Lefax City 10

I'm very grateful to Anita for sending me this very elegant Slimline Lefax organiser. 

Before we start looking at this particular organiser in detail, a quick recap about the history of the Lefax company. 

The company was founded in 1910 by J.C. Parker in Philadelphia, USA. Lefax existed before Filofax in fact! The two companies existed selling their own products until 1992, when Filofax bought the company. I'm not sure how long after the take-over that the Lefax products continued to be sold. However, the former Lefax shops were rebranded as Filofax soon after the take-over. 

The last Lefax catalogue I have in the collection is dated 1992. 

Looking through each of the Lefax catalogues we have (see the list below) you get the impression that the Lefax range was fairly stable for many years, it was similar to Filofax in a lot of ways, and also quite distinctive in other respects (check out the Charterhouse duplex). Thank you to Gmax, I've seen his Charterhouse, it is like two personal sized organisers that are 'siamese twins' with the front of one and the back of the other joined by hingeing section! 

Lefax also produced their own complete range of inserts to go with their products

The City10 has been in the catalogues/price lists for several years, it was most probably introduced earlier than we have records for. In each one we do have though it is described as: 

The City binder has been specifically designed with a 10mm ring mechanism to fit into the inside jacket pocket of a suit or into a small handbag. It will hold paper money securely in the two flap pockets on the inside front cover. 

The back cover has six credit card pockets with a full length pocket behind for receipts. It can comfortably accommodate a diary, some notepaper, a selection of specialist forms if required as well as plastic inserts for photos etc. Because the City binder is too narrow for the standard indexes we have designed the new A-ZCITY.  

 These are indexed name and telephone sheets designed to within the standard page size with indented tabs, two letters per tab. To separate sections of the binder it is always possible to use colour coding or acetate envelopes, but we have also developed the 4BT which gives four tabs at the top of the binder. 

The front and back cover are plain, no clasp. The leather is described as French Goat Leather, it is very soft and supple, there is no stiffener used in the binder construction. 

Two 'flap' pockets in the front cover make this an ideal candidate to double duty as a wallet/organiser. 

The inside cover shows the model details LEFAX, City, Made in England, CITY10 SP/6.. City 10mm SP I presume is a coding of the colour and 6 for the number of credit card pockets. Earlier catalogue entries show 5 credit card pockets for the City10

Comparing the Lefax to a similar ring size Filofax Holborn Slimline, the size reduction by Lefax becomes quite obvious. Note there is no pen loop on the Lefax, no room unless the pen was going to sit outside of the binder. 

I put a handful of note pages and a notepad in to the CITY and it all neatly fits in. There is about 4 mm between the edge of the page and the edge of the cover when closed, so if you do use side tabs they are flush or with a slight over-hang. But I'm sure I could make this work without side tabs easily. 

This particular example has been used, but it is in very good condition for its age. I like the simplicity of the design. 

Do you own any Lefax organisers?  

Previous Lefax Posts:

• Guest Post – “The Rules” (1915) by gmax
• Guest Post - Lefax – The Early Years By gmax
• Guest Post - Mail order in by-gone years - Gmax
• Paper Hole Punch - 100 years and still going strong!
• Guest Post - Paul - Lefax Radio Log
• Lefax Radio Log
• Lefax Radio Handbook
• Lefax Price List 1921
• Guest Post - Lefax 1924 – The Dark Side By gmax
• Guest Post - Lefax 1924 – The Light Side By gmax
• Lefax Radio Log and Catalogue - 1928
• A Journey Back In Time - Part 1
• A Journey Back In Time - Part 2
• Lefax Data Sheets - Radio Engineering (1950)
• Filofax Catalogue 179
• D.F. Sanders & Co - Lefax 1985-1986
• D.F. Sanders & Co - Lefax 1986
• Lefax 1988 Full Catalogue
• Lefax Price List 1988
• Lefax 1989 - 1990 Catalogue
• Lefax Spring 1991 Preview Catalogue
• Lefax 1992 Full Catalogue
• Filofax/LEFAX Office addresses
• Lefax City slimline - The very same Lefax as featured in this post!
• Van der Spek meets Lefax

Getting back to rings - my minimal Lefax set up

As mentioned in one of my previous Free For All Fridays, I've had a couple of months off from using an organiser and I feel that the break has served me well. I hadn't set any deadline for my return, but have recently started to feel ready to get back to it, so I thought that I would share with you the first of my two possible set ups. I have some backlog projects that I want to clear, plus the majority of my to do lists etc. are all out of date and a good review is needed anyway. 

