Newspaper Tearing

[Guest indi]

i remember reading somewhere that folding 4 full sheets of newspaper in half 5 times gives, on average, the same size and thickness as a deck of cards. just wondering if any tearers out there have any insight to this.

i figured it would be an easy way to practice some tearing without having to purchase many decks.

[AdamTGlass]

i remember reading somewhere that folding 4 full sheets of newspaper in half 5 times gives, on average, the same size and thickness as a deck of cards. just wondering if any tearers out there have any insight to this.

i figured it would be an easy way to practice some tearing without having to purchase many decks.

Not even close. Much like steel bending, this is a thing that will cost you some money to get good at. to get great with it, you must tear A LOT. And high quality decks are different than dollar store decks. I would estimate i have torn over 500 decks of cards in the last year. Bikes. Costly activity to be sure.

[Guest indi]

i remember reading somewhere that folding 4 full sheets of newspaper in half 5 times gives, on average, the same size and thickness as a deck of cards. just wondering if any tearers out there have any insight to this.

i figured it would be an easy way to practice some tearing without having to purchase many decks.

Not even close. Much like steel bending, this is a thing that will cost you some money to get good at. to get great with it, you must tear A LOT. And high quality decks are different than dollar store decks. I would estimate i have torn over 500 decks of cards in the last year. Bikes. Costly activity to be sure.

ouch.

cheers for the reply. i dont really tear or anything, but i would like to start. the 4 newspaper sheets folded 5 times is still difficult for me, so i guess i can stick to that for now. and once i can do that easily, move onto some cheap cards, and eventually onto higher quality ones.

[kerbjr]

Newspaper has a totally different feel and is much softer on the hands. I doubt carry-over will be very good to cards. However i would suggest the dollar a deck cards from walmart, they used to be the easiest deck on earth and are now for the most part equal to the bikes. Much easier on the wallet. If you can find cards in malaysia at the dollar store (havnt found them in a long time) they are 2 buck a deck and are harder than bikes..Either way a good place to start is the dollar store cards and work your way up the ladder. Oh almost forgot, find someone who works in a casino and get some free cards, the casino we have down here has trouble getting rid of all of them and has been very good about giving me decks when I want some.....Brett

[Omari]

What about cardboard?

I can get that for free.

[jwils]

Cards are plastic coated, making them a heck of a lot harder to hold onto (because they are slippery) and a heck of a lot harder to tear than paper. I think to get the best carryover to tearing cards, you've got to tear cards.

If a whole deck is too much of an undertaking at the beginning, then tear as many as you can. As you get stronger add to the number of cards that you tear until you can completely tear a full deck - I think that'll probably lead to the best results in the fastest amount of time.

Good Luck!

[AdamTGlass]

Newspaper has a totally different feel and is much softer on the hands. I doubt carry-over will be very good to cards. However i would suggest the dollar a deck cards from walmart, they used to be the easiest deck on earth and are now for the most part equal to the bikes. Much easier on the wallet. If you can find cards in malaysia at the dollar store (havnt found them in a long time) they are 2 buck a deck and are harder than bikes..Either way a good place to start is the dollar store cards and work your way up the ladder. Oh almost forgot, find someone who works in a casino and get some free cards, the casino we have down here has trouble getting rid of all of them and has been very good about giving me decks when I want some.....Brett

Brett

I have not seen any dollar store decks that are equal to bikes. Dollar store decks may feel "spongy" during the tear, which people may believe feels harder, but they do not stack anywhere close to the thickness and quality per card compared to bikes. I believe bikes are the golden standard here and they are very consistant.

News paper, card board- neither of which will be of much help. Like i said- this is a costly thing. What is the specific motivation to be able to do it? If it simply because you want to, thats great but understand there will be a cost to this sort of thing.

I had bugged and bugged a very good steel scroller for months to give me tips on braced bending and scrolling and all he ever said was "Scroll more steel" This was very frustrating at first, but it truly is the best possible answer. Any time your working with something that involves destroying it, you need to work with it often.

Grip- some times a very frustrating training method because some things are just so dang specific!

[Guest indi]

thanks for the replies. looks like ill be stocking up on some cheap playing cards in due time.

[kerbjr]

Newspaper has a totally different feel and is much softer on the hands. I doubt carry-over will be very good to cards. However i would suggest the dollar a deck cards from walmart, they used to be the easiest deck on earth and are now for the most part equal to the bikes. Much easier on the wallet. If you can find cards in malaysia at the dollar store (havnt found them in a long time) they are 2 buck a deck and are harder than bikes..Either way a good place to start is the dollar store cards and work your way up the ladder. Oh almost forgot, find someone who works in a casino and get some free cards, the casino we have down here has trouble getting rid of all of them and has been very good about giving me decks when I want some.....Brett

Brett

I have not seen any dollar store decks that are equal to bikes. Dollar store decks may feel "spongy" during the tear, which people may believe feels harder, but they do not stack anywhere close to the thickness and quality per card compared to bikes. I believe bikes are the golden standard here and they are very consistant.

