Padded / Soft Cover 3-Ring Notebooks

My collection is worldwide, and in 12 Scott Blue International Series albums. It has a lot of internal expansion using Scott Style "C" blank bordered pages. I have several countries which I would like to migrate to Steiner pages. I have investigated removing the borders (possible, not all that simple) and also getting totally blank (NO border) Scott pages (not possible). So ... it may be simpler to go with 8.5" x 11", especially at my age, but I would like something better than cheap 3-ring binders.

Amazon has some seemingly very nice 3-ring 8.5 x 11 binders by Samsil, stitched "Leather". https://www.amazon.com/Samsill-Vint...sr=8-6&th=1#

Have you seen anything nicer? Navy blue would be nice. Thanks!

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

It does not say what the material "Faux Leather" actually is, if it has any polyvinyl chloride (PVC) then it would not be considered archivally safe.

In my opinion these kinds of purchasing decisions depends a lot upon what the person is looking for... Some folks put a high priority on cost and a lower priority on good stewardship. This might work well for those who have to store huge numbers of albums like precancels or worldwide or 'in-progress' collections. Other folks might put a high priority on good stewardship because they want to build a truly archival family heirloom and they want something that will stand the test of time/multiple owners. Typically you are going to get what you pay for, the higher the quality the higher the cost.
Don

https://www.rustico.com/collections...463364931678

Even not all leather is the same and may or may not be considered archival, there are standards for this, thanks to the book binding industry, like the British Standard for Archival Bookbinding Leather - BS 7451:1991 - Specification for Archival Bookbinding Leather. Unfortunately this standard is freely available and will cost you an arm and leg just for the standard itself. J Hewit website has info on their new standard and lays out a lot of the primary characteristics of the British standard in a comparison; it at elast gives you a good idea of what to look for in a long term leather family heirloom type of album https://www.hewit.com/skin_deep/?vo...12&article=1
Don

Always an interesting discussion. I really have no way of knowing if my Scott pages and binders meet any archival standard. I can make assumptions based upon observations of surviving Scott material but who is to say that the materials have not changed over time. Amos /Scott/Lighthouse/Lindner/Palo and others provide no data, just claims and assurances. So what to do.

Agreed; it is difficult to get any specifications, data or test resulting. And obviously this in turn then drives the need to keep an eye on the pH of the paper and binders, inexpensive paper pH testing pens links can be had at Walmart, Amazon, and other online suppliers. Other hobbyists rely upon luck and/or maintaining environmental stability.
Don

pH testing pen for paper (fyi, do not be surprised when you find that a number of your stamp pages and binders test out as being acidic.)

https://www.amazon.com/Lineco-Testi...nSA==&sr=8-3

The binders do have a nice look. It's not just the cover that you need to be concerned with or test for archival use, also important is the lining. In this case the pockets are the same as the cover.

You might have trouble getting a straight answer from the supplier/manufacturer about them. Are there any local retailers that have them. The test is simple with a pH Pen Tester.

Check them out at https://samsillpromo.com/ They seem to be a "green" and "harm free" etc. company, so you might want to give them a call. It can't hurt to ask.

I use Wilson-Jones and Columbia piano hinged binders which are great but the lining was acidic, so as I put them to use, I actually replace that paper liner with art paper that I tested to be pH neutral.

You might wonder why I went to the trouble... I really like these binders they ware like iron, the hinges never fail, I like the label holders (not shown) and although they cost upwards of $50+ each I managed to get a huge number of them for free.

A federal government office I was working in at the time digitized their records and they were taking bins of them to the dumpster when I intercepted them. They were like new. Typical government waste! Unfortunately several hundred had already gone to the dump before I realized it.

I'm not a "dumpster diver" by any means but had no problem intercepting them on their way.

This is the pH testing pen for testing materials and the water testing pen I use to test water before soaking stamps. My tap water is usually on the alkaline end of the scale. Both are in the $7-$12 range online.

A very nice 8 1/2" x 11" 3-ring binder is made by Lighthouse. I have several dozen, some more than 25 years old and still in excellent condition. On sale from Lighthouse you can get them for about $30 or the same price anytime from suppliers like iHobb. And for that price it includes a slipcase.

jconey,
I have purchased dozens (30+) of digital pH pens (for fluids), ranging from cheapo to scientific grade; every single one of them were unreliable. If you drop a lot of money (>$150) you can get a decent one but you then drop a lot of money and time keeping it calibrated.

Most city water is at the alkaline end of the scale because of concern with lead pipes and lead solder (in a old house and in the main lines of the water system itself). At a lower pH, lead very quickly migrates into the water. Most water systems compensate for this by adding a lot of buffer to keep pH high. But the buffering capability can fade over time (just like it does in paper) and this is why you should always run the water for a minute before drinking if you have not used that tap for a few days or have not run water in the house (coming back from vacation).

Buffering (in water or paper) does not last forever, this is why you have to keep testing over time.
Don

Edit When you have this many fish tanks, you spend a LOT of time checking pH every day!

Don, all good points. Wow that's a lotta fish! Do you raise tropical fish?

I did question this latest water testing pen so I had my son look at it and he calibrated it for me. Luckily, I have the advantage of having a chemical engineer who does Q&A testing for P&G "on tap". He said that out of the package it was close but not spot on.

We owned a wholesale company which sold fish to pet shops and later owned a retail Aquarium shop where we also checked the pH of customers fish tanks dozens of times a day. The digital pH pens sensors go out of calibration if you knock them but also if you allow water to dry constantly on the sensor. Contaminates in the water and atmosphere apparently coat the sensor and impact later readings. We got to the point of calibrating them every few days or any time we got a outlier reading. You need distilled water and reagents to give yourself three reliable solutions to calibrate against.
Don

I have a few Exposures binders I picked up when they had an outlet near me. They have some nice looking stuff, though pricey.
https://www.exposuresonline.com/sho...by-exposures

C.

Here are some stamp-related leather binders

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/553...ry-1-2&frs=1

The leather one is really nice, but preservation of leather requires application of neatsfoot oil or something similar and on a regular basis. Seems iffy for using around stamps and album pages. In dry climates, leather that's not preserved starts degrading pretty quickly.

I have never applied anything to any of my leather album covers - and I have some that are 50 years old. Any climate good for stamps should be good for leather.