Reinforcing Album Page Holes

It may have been mentioned already but those little white holes also bulk up your album and cant fit as many pages in it.

But they help even the pages out that bulk up in the middle with stamps. Especially if you use mounts. I use those Scott inserts about every 30 pages or so to combat that issue.

My album is the Scott National so I don't have the same problem as 3 ring binders but the the front pages do get a little "stretched" over time and the green front sheets have torn now and again. For those I just use scotch tape folded in half the long way.

I have not read all the posts, so this may be a repeat..........
You can take a piece of Scotch tape and tape both sides of the hole, and then with a hole punch open up the original hole. The tape is easier to apply, transparent, will do a terrific job, and very inexpensive.

Interesting idea mobilman, but regular scotch tape will yellow and get smarmy over the years. I wonder if the invisible tape would solve that problem.

The old, glossy Scotch tape would turn with time, but the newer "invisible" Scotch tape seems to withstand that test.

Yes, but the new transparent tape is weaker and, over time it will probably tear if the tearing is being caused by rings filled too full. Although I suppose if it is folded double (doubled over the page edge so that it covers both front and back), as some have suggested, it might be quite strong enough.

I think the best advice in this thread is to avoid filling ring-binders too full--that's what puts the strain on the holes. And if one wants to reinforce, then probably a strip running the entire length of the left side of the page, on the back of the paper, would be best. It would bulk up, yes, but not quite the unsightly humps that are produced by the ring reinforcements. But punching, cutting and then pasting such strips would be more time consuming than folding a line of transparent tape over the page edge.

I used to buy pre-punched 11" adhesive strips that were made of a thin plastic and could be used to reinforce the entire edge of the punched album page, but I have not been able recently to find them, even on Amazon. They were made by WilsonJones, stock #30107, and the pre-punched part of the strip was blue in color, so I applied them to the back of the page. Perhaps they are no longer made.

I did find them difficult to apply as a complete 11" strip, so I cut a smaller strip about one inch wide around each hole and reinforced each album page hole separately. It was difficult to align all three holes at once with a full strip.

Now I use the clear Mystic strips, but the holes are rectangular, not round, and the width is narrower than the round hole in the album page, so there is some adhesive overlap which has to be cut out. I may try the talc trick or the Scotch tape method mentioned above.

Donald

I have been using Scott Product # ACC100 Page Clear Mylar Reinforcement Strips for my Square 2 Posts National & Specialty Albums for over 50 yrs without any problems. They are a lot thicker than regular tapes and made of archival material. The pkg contains enough reinforcements strips for 48 pages(2 per page). About $5 per pk- about 10c per page. For ring binders with round holes I understand you need Scott Product # ACC103. That product comes in a roll and enough for 100 pages(200 holes), about $3.75 or a little less than 4c per sheet. I only apply reinforcement strips to pages that have developed a problem or pages that contain heavy stamp items like the US Navy Submarine booklet. I also rely on the Scott filler strips to even pages.

I don't mind using the white donuts because I only use them on the pages that are torn, however. I have bought two packages and both packages are just paper donuts. The old donuts used be cloth reinforced and they lasted. I cannot find the reinforced donuts anywhere now. But now I am beginning to worry about them not being acid free after reading mystic226's post above.

Why cant you use just some extra sleveage and then punch a hole in it.

Also using tape will yellow as it ages and ruin your album as well as any stamps close by.