What Do You Use For Binder Country Labels?

I believe stamp collecting to be primarily a visual hobby, and as such I am interested in making my collection look beautiful. I have built my collection on Steiner pages and Vario-G binders on ivory paper, and I love the look of it when everything is in a black mount.

The one piece of my collection I am not satisfied is the binder labeling. Right now, what I do is buy packages of gold letter stickers and place them on the binders. The problem is that over time the stickers wear off or start to peel.

Here is an example of how some of the binders look:




As you can see the d of Canada is slightly separating from the binder. I considered learning how to apply gold leaf to the binders, but the tools to do that are quite expensive and it seemed likely I would make a lot of mistakes doing this.

Has anyone found a satisfactory solution for labeling their custom binders, or even a service that will satisfactory label them for you?

Well, interesting topic. I don't want my collection in the open, because someone breaking in would spot them. I have a good size fire proof safe, but you could use a gun safe as well. The long and the short of it is, I use hinged binders with no labels so if I forget to put one away it just looks like a binder. I do have two Scotts green binders for when I show them at a club.

This is going to sound unorthodox, but it works. With labeling of this type, I commonly seal the letters by painting on Pledge Floor Care Multi Surface Finish, https://www.pledge.com/en-us/produc...rface-finish. This product, formerly known as Future Floor Finish or sometimes "Future Floor Wax," is not a wax but a clear acrylic. It is commonly used in modelmaking hobbies as a glossy clear coat prior to applying decals. It is available in the US at Wal-mart for about $6.25 for a 27-ounce bottle, which will last a lifetime (unless you build model cars, trains or military miniatures and decal them).

The process is as follows:

-- With ordinary low-tack masking tape (such as blue painter's tape), mask off a rectangular area around the lettering.
-- Prepare a dust-free drying location. A clean closet with a solid door will work.
-- Pour a small quantity of the Pledge into an old jar lid or other palette or receptacle.
-- Paint on a thin coat within the masked area. I use a cheap kids' watercolor brush and treat it as disposable.
-- Let set for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the masking tape.
-- Place in the dust-free drying location and let dry for 24 hours.

The result is a hard, glossy overcoating that will seal the lettering and not yellow over time.

If you are new to this, try a test using a sample of your lettering and a substrate you don't care about, such as an old binder.

Chris

I use Lighthouse country names, plus printed ones in a similar font for those countries that Lighthouse doesn't provide. But I don't have your aesthetic concerns. Disadvantage is that Lighthouse's labels are in German. Schaubek and others also make labels.

https://www.leuchtturm.com/epages/l...80631&Page=3

I have been using Letraset dry-transfer for 25 years and am very content with it. There has been very little wear and if there is, letters are easily replaced.

Both MYSTIC and PALO offer labels on self adhesive labels which match the binders.

StamperJD:

I like what you did and may try that myself with smaller letters.

Jack Kelley

For my collection I create my own coat-of-arms stickers for the binder, printed in color on silver foil (I use Silhouette brand printable silver foil, available from Amazon). Use photoshop to edit the coat-of-arms I download (nice ones for each country can be found at wikipedia) so they are approx 1.5 inches by 1.75 inches, print a page of 20, trim them to square shape, then stick to binder. Because the Vario F binders have a textured surface, to ensure the labels stay in place I secure them with a piece of Gorilla packing tape a touch larger than the sticker.

The result looks really sharp, IMHO.



(apologies for blurry pic I was just grabbing a quick snap, but you get the idea )

You could try embossing

http://www.artisanleather.co.uk/alp...er-sets.html

I'm sure there are US firms that supply these.

My US used are in Scott National albums, which Scott sells labels for.

My world-wide collection is nascent, so multiple countries in the same binder, and and they move between binders over time. The same is also true to a large extent for my other collections. I keep a spreadsheet list that indexes binders by shelf, location (left-to-right), and binder color. That saves me from having to open two or three binders to find what I am looking for.

So I am no help here, but I am interested in how collectors with mature collections label their binders.

One of my admittedly many pet peeves are album publishers who sell self adhesive sheets of country and volume number labels and expect them to stay on more than a month before peeling off grained surfaces like on Lighthouse binders. Gibbons does this too. Some publishers do provide a smooth area for a label but these do not.

For a bit under $2 Palo will do a custom self adhesive label on dark blue that says anything you wish (I assume not literally everything, but you get the idea). Subway sells labels on four different types of backing. They will do a custom label for $3.50, price reduces if you order several at once.

I've been using Lighthouse labels, which are printed in gold lettering on clear tape. They look nice, problem is they don't make labels for every country (all the major ones, though) and you have to buy a sheet containing a couple dozen countries or so, even if you want just one. These, too, come loose over time (particularly on Vario F's) and I think I'm going to have to try that trick with sealing them. I recently bought a Dymo label writer and some gold-on-clear tape, but I'm not that pleased with the results so far. The gold is significantly duller than the Lighthouse labels and harder to read from a distance. Some of my binders and stockbooks are unlabeled, but I know what's in them based on their position on my shelf.

Wow there are a lot of different and creative solutions out there. Thank you everyone for giving me all these ideas to work on.

I'm definitely going to try Chris' idea of sealing the letters, that would have never entered my mind.

I also think what DJCMHOH did those coats of arms look wonderful, and would solve the problem I have of making sure the letters are straight and spaced correctly. This would also fix the problem of trying to fit a really long name on the spine of a binder. I'm leaning towards using the coat of arms for major countries that deserve their own binder, but for smaller countries continue what I've been doing with letter binders ("B", "C", etc) with the addition of Chris' clear acrylic trick.

I looked into the Letraset idea mentioned by SWH and found some manufacturers that would let me create custom dry transfer sheets but that was expensive, and I don't have the necessary software to create the files they require (Adobe Illustrator). Finding gold letraset sheets online has proven harder than I expected, the letraset website is showing everything out of stock and Amazon isn't giving any good results.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, it was very helpful.

Jason

I am an old Dinosaur that still collects "Worldwide"

One has to budget. My Binders are $5 each, with spines that take a slip.

Hi

I use an Avery self-stick label that fits the spine of the binder. I use Chartpak (similar to SWH's Letraset) transfer (rub on) lettering. In some cases I use the same lettering for an album page.

In more years than I want to know, the label is still on the binder and the transfer lettering is still intact. However, I did cover the label with transparent Scotch tape to keep it clean.

At the beginning I tried using Leroy lettering templates. Easy, but way too much effort for a label. A friend tried Dynamo labels but a major disaster in sticking to the vinyl binders.

Jerry B

I can see where your interest lies, Kirk