Filofax dissection.

I paused for more than a moment before I did what I did but, in the interests of science, personal curiosity and a growing desire to dispel a few myths, I took a knife to my pocket Finsbury.

So what do I think, now I've done the dastardly deed?

Well, to be honest, I thought that the outer cover was of better quality than I would have imagined - strong, durable and pliable, perhaps more so than usual because I had "fed" the leather some time ago.

But, and it is a big "but" for me; I now realise that my attempts to "train" my filofax in the dark art of flatability were in vain. Although I can only comment on the construction of just this one filo, there are simply too many layers of stiffening material underneath the outer layer of leather.

But that has to be only my opinion.

My Filofax Finsbury is no more, but some of the parts will live on in other incarnations. The ring mechanism is destined to be used in a bespoke custom leather binder project, and the original Finsbury leather cover just happens to be the right size to patch a hole in my bicycle panniers.

Filofax vs ARC notebook.

Whether they're aware of the salient fact or not, but I strongly suspect they are, those nice people at Filofax will surely be wondering about the consequences of  the arrival of a particular cardboard box, at Staples stores any time now.

I'm talking about the metal punch for the ARC notebook system, the system that uses plastic discs instead of a ring binder mechanism, a system that will undoubtedly provide some traditional Filofax users with some food for thought. And which potentially turns the ARC system into a "game changer".

We'll have our punch within the next few days but, in the meantime, if you can bare the thought of twenty minutes of idle chat about stationery, here's a couple of videos. We're not abandoning Filofax, far from it, but the three Filofax users in our family are trialling the ARC notebook system from the relative perspectives of a business owner, a university student and a busy working mum.