3-Ring Binder

[JDFred]

A truck driver friend asked me to build a binder to keep his registration and paperwork in.  He wanted his brand on the front cover and let me come up with the rest.  Here is what I came up with.  I used 6/7 oz for the cover and lined it with 2/3 oz. I used some thin chrome tan, I had left from a purse I made, for the overlay and the inner pockets.  I used the rings out of a plastic binder and used the plastic from it as a stiffener in between the cover and the liner. Then I used twisted poly Maine Thread to hand sew it together.  It is finished with neatsfoot oil and leather balm whit atom wax. My liner got a little bunched up by the rings when I folded it but other wise it turned out good. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

[Gezzer]

Nice work !

but I am not a fan of the color of the chrome tan , but you didn't make it for me did ya 

[rleather]

Very nice work. I really like the distressed chrome leather. I work with distressed Italian leather a lot, the look never gets old to me. Thanks for sharing.

[SUP]

 I like the contrast between the tooled and chrome tanned leathers - the colors as well as the textures. Very nice.

[dikman]

Very classy! 

[JDFred]

18 hours ago, Gezzer said:

Nice work !

but I am not a fan of the color of the chrome tan , but you didn't make it for me did ya 

Thank you.  What color would you have used?  I’m always looking for suggestions for my next project.

 

15 hours ago, rleather said:

Very nice work. I really like the distressed chrome leather. I work with distressed Italian leather a lot, the look never gets old to me. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.  My wife picked that out and I really like the color of it and have enjoyed using it.

 

14 hours ago, SUP said:

 I like the contrast between the tooled and chrome tanned leathers - the colors as well as the textures. Very nice.

Thank you. I’m glad the contrast stands out it was what I was going for, I was a little worried that the colors were too similar.  I probably should’ve antiqued it for some more contrast but I need to practice with it some more before I try it on a large project.

 

13 hours ago, dikman said:

Very classy! 

Thank you

[SUP]

1 hour ago, JDFred said:

I was a little worried that the colors were too similar.  I probably should’ve antiqued it for some more contrast

The tooling on the veg tanned leather and the distressed look of the chrome tanned are very different and give good contrast, in my opinion. The lighter parts of the distressed colors are the color of the veg tanned leather and the darker tooled areas on the leaves reflect the darker color of the chrome tanned leather, giving continuity between the two leathers.

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

That's cool. I like it

[JDFred]

20 hours ago, DoubleKCustomLeathercraft said:

That's cool. I like it

Thank you

[pengkegu]

I just wanted to say that your work is incredibly beautiful and elegant. It’s clear that your skill level is very high—especially your leather carving, which is truly impressive. I’ve recently started learning how to make ring binders too, and from my experience, it’s best to make the inner leather about 2 cm shorter than the outer layer so that the fold looks neater. Also, it’s better not to use materials that are too stiff for the lining—leather fiber works best, otherwise it can look wrinkled.

[JDFred]

12 hours ago, pengkegu said:

I just wanted to say that your work is incredibly beautiful and elegant. It’s clear that your skill level is very high—especially your leather carving, which is truly impressive. I’ve recently started learning how to make ring binders too, and from my experience, it’s best to make the inner leather about 2 cm shorter than the outer layer so that the fold looks neater. Also, it’s better not to use materials that are too stiff for the lining—leather fiber works best, otherwise it can look wrinkled.

Thank you for the kind words. I only started carving leather about 8 months ago and building anything from leather about a year and a half ago.  This was my first 3 ring binder so the learning curve was steep. The next one I’ll have to try making my liner shorter and only glue the edges instead of glueing the entire liner to the cover. That may also help with the keeping it closed trouble I had.  Thanks for the advice.

Edited yesterday at 12:41 AM by JDFred

[Sheilajeanne]

That is some awesome work! I'm sure your friend is very pleased with it! 

Back in my teens, I had a summer job making binders in a factory, and knowing exactly how a binder is put together, I am curious as to how you converted a plastic binder to leather.

A binder is made of 3 layers - an outer plastic layer, an inner cardboard layer of 3 pieces - one for the spine and two for the covers, then an inner layer of plastic. The rings are attached with 2 rivets that go through all 3 layers.

So, I'm curious to know how you were able to remove the rivets? Or did you leave them and the outer layer of plastic in place and just cover them with leather?

What size is the binder - does it take 8 1/2 x 11 paper?

Asking because I've often thought of doing something similar!  

It's also possible to buy the rings separately, but of course, that would be more expensive than repurposing them from a plastic binder, which was likely just lying around the house! 

Edit: I think I know why the leather of the inner liner bunched up. The same thing happens with the inner liner of a wallet when you fold it. To prevent it, the inner liner has to be slightly smaller than the outside of your piece. I'm unsure of exactly how much, but if you fold the piece in half before doing your final cutting and stitching, you will likely be able to see how much you need to cut away for a good fit.

Edited yesterday at 03:45 PM by Sheilajeanne

[JDFred]

8 hours ago, Sheilajeanne said:

That is some awesome work! I'm sure your friend is very pleased with it! 

Back in my teens, I had a summer job making binders in a factory, and knowing exactly how a binder is put together, I am curious as to how you converted a plastic binder to leather.

A binder is made of 3 layers - an outer plastic layer, an inner cardboard layer of 3 pieces - one for the spine and two for the covers, then an inner layer of plastic. The rings are attached with 2 rivets that go through all 3 layers.

So, I'm curious to know how you were able to remove the rivets? Or did you leave them and the outer layer of plastic in place and just cover them with leather?

What size is the binder - does it take 8 1/2 x 11 paper?

Asking because I've often thought of doing something similar!  

It's also possible to buy the rings separately, but of course, that would be more expensive than repurposing them from a plastic binder, which was likely just lying around the house! 

Edit: I think I know why the leather of the inner liner bunched up. The same thing happens with the inner liner of a wallet when you fold it. To prevent it, the inner liner has to be slightly smaller than the outside of your piece. I'm unsure of exactly how much, but if you fold the piece in half before doing your final cutting and stitching, you will likely be able to see how much you need to cut away for a good fit.

Thank you, he was pretty excited when I sent him the pictures.  As to the construction I used side cutters to remove the rivets on the binder rings that attached them to the cover.  There were tubes that the rivets went through that I used a Dremel to trim them flat to the bottom of the binder assembly.  Then I put it together like you described, but with leather and plastic instead of plastic and cardboard.  The cover on the donor binder was a heavier single sheet of plastic so I cut it into 3 pieces a front, back, and spine.  I trimmed the edges of the plastic to be about a quarter inch from the edge of the leather, and left a half inch gap between each cover piece and the spine so it would fold easier. Then I glued them to the leather cover with contact cement and then glued the liner to that.  That is part of the wrinkle problem was the same size liner as the cover and glueing the liner completely to the cover.  I used #9 copper rivets to attach the rings to the cover.  After I folded it, which was challenging I covered it with a towel and left my smaller piece of marble on it overnight then did the same thing to the other side the next day and mostly won the battle the keep it closed.  Yes it is 8 1/2 x 11 paper sized.  I figured you could get rings by themselves but I’m not sure where.  Forgive my run on style of writing I hope this answered your questions and helped.

[Sheilajeanne]

It is possible to get the spines separate from the binders, but you have to buy more than one: https://www.amazon.ca/GORGECRAFT-Mechanism-Replacement-Notebook-Organization/dp/B0D9Y52Q42/ref=sr_1_19?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8NrSbrqYITZvlCynqNpfPu-exYO4tl-IF9ia6PXcoSTyTXvV9nWv0Xg7qkbIn10tvLbazE6xn9rSz4gOWUj9uicoIo2jF7m3urxkAgkzQeartloL-wr6CyUEXhiVsETdikB4Jo2w1ROuR7SDmiIapV9R0fAZAqORWOWArg80HKt5ss7_WrAXfUKW39pJqJSUxhEw-5m3O2jY7dN3kHUOYJAUfGhnMf8Y0stERUwBkXