Restoring my Buckingham?

My Buckingham is my first real Filofax, bought in 2001. It has black, soft smooth leather that I previously thought was indestructible. My Buckingham has done a lot of really hard traveling around the world with me. It was used heavily for nearly a decade.

A couple of years ago I noticed my Buckingham was finally starting to show some signs of wear on the cover. Nothing that anyone else would even notice, really, just a couple of places where the leather was lightly scuffed.  So to preserve its beauty, I put it on the shelf in semi-retirement.

Ironically, it has suffered far worse damage in retirement than it ever did in all those years of heavy use.

Its first major damage happened in transit here to Jakarta. I packed it in my air shipment, which was supposed to arrive a week after we moved but ended up sitting in customs for a month. In the tropical Indonesian heat. And I had very stupidly packed my Buckingham right next to a plastic-covered planner. The plastic melted slightly onto the leather cover of my Buckingham, leaving much of it shiny.  I was very upset about it, and angry at myself for making such a mistake.

So I put it on my shelf with my other Filofaxes, carefully (I thought).  Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to the fact that the back cover was right up against a Domino, and every time I put a book in or out of that shelf the shifting of my Buckingham against the Domino's round strap dug and scuffed the leather right across the back of the binder, much to my heartbreak.

Then to add insult to injury, the front cover of the Buckingham was up against one of my Finsbury Filofaxes. Who knew that the knobbly texture of the Finsbury would imprint itself into the soft leather of the Buckingham??

So first of all I've learned my lesson: this beloved Filofax must be stored in a box, no exception.

Another problem caused by shelving my Buckingham is that during the years it has not been handled on a daily basis the leather has started to look cracky along either side of the spine where the leather creases when the binder is open.  All those years of handling my Filofax every day kept it smooth and supple with the oils from my hands. Now it's really starting to show signs of neglect.

Now I'm faced with the question of what to do to try to restore my beloved Buckingham to some of its former glory. My first solution was of course to take it off the damn shelf and put in on my desk along with all my other in-current-use books, and to handle it as often as possible. Already it's looking better--the Finsbury impressions are coming out, and the cracky areas are smoothing. The shiny plastic residue has mostly rubbed off.

But I still have the horrible scuffs on the back cover. Luckily it is the back, and the front is not nearly as marred. But I would like to try to smooth that out.

I haven't tried the Nivea creme trick, because I'm afraid the mineral oil base would remove some of the leather's dye color. I think probably the best thing to do would be to handle it as much as possible, and the scuffs will smooth out at least a little bit over time.

Which brought me to the realization: Filofaxes, especially the well-made leather ones, are like living things. They must be handled and cared for. They need attention and love. Left on the shelf to languish, they wither and die.

So please, learn from my mistakes!  And if anyone has any ideas for getting scuffs out of soft, smooth leather please let me know!

Filofax maps

Steve and Nicola's exchange re: maps got me thinking about how I use maps in my Filofaxes. My opinion is, the more maps the better! I always seem to find myself needing a map.

In my very first pre-Filofax planner (a personal size Cambridge) I photocopied a map of the big island of Hawaii, where I was about to move, and poked holes along the edge with a sharp pencil to put it onto the rings. This is a technique I still use, actually, for maps that Filofax doesn't carry. In my A5 Finsbury I have a map of Albania that I copied out of my guide book, for general road trips planning. Also in my A5 Fins I have an A5 Filofax world map and the A5 size British Islands maps (which I bought from the Filofax UK website), which are very useful when I grab my Filo to look up a location. My A5 lives by my computer so it's always handy.

In my Scotland Filofax I have as many maps as possible. World map (actually I keep a world map in almost every Filofax I own), British Islands. I also have the Filofax maps of London (which consists of 3 maps that together comprise most of central London, with street names on the back) because I usually spend a day in London on my way up to Scotland. I also have the London rail systems and Underground map, which is very handy. I also have a map that has Edinburgh on one side and Glasgow on the other, that I cut out of the free Letts Scotland diary that came in The Scotsman newspaper in January. I sliced the page out of the diary, put some tape on the edge, poked some holes and into the Filo it went! Very handy.

In my black Buckingham I store my US maps for when I go back to visit family and friends. I have a US road map (which in the personal size is so tiny it couldn't really get you anywhere, it really just gives you an idea of which highway would be better to get you across the state or the country) and a US times zones and area codes map. I also have a Washington DC street map, which I used all the time when I lived in DC. I usually go through DC whenever I go back to the US so it's convenient to have it in my Filo.

In my Deco, which is now my everyday notes/ lists/ addresses/ everything except my planner book, I keep a world map and my ancient Europe map (which is so old it still has Yugoslavia!). The people I know travel a lot, and to places all around the world, so usually during the course of a conversation I need to look at a map to see exactly where they are talking about. I have learned more geography this way than I ever learned in school!

The problem with Filofax maps is, there just aren't enough of them. As Nicola discovered, there aren't enough of the city maps. (And actually I'm shocked that they don't have Toronto! But sure enough, they don't.) I understand that Filofax only carries maps that they believe will sell well. And I know in this day and age it's maybe a little archaic to use paper maps at all (although after hearing some people's GPS navigation stories, I don't trust those things at all!!). But being a paper-person, and a maps-person, I do wish they had more maps available.

Do you use maps in your Filofax(es)? Which maps do you wish Filofax had available?