Nearly two years ago, I saw an eBay listing for an intriguing planner binder, a Timberland, that appeared to have good heavy, well-worn leather, but what really caught my eye was that it had ring protectors. I was able to win the auction at a rather good price and about a week later, it arrived.
It was a bit musty and quite worn, with rust on the ring mechanism.
I removed the rings from the Timberland to clean underneath, and found that there was a lot of rust inside:
I attacked the rust with WD40 and a toothbrush and left the Timberland out in the garage for a few weeks, periodically giving the rust a few minutes of attention. It did clean up somewhat, but not perfectly. I also took advantage of having the rings out of the way to clean the leather inside and out with saddle soap and then touch it up with show polish. I also decided that it made no sense to put the old rings back in:
I had picked up a Filofax Adventurer that was complete trash, and decided to replace the Timberland rings with the Adventurer one, only to discover that they were incompatible: The Adventurer used rivets and the Timberland used the clip in style of early Filofaxes and still used by firms like Gillio and Van der Spek. I had an old Lincoln that had seen better days and decided to sacrifice it for the rings.
The rings went in with a snap and a click. I am very happy with the result:
I remember those binders. The leather was really tough, like hide, and thicker than saddle leather (too stiff for my uses). That's a nice job and it looks great now. I've seen a few eBay sellers offering an increasing variety of Filofax-compatible rings. I've also been curious, reading all the recent posts on Gillio and Van Der Speck, whether they would sell replacement rings on their own. I'm sure there are lots of people out there with older binders who would like to replace their rings with genuine Krause rings? I include myself in that category :)
ReplyDeleteGillio sell rings but they are not Krause unfortunately
DeleteAh, maybe I read that VdS use Krause, not Gillio. Think I'll drop them a line and see if they could fit new rings to an old filofax.
DeleteSpooky I saw one just like it on Sunday....
ReplyDeletePaul, I just made a ring binder few nights ago by using old (and insanely good rings) and now I pretty much have a binder of my dreams.
ReplyDeleteFanci: We will need a guest post about your creations!
Deletethat's a really nice one ! I love it's look! Good job with the ring change.
ReplyDeleteOh great job, a labour of love but it was worth it.
ReplyDelete