting to compare my old deck of red arrows, to the newer decks as well as to a deck of Copags. To keep everything apples to apples – all of these decks are bridge sized which I prefer to standard sized cards (they are slightly narrower), and are jumbo indexed (which is clearly superior to standard). From left to right are my 2003 KEMs, the new red arrows, and new blue arrows.
The newer KEM red arrows are bowing due to the crackling.
I weighed the decks along with a set of Copags (52 card decks):
2003 KEM Red Arrow – 108g
2024 KEM Red Arrow – 112g
2024 KEM Blue Arrow – 111g
2023 Copag – 104g
Comparing my 2003 KEM red arrow deck to my new 2024 version, we notice a couple of key differences.
First off, KEM changed the color of the back of the deck to a more raspberry red from a brighter red.
Second, it’s likely that at some point the base card stock was changed to a slightly thicker/heavier pvc. It is possible that my older deck is lighter purely due to wear, but I find it unlikely.
Old KEM cards are left, new on the right
Considering that my old deck is twenty years old, I would suspect that the company’s cards have gone through multiple adjustments with regards to inks, and varnishes used.
What are your favorite playing cards?
