Harding DeSHoCk stack simplifies calculations.

By using DeSHoCk with the Harding stack (instead of CHaSeD or SHoCkeD) this greatly simplifies the mental effort of knowing which offset (0, 13, 26, 39) to use IMO.

Surely this technique (DeSHoCk in conjunction with the Harding stack) has been published somewhere before, but my research has not found it yet, apologies If it has. This is a very minor tweak to the Harding method but I believe the impact is great in easing the mental gymnastics.

The Harding stack has been around such a long time it is basically in the public domain. A simple internet search will find many explanations, but I will not explain it here, but will describe the DeSHoCk improvement which will be meaningless to someone who does not know the Harding stack methods.

Don't mentally use the imaginary card order stuff, just directly use the offset number as mentioned below.

Using DeSHoCk the suit values are as follows:
Diamonds equals 0
Spades equals 1
Hearts equals 2
Clubs equals 3

Note that the lobes or points on the suit pip visually tells you the suit value except for diamonds which has the value 0. Just imagine a great big zero inside the diamond pip.

This DeSHoCk method lets you quickly know the offset number (0, 13, 26, 39) to use when doing "card to number calculations" and lets you quickly know the suit when doing "number to card" calculations.

CARD NAME TO NUMBER algorithm:
Therefore when calculating from "card name to position number" when they tell you the card value and the suit, the suit lets you visually know instantly which offset to use because the first digit of the offset will match the suit lobes/points!

Diamonds equals offset 0
Spades equals offset 13
Hearts equals offset 26
Clubs equals offset 39
Note that the suit pip/lobes tells you the first digit of the offset and thus the offset number!

This eliminates having to think about an imaginary spread of cards (it accomplishes the same thing without as much mental effort because your mind goes directly to the offset number).

Therefore all you have to do is add the card's value to its offset number and then do the rest of the Harding algorithm.

Below is the first few cards of the Harding physical stack based on the imaginary DeSHoCk Ace thru King of each suit:

10d, 7s, 4h, Ac, Jc, 6d, 7d, 9h, 6c, Ad, Jd, 8s, 5h, 2c, ...

Number to card:
Flip the number subtract the nearest lower offset number (0 or 13 or 26 or 39). The result is the value of the card at that position. The first digit of the offset number that was used tells you the suit (ie: DeSHoCk: 0 means diamonds, 1 means spades, 2 means hearts, 3 means clubs).

I have deliberately left out some important details so folks can buy the basic Harding calculations from legitimate sources.

Note that in addition to doing positional calculations this DeSHoCk stack/method makes a running reveal of cards easier by using its easier "number to card" methodology.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Bart Harding stack, published by him in 1962:
The Harding stack has also seen print in several other publications over the years, most recently a series of articles published in The Magician magazine: "Walt Lees on the Bart Harding Card System" (issue 161, November 2004) "Thanks to Bart," by Stephen Tucker (issue 165, March 2005) "Further Thanks to Bart," by Stephen Tucker (issue 166, April 2005) "Even Further Thanks to Bart," by Stephen Tucker (issue 167, May 2005) "Further Thanks to Bart (One Deck)", by Stephen Tucker (issue 168, June 2005) Alan Shaxon also published material on this stack.
Ted Lesley - "The Marked Deck".

Like most continental Europeans, I prefer the shocked order for stacks, and so for the Harding stack.

Thanks hcs for the historic info.
I think this means that no one has rights to the Harding stack for publishing purposes?

Maybe, I don't know.
The rights were held in the 1990th by Bart Harding.

To hcs: If I understand correctly the typical European magician using the Harding stack would have the deck setup based on an imaginary stack of:
Ace through King of Spades followed by
Ace through King of Hearts followed by
Ace through King of clubs followed by
Ace through King of Diamonds?

Most younger continental Europeans prefer shocked order. But the great German magician Ted Lesley used chased order.

For calculations, I use like you do Diamonds 0 or (less often) 4, Spades 1, Hearts 2, and Clubs 3.
Mnemonics: it looks like zero or four corners, one sharp corner, two lobes, and three leaves.

There are significant advantages to assigning numerical values to the suit symbols themselves,

Midas card technique:
Harding physical DeSHoCk stack:

10d, 7s, 4h, Ac, Jc, 6d, 7d, 9h, 6c, Ad, Jd, 8s, 5h,
2c, Qc, 3s, Ks, 10h, 7c, 2d, Qd, 9s, 6h, 3c, Kc, 4s, Ah, Jh, 8c, 3d, Kd, 10s, 7h, 4c, 8d, 5s, 2h, Qh, 9c, 4d, As, Js, 8h, 5c, 9d, 6s, 3h, Kh, 10c, 5d, 2s, Qs

Note that this stack is based on imaginary DeSHoCk Ace thru King of each suit.

Note with this arrangement the 6D, and 7D are the outliers instead of the 6C and 7C. But if you use this Midas card technique you don't have to worry about them.