I bought this beautiful Lefax City slimline on eBay last year, but I admit that it was bought on a bit of a whim and it's just been sat in a drawer. Whilst I love the slimine size and have owned some before, I've always ended up selling them as I find that normally the small rings don't have quite enough capacity for everything that I want to keep, plus spare paper. However, I do think that the size could work well for planning a particular project, so for the time being I will be using the Lefax as my main binder, alongside my Kensington which will hold any old notes or to do lists that need going through.

Like some slimlines, the Lefax doesn't have a penloop, so initially I tried using an Oli Clip, but eventually decided to go with the simplest option of just clipping the pen clip to the front. I think this works well with the Kaweco Sport as it's such a small pen when the cap is on.  

Dividers from Kate After Coffee (purchased by myself, not an affiliate link)

 

As I'm just easing myself into getting things done, my Lefax has just two sections - 1) Inbox and 2) Lists. I've found over the years that having an inbox as my first section works really well for me, so that I can just write something down without needing to think about where it should go. As per usual, I'm using up some out of date diary pages for writing notes. 

For my lists, I'm using some Raymay Davinci checklist sheets, which I really like. I don't remember buying these, so I think they were gifted to me by a friend.

My first list will be for next actions and any other lists will just be created as I need them. Once again, I don't have a deadline for how long I plan to use this super simple set up, but I love the idea of this fresh start, whilst I can also be working through old notes in the Kensington and adding anything that needs to be kept. I can imagine that when I've made some good progress on the contents of the Kensington, then I will be ready to move back to using personal size again as my main planner as I will also start wanting to look at other projects that need completing. 

Another potential set up that I will be looking at is to have these two sections at the front of the Kensington, and then to have the backlog as a third section after that. However, I will be trying this set up in my Lefax first to see how I get on.

Lefax City slimline

For quite some time now, I haven't had a look on eBay for Filofaxes, but for some reason fancied having a little nose around recently. I do think that in general the prices seem higher than they used to be, but there are still bargains to be had. When I bid, I just set my maximum amount and don't tend to watch the end of the auction, so that I'm not tempted to go above the budget that I have set myself. 

In the past, I've owned a number of slimlines, but sold them all when I decided to stick with just personal size for a number of years. However, I admit that I may have regretted slightly doing this as it can be quite a handy size for popping in your bag or a larger coat pocket. Due to COVID, our household is still mostly staying put, so I won't be travelling anywhere for some time to come, but I do think that a slimline can be very useful for simplifying or for planning a particular project. 

Therefore, I was interested when I came across a Lefax City in a wonderful condition and a colour that I haven't seen before. I put in one bid and was delighted when I got the message announcing that I'd won!

As you can see, apart from a couple of minor ink stains, it's in beautiful condition for its age. The seller said that they purchased it from the Lefax shop in Covent Garden, London, in the early 1980s. It's not very clear in my photo, but on the front cover it says 'LEFAX City, Made in England, CITY 10 SP/6', with the 10 referring to its 10mm rings.  

More information, thanks to the Lefax catalogue kindly uploaded on Philofaxy (you can view the full catalogue here). On the right hand side, it says 'Lefax Event', but I'm not sure what the Event part signifies as a previous burgundy City that I owned also had this on the inside cover. 

