Guest Review: Deborah's new Ostrich Filofax!

Many thanks to Deborah for this fantastic review of her new Ostrich Filofax! 

The “Roadrunner” of Filofaxes: The Ostrich

Philofaxy’s Laurie graciously offered to feature my review of my latest purchase. I have to admit that I was a little nervous (and very excited) about doing it for two reasons: 1) I searched endlessly for a review of this binder and could not find one single review, and 2) I’ve been toying with the idea of starting my own blog, but have no idea if I can pull it off so this will be practice.

Thank you, Laurie and Philofaxy for featuring this. I hope that you all enjoy!

Please meet my biggest splurge ever…my Personal Ostrich in Buttercup! My obsession with this binder began when I saw Ro’s spotlight interview on Philofaxy and saw a picture of her ostrich binder. I hadn’t known that Filofax offered an ostrich leather binder. After months of obsessing I did it! I bought the binder at a very “reasonable” price from Pens & Leather. And here is my review:

Packaging It arrived in a black Filofax box and was wrapped in a thick, soft felt-like black cloth. Nice!

The Outside The leather is unlike any other leather I’ve seen or felt. It is incredibly soft, all of it, including the quill bumps. I was afraid that the “bumps” would be hard but they are soft as well. The binder has some type of cardboard-like material between the leather that gives it structure but doesn’t take away from the supple and soft leather. According to my research, ostrich leather is full of natural oils – so it resists drying and cracking - and also has collagen qualities that make it very strong, supple, and pliable. I love the way that the binder feels in my hand. I’ve been holding and “petting” it every chance I get.

 
The quill bumps give it a very nice and interesting texture that is just plain fun to touch. The leather between the quills has a very subtle wrinkle pattern…nothing overpowering.

I chose the Buttercup color hoping that it would be more of a tan color (and not a yellow/butter color). Fortunately I was right. It is a nice rich tan/beige color.

It has a snap closure on the clasp and no other outward detailing (besides the quill bumps). Interestingly enough, it does not have the embossed “F” on the outside spine.

The Inside The binder laid flat right out of the box! It is all ostrich leather on the inside except for the lining in the pockets and slots that is a nice cream-colored satin material. It compliments the color of the leather very well. The inside leather is slightly more wrinkled than the outside. The ring size, according to Filofax, is 7/8” (23mm) and the binder has a ring protector flap on either side of the rings. Okay, onto the layout details!

The left side has “Filofax, Made in USA, Genuine Ostrich” embossed in the leather. The ring protector flap partially covers the 8 credit card slots and the inside full-length pocket. There is also a full-length pocket on the outer edge. It reminds me a lot of the Holborn layout – plenty of pockets and slots! This was a pleasant surprise. One downside about the credit card slots is that they are very tight and it takes some finessing to get cards in and out of there. Hopefully with time it will stretch a little bit.

The right side has two full-length pockets similar to the left side. It also has a zippered flat pocket that has a protective “flap” over the zipper. I really like this feature since the zipper won’t damage the last page that is in the binder. There is one non-elasticized pen loop that fits a “regular-sized” pen/pencil; thicker writing instruments probably won’t fit.

Moving In/Space Once I had the binder in my happy little hands, I had to immediately move everything over from my Personal Holborn (which, according to Filofax, has 15/16” rings - (23mm)). As you can see from the picture, my Holborn was packed, and yes, I could still snap it closed!

Because of the perspective, it looks like the Holborn is smaller than the ostrich; it isn’t. Well, I wasn’t able to fit everything into my ostrich binder and had to leave out the pictured stack. The bulkiest item was my envelope full of stickers that I now carry separately in my purse. A concession I’m happy to make because….

Overall Impression I really love this binder! It was definitely a splurge but so worth it. I’m worried that my other 13 or so binders won’t be used now because I can’t see myself moving out of this binder any time soon (if ever!). I may have found my “one true Filofax”.

I think the binder has a very classic and unique look about it. The leather is very soft and supple and a pleasure to touch and hold - I find that I’m choosing to hold it when going from place to place rather than carrying it in my purse - a first for me. I’m very pleased with my investment and in my opinion, the challenges to the binder (tight credit card slots and the smaller rings) are something that I can happily live with because it is, to me, just so beautiful.

And lastly, here is my Ostrich open and ready for action!

Hope you enjoyed and please feel free to ask any questions!