Philofaxy: Guest Post: Distressed Leather Filofax Malden

Greetings my name is Marios, I live in Hellas and I love anything analog.

I like pencils (mostly Blackwings) fountain pens (Kaweco, Waterman etc.) and of course notebooks, organizers and good old vinyl records.

A month ago I decided to acquire a Malden in brown color that I wanted for a long time.

Unfortunately half of the rings was slightly misaligned and with gaps… (Filofax why? really why?)

Anyway they didn’t have another, so I decided to buy it and fix it myself, I used pliers with plastic tips I was able to perfectly correct the rings.

But as the days went by I didn’t like the way that the leather looked and also it didn’t feel right to the touch.

I regret that I didn’t buy an old Malden from the web, so I decided to distress the leather and to remove the paint to see how it looks.

DECLARATION: This procedure is irreversible and it may void your warranty in a new Filofax. So do it at your own risk. Also, I don’t think that it will be good with other color Maldens like the black or the blue. Make a test in a small area inside the Filofax first.

I used rubbing alcohol and with cotton wool I did small areas without forcing too much.

You have to be gentle and give time for the leather to dry out and evaporate the alcohol, before you continue.

It took me over an hour to fully clear the Malden inside out, and then I cleaned the residues with a wet cloth.

I let it dry and then I saw a beautiful leather that needed it to be moist.

I didn’t have any leather conditioner so I used the next best thing, which was Vaseline.

I let it soak for an hour and then I wiped out the rest of the Vaseline.

And there I was with a new beautiful distressed Malden that now has character and some extra benefits:

• Firstthe smell of the leather is more intense.
• Second(Neil from ”Flatability” will love this…) the flatability went from 70% to 100% effortlessly.
• Thirdnow I can see the grain of the leather and most important as I use it, the natural oils of my hands are starting to make the leather darker. This is so perfect, the leather binder reacts to my touch.

I took some pictures but they don’t do justice to the real thing.

I hope to inspire others to transform their Filofax.

Marios has since treated the leather with a wax leather conditioner. Here is the result.