As per the catalogue details above, the City was available in black, burgundy, navy, red, brown and grey, but this one certainly isn't one of those colours. As I don't know much about Lefax binders, I reached out to our hugely knowledgeable reader community and this was Brenda's reply - 'I haven’t seen this colour before in LeFax, either! It’s intriguing. This looks like an older luxe model, with the gold leaf logo, etc. It’s sort of a blush or white based beige dye'.

So, if anyone reading this post has come across this colour in a Lefax and may know what it's called, I'd be interested to know more. 

The French goatskin leather is very soft to the touch and has a beautiful sheen to it. 

Like many of the older slimlines, you don't get a pen loop, so I put my thinking cap on about what I could use around the house. At first, I considered removing an adhesive Leuchtturm pen loop from an old project book, but then wondered if I could instead use one of my magnetic Oli Clips.

I think that the colour of this Paper Mate nicely matches and the metal clip attaches quite securely to the clip. I'm not sure if the pen might get knocked off if you were carrying it in a bag, but it works quite well for use within the house. 

Here are some shots next to my personal Kensington, which shows just how svelte the Lefax is:

After doing One Book July in my Kensington, I have moved back into my A5 Original for work and I am considering using the Lefax as my main binder for a change. I will write another post when I've figured out my set up, but it will be as simple as possible, without the use of dividers as they will take up valuable ring space. 

Your Filofax for foreign language learning.

I've lived in France for 11 years, it seems longer. However, you would have thought that by now I would be fluent in French, sadly not. 

Over the years languages have always been a struggle for me, English included. "Yes we had noticed Steve, but we didn't want to say anything" !!!  

I don't mind admitting that it took me two attempts to pass my English 'O' level. Then working as an engineer in a job where I hardly wrote anything other than fault dockets for 10 years, which were very short form writing, didn't exactly help me! 

I did some French classes at school, but I never did get to grasp much of the language then. I didn't visit France until I was in my mid-twenties. I started doing a weekly evening class a couple of years before we moved here in 2010, but it wasn't enough. I would be scared of venturing out on my own at first. Not a problem now. 

Alison is a fluent French and German speaker; she ran her own translation company in UK for a number of years. She is a natural when it comes to languages, but the technical stuff she leaves to me, so we make a good couple I suppose! 

Alison has tried teaching me, it didn't go well! I have also been to classes here as well. Again not enough really. 

Then along came lock down and classes stopped. I did some more daily lessons with Alison. Then I thought I will try a different approach... 

I started learning with Duolingo, it's an app, and website with a very good, structured learning approach. Finally, I seem to be making progress. I do about 30-45 minutes each morning sometimes more. 

Whilst the app is very good, I still like to jot things down to help cement my learning, 

I also remembered some inserts I was given a few years ago. 

I don't know who produced them, but they seem to cover 'business French' as well as everyday phrases

They are double width pages printed on thick paper so they will withstand a lot of use. 

I've put them in my Filofax Holborn Slimline along with some ordinary note paper. I keep this organiser in my writing desk where I do my lessons each morning. Away from other distractions and it is also a quiet spot in the house. 

I've scanned in the inserts into a PDF, you can print this and trim the pages down to Personal size if you wish. It's quite a large file so please be patient when downloading it. 

French Inserts PDF

Guest Post - Filofax Slimline modded with a mobile phone holder insert - Paul

Thank you to Paul for sending in this guest post.. I'm sure we all have a Slimline we could all modify in the same way... me included!

I'm a writer, and formerly was a massive Filofax user. My favourite organizer, my black Filofax Slimline wallet, has been with me for over a decade. But as technology advanced, I found myself doing more and more writing on mobile phones with handwriting recognition, and less and less in the Filofax.

As technology advanced, though, so has mobile phone screen size, so that I now use a device with a 5.5" screen - a Xiaomi Redmi Note 5A. That wasn't a good fit with the Filofax Pocket wallets that I made do with, but it made a good match for the Personal Slim size.

Initially, I tried stowing the phone in the organizer with a Filofax Organiser Pen Holder Personal, but the pocket on the pen holder, although big and robust enough for the phone, didn't let me use the screen while carrying it. So I made my own Filofax-sized mobile phone holder.