News paper, card board- neither of which will be of much help. Like i said- this is a costly thing. What is the specific motivation to be able to do it? If it simply because you want to, thats great but understand there will be a cost to this sort of thing.

I had bugged and bugged a very good steel scroller for months to give me tips on braced bending and scrolling and all he ever said was "Scroll more steel" This was very frustrating at first, but it truly is the best possible answer. Any time your working with something that involves destroying it, you need to work with it often.

Grip- some times a very frustrating training method because some things are just so dang specific!

Adam,

The old malaysians (Called dolphins by Big Steve) from the dollar store were the hardest non plastic cards ever made. They were equal to 1.5 to 1.75 decks of Bikes. You simply dont find these anymore unless you hit some at the flea markets, but it has been years since the were on the shelves. However the Walmart Maverics and the $1 decks back in the toy dept have been for quite some time very close to the bikes. In fact due to their varience they are often times even harder at times. Anyhow not a big deal but I have been at this for a long time and have more than a clue as to what I am saying. As far as varience i have seen the bikes go up and down over the years and there for a time(couple of years ago) felt like the rider back bikes were among some of the easier cards to tear. Anyhow I am an old man and not into it as much as I used to be so I know things change, and to your credit you have become a more accomplished tearer in a short time than I became in years. Anyhow to each there own and opinions are what they are....Brett Kerby

[foxyj75]

Newspaper has a totally different feel and is much softer on the hands. I doubt carry-over will be very good to cards. However i would suggest the dollar a deck cards from walmart, they used to be the easiest deck on earth and are now for the most part equal to the bikes. Much easier on the wallet. If you can find cards in malaysia at the dollar store (havnt found them in a long time) they are 2 buck a deck and are harder than bikes..Either way a good place to start is the dollar store cards and work your way up the ladder. Oh almost forgot, find someone who works in a casino and get some free cards, the casino we have down here has trouble getting rid of all of them and has been very good about giving me decks when I want some.....Brett

Brett

I have not seen any dollar store decks that are equal to bikes. Dollar store decks may feel "spongy" during the tear, which people may believe feels harder, but they do not stack anywhere close to the thickness and quality per card compared to bikes. I believe bikes are the golden standard here and they are very consistant.

News paper, card board- neither of which will be of much help. Like i said- this is a costly thing. What is the specific motivation to be able to do it? If it simply because you want to, thats great but understand there will be a cost to this sort of thing.

I had bugged and bugged a very good steel scroller for months to give me tips on braced bending and scrolling and all he ever said was "Scroll more steel" This was very frustrating at first, but it truly is the best possible answer. Any time your working with something that involves destroying it, you need to work with it often.

Grip- some times a very frustrating training method because some things are just so dang specific!

Adam,

The old malaysians (Called dolphins by Big Steve) from the dollar store were the hardest non plastic cards ever made. They were equal to 1.5 to 1.75 decks of Bikes. You simply dont find these anymore unless you hit some at the flea markets, but it has been years since the were on the shelves. However the Walmart Maverics and the $1 decks back in the toy dept have been for quite some time very close to the bikes. In fact due to their varience they are often times even harder at times. Anyhow not a big deal but I have been at this for a long time and have more than a clue as to what I am saying. As far as varience i have seen the bikes go up and down over the years and there for a time(couple of years ago) felt like the rider back bikes were among some of the easier cards to tear. Anyhow I am an old man and not into it as much as I used to be so I know things change, and to your credit you have become a more accomplished tearer in a short time than I became in years. Anyhow to each there own and opinions are what they are....Brett Kerby

I have recently switched to just tearing Bikes, and found that they are actually easier than the dollar store cards I was tearing. I dunno if the cheapo cards were freaks or what, but they were "Cartamundi" brand. The bikes initial tear is harder, but rip easier the rest of the way. The cheapos are easier to initially rip, but are a BEAR to finish. They almost feel "stretchy". Just my experience.

[Jedd Johnson]

Love ya, Adam, but I have to disagree with you on the newspaper, bro. I have had a harder time tearing one large sheet of paper folded up the size of a deck of cards that an actual deck of cards, going against the fold, that is. If you go through the edge, you are kidding yourself though - it is way easier that way.

This is also a cheap way to condition the lower arm and hands to the strain and twisting of the cards.

Another way we used to train for tearing was with audit cards from where I work. We do these safety audits on these very long cards and once they are tallied, they get thrown out, so I used to tear them like a son fo a gun. This might be something you can look for as well, Indi.

Bikes have been the hardest cards I have found that are made of paper. I have some cards that are made out of vinyl which are pretty much un-tearable.