Of the algorithmic stacks the Harding stack is one of the better random looking stacks.
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This recent post shows how to eliminate the bothersome -5+5 part of the Harding stack calculation. This is done by having a special "Midas" card that is openly shown to the spectator and audience that has the permissible card choices (for doing card to number) on one side and the permissible number choices (If later doing number to card) on the other side of that special card.

DeSHoCk deck Card to number calculation:
Determine the offset number of the named card
(named card from the Midas card) then add the named card value then flip the 2 digits.

Below is the DeSHoCk Harding stack showing the Midas cards as uppercase suits (the lowercase suit cards will not be on the Midas card because they require -5 + 5 calculation or are 6D or 7D).

10D, 7S, 4H, AC, JC, 6d, 7d, 9h, 6c, AD, JD, 8S, 5H,
2C, QC, 3s, Ks, 10h, 7c, 2D, QD, 9S, 6H, 3C, KC, 4s, Ah, Jh, 8c, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C, 8d, 5s, 2h, Qh, 9c, 4D, AS, JS, 8H, 5C, 9d, 6s, 3h, Kh, 10c, 5D, 2H, QS

CARD NAME TO NUMBER:
The permissible cards a spectator can choose from are permanently written hodgepodge on a blank card ahead of time. During performance The magician shows this card to a spectator and asks them to name anyone of these cards:

10C, 7H, 4S, AD, JD, AC, JC, 8H, 5S, 2D, QD, 2C, QC, 9H, 6S, 3D, KD, 3C, KC, 10H, 7S, 4D, 4C, AH, JH, 8S, 5D, 5C, 2H, QH

You could also have the same cards written a second time directly underneath the above list to make it look like it's a full 52 cards on the hodgepodge list.

This technique eliminates the possibility of having to do the -5+5 because those 22 problem card names are not on the list.

If the card resides at a position less than 10 then imagine a zero in front of that position then flip the two digit number.

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NUMBER TO CARD:
On the other side of this special blank card have written the permissible numbers that the spectator can choose:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 50, 51, 52

Write the above numbers in hodgepodge fashion and you could write them twice to make it appear as though they are 52 numbers but instruct the spectator to name out loud one of the numbers on the card.

This technique eliminates the possibility of having to do the -5+5 because those 22 difficult numbers are not on the list.

Note if the named number is less than 10 then imagine a zero in front of that number before you flip it.
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Oops, I copied the wrong Midas card.

The card names for DeSHoCk Harding should be the following:
10D, 7S, 4H, AC, JC, AD, JD, 8S, 5H, 2C, QC,
2D, QD, 9S, 6H, 3C, KC, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C,
4D, AS, JS, 8H, 5C, 5D, 2H, QS

The card position numbers are okay:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 50, 51, 52

Here is the Harding DeSHoCk Midas card that you can print off (I repeated the card names and also repeated the card numbers but jumbled the numbers up so that they look random).

Print the below on one side:
10D, 7S, 4H, AC, JC, AD, JD, 8S, 5H, 2C, QC,
2D, QD, 9S, 6H, 3C, KC, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C,
4D, AS, JS, 8H, 5C, 5D, 2H, QS, 10D, 7S, 4H,
AC, JC, AD, JD, 8S, 5H, 2C, QC, 2D, QD, 9S,
6H, 3C, KC, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C, 4D, AS, JS,
8H, 5C, 5D, 2H, QS

Print the below on the other side:
24, 11, 52, 33, 4, 12, 25, 21, 3, 43, 13, 2, 31,
14, 50, 32, 10, 44, 5, 30, 41, 23, 1, 51, 20, 42,
34, 40, 22, 15, 24, 11, 52, 33, 4, 12, 25, 21, 3,
43, 13, 2, 31, 14, 50, 32, 10, 44, 5, 30, 41,
23, 1, 51, 20, 42, 34, 40, 22, 15

Oops, another error: the 2H should not be on the DeSHoCk Midas card, instead of the 2H it should be 2S (2 of spades). Below is correct:

Print the below card names on one side:
4D, AS, JS, 8H, 5C, 5D, 2S, QS, 10D, 7S, 4H,
10D, 7S, 4H, AC, JC, AD, JD, 8S, 5H, 2C, QC,
2D, QD, 9S, 6H, 3C, KC, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C,
AC, JC, AD, JD, 8S, 5H, 2C, QC, 2D, QD, 9S,
6H, 3C, KC, 3D, KD, 10S, 7H, 4C, 4D, AS, JS,
8H, 5C, 5D, 2S, QS

Note that I also moved a different row to the top row. The order on the Midas card makes no difference.

Print the below card positions on the other side:
24, 11, 52, 33, 4, 12, 25, 21, 3, 43, 13, 2, 31,
14, 50, 32, 10, 44, 5, 30, 41, 23, 1, 51, 20, 42,
34, 40, 22, 15, 24, 11, 52, 33, 4, 12, 25, 21, 3,
43, 13, 2, 31, 14, 50, 32, 10, 44, 5, 30, 41,
23, 1, 51, 20, 42, 34, 40, 22, 15