You can see the whole process in the photos. First, I cut a Filofax Personal-size page from a clear plastic DVD holder, and punched the six holes with a single-hole punch. Then I bought a cheap standard flexible plastic phone case for the Redmi Note 5A, and stapled it to the clear plastic sheet. I then taped over the staples with black masking tape, to protect the phone back.

Now I have a perfectly sized mobile phone holder for my phone, and can use my Filofax for notes and writing whenever I want to. This may be too heavy for some, but if I'm going to be carrying a phone in a case anyway, and want to have a Filofax with me, why not combine the two? And I'm happy to have given my Slimline a new lease of life.

Further Information: 

Paul StJohn Mackintosh
Website: http://paulstjohnmackintosh.com/
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-St.-John-Mackintosh/e/B00CEH18BM
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulStJohnMackintosh
Twitter: pstjmack

Gillio announce new colours in their organisers - Slim and Pocket Compagnas

Today we look at the Gillio Slim Compagna model for the first time here on Philofaxy.

Gillio are releasing this model in some new colours/leather finishes tomorrow and Philofaxy has been given advance sight of these new colours.

The Slim Compagna.

The Slim Compagna takes paper which is the same size as Filofax Personal and any other organiser that uses paper 95 x 171mm

This photograph shows the internal layout. On the front inside cover there are three card slots and a business card pocket, with a secretarial flap behind it.

On the rear inside cover there are again three business card pockets, with a secretarial flap pocket behind the card slots and a leather/elasticated pen loop.  The slim also has a generous width and length clasp.

Like other Compagna sizes the Slim has a full width back pocket which is lined with a synthetic leather.

The Slim model is fitted with 15 mm internal diameter rings.

The new colours in the Slim Compagna range.

Here they are all lined up together. Three ostrich print leathers and two croco leather finishes.

L-R Ostrich Blue, Ostrich Purple, Ostrich Pink, Croco Honey Matt, Croco Green Matt

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Pink

Ostrich Pink

Ostrich Pink

Croco Honey Matt

Croco Honey Matt

Croco Honey Matt

Croco Green Matt

Croco Green Matt

Croco Green Matt

Gillio Pocket Compagna.

The Pocket Compagna takes paper which is the same size as Filofax Pocket/Van der Spek Junior and any other organiser that uses paper 81 x 120mm

This example shows the internal layout. On the front inside cover there are three card slots and a business card pocket, with a secretarial flap behind it.

On the back inside cover there is a zip pocket and a leather/elasticated pen loop and a secretarial flap behind the zip pocket section.  The pocket also has a generous width and length clasp.

Like other Compagna sizes the Pocket has a full width back pocket which is lined with a synthetic leather.

The Pocket model is fitted with 15 mm internal diameter rings.

The new colours in the Pocket Compagna range.


Here they are all lined up together.

L-R Ostrich Blue, Ostrich Purple, Ostrich Pink, Croco Aubergine, Croco Honey Matt, Epoca Yellow 

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Blue

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Purple

Ostrich Pink

Ostrich Pink

Ostrich Pink

Croco Aubergine

Croco Aubergine

Croco Aubergine

Croco Honey Matt

Croco Honey Matt

Croco Honey Matt

Epoca Yellow

Epoca Yellow

Epoca Yellow

Additional information.

These new colours will be released at 14:00 CET on Tuesday 13th September on the Gillio Website.

There will be an introduction discount offer of 10% discount for the first two weeks on each of the new colours, see the Gillio website for full details.

Each organiser will come with 2017 inserts and a free pen in a colour of your choice, make your selection at the check out.

Should you want a colour that is out of stock, you are advised to register your email address for each colour you are interested in as Gillio do take notice of the number of email addresses registered to determine which colours to have made next.

As soon as a colour is restocked then the list is cleared down. So if you miss out on a particular colour, please register your email address again.

Thank you to Gillio for the loan of these samples.