Flattening Warped KEMs (2 Viewers)

[LeLe]

I bought KEM twice and both time ended in disappointment, they bowed and cracked so easily even after all the extra care and steps taken to prevent it

They just not my cup of tea, there are many more choices out there with little or no maintenance needs at lower prices

 

[upNdown]

I think the best bang for the buck out there right now is Cartamundi CCPs bridge that can be had for $10-14 on Amazon. They are heavier PVC so I think they would be fine.
I’ve also never seen Copags warp and next to Kem, have owned sets of them the longest. They do have other issues which is why I don’t buy them anymore…but warping isn’t one…and if you aren’t playing with them a whole lot they should be fine (they bleed and fade with routine use)

I wrote about this recently, but I just opened a sealed deck of copags that I’d had for a couple of years. They had a small but noticible bow to them, out of the cellophane.
I used to play in a card room where they used copags and used them longer than they should. They were very often bowed and somewhat significantly.
I posted about it somewhere here on PCF within the past couple of months and got the same feedback - everybody said copags don’t bow. But I have enough personal experience to say that they absolutely do.

 

[Old State]

I bought KEM twice and both time ended in disappointment, they bowed and cracked so easily even after all the extra care and steps taken to prevent it

They just not my cup of tea, there are many more choices out there with little or no maintenance needs at lower prices

Cracking? Sounds like you got some very very old stock. I’ve played with Kems for 20 years and never saw that. I did see some one post pics and they were decks that were in storage for many many years.

 

[Bluegrass Poker]

I was all Modiano until I got caught up on history. They are now relegated to ModiaNO and all my setups have been replaced by the Desjgn classic diamond Bridge blackjack index.

What history? I don’t know the backstory. Care to share a link so I can read up on it? Thanks

 

[TheOffalo]

What history? I don’t know the backstory. Care to share a link so I can read up on it? Thanks

This thread covers what happened: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/bridge-jumbo-index-issue.24936/. If you search the thread itself for "Modiano", you'll see many negative remarks about the company.

 

[LeLe]

Cracking? Sounds like you got some very very old stock. I’ve played with Kems for 20 years and never saw that. I did see some one post pics and they were decks that were in storage for many many years.

They are quite new stock the common arrow head blue and red, had quite a few thread about the crack / scale issue mention before at PCF. Will probably dig it out tml if I had the time

 

[ktran]

Cracking? Sounds like you got some very very old stock. I’ve played with Kems for 20 years and never saw that. I did see some one post pics and they were decks that were in storage for many many years.

I've got some modern ones that bowed and cracked kind of like alligator skin to get a sense.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

I had KEM's that were warped and it never really bothered us. They were getting sticky however so I washed them in warm water and soap.

I set them all out on a towel to dry and they warped like crazy! Curled up into semicircle shapes. Though I wrecked them for sure. Came back a little while later and as they dried they flattened out completely! I was left with a clean, un-warped KEM's that were good as new!

This helped.

I received a setup and one of the deck had his cello torn. When I removed the cards from the cello, they started to wrap quite crazy.

Here's a pic after a bath of warm water + some drops of Dreft. I let them dry one night.

Some of the cards became flat.

I repeated this process a second time and things went better :

Then I decided to put some weight on them - 3 x flat blue stones (approx. 7.8 kg total) with a towel to protect the cards.

Every 8 hours I change the position of the cards (ex : spades on top, then clubs, ...).

After 24 jours, here's the result :

I'll continue and hopefully this deck will be fixed.

Note to myself : never buy Kem cards again.

 

[ktran]

This helped.

I received a setup and one of the deck had his cello torn. When I removed the cards from the cello, they started to wrap quite crazy.

Here's a pic after a bath of warm water + some drops of Dreft. I let them dry one night.

View attachment 918101

Some of the cards became flat.

I repeated this process a second time and things went better :
View attachment 918103

Then I decided to put some weight on them - 3 x flat blue stones (approx. 7.8 kg total) with a towel to protect the cards.

Every 8 hours I change the position of the cards (ex : spades on top, then clubs, ...).

After 24 jours, here's the result :

View attachment 918104

I'll continue and hopefully this deck will be fixed.

Note to myself : never buy Kem cards again.

Please come back and let us know how they managed over time.

 

[Quad Johnson]

Meh. I've no time to for cards that require kid gloves to be handled when there's so many good alternatives out there.

 

[DoubleEagle]

I used a pouch laminator to flatten a warped deck of Kems. Although the results came out pretty good, they went back to their warped state not long after. I have given up trying to flatten them as nothing seems to work long term.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

3 days later :

I'll now see how it handles without any weight.

The top card is a Joker hopefully.

 

[LeLe]

The top card is a Joker hopefully.

High % is a Joker or the Guarantee Card since they are used minimum or never in play.

The top card is actually having zero bowing issue from the pic, is the rest of the deck from 2nd cards onward that is bowing

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Well, after few minutes, the first card is more like the others now.

At least the cards are now consistent compared to the first pic of my experiment.

 

[ovo]

I've heard oven on low works, with some clamps

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

So far so good. They keep their shape.

 

[ktran]

So all it takes is a wash/bath and some pressure over time? Are the cards pat dried or just placed on a towel for air dry?

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

I remove most of the water from them then air dry for 24 hours.

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

They may wrap like crazy after the bath but will flatten when drying

 

[ktran]

Interesting. Has anyone try applying pressure while it's drying?

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

Interesting. Has anyone try applying pressure while it's drying?

Haven't try that

 

[JFG]

The stock they use for plastic—and paper—originally come in rolls or spools. The stock will have a natural curve, bend, or warp because of this. The warping is worse for cards made from stock nearest to the core.

If you have Kems that warp easy, then it’s probably because of this. I have a few decks curl right in my hands, but others that don’t. surprisingly, my USPC set up warps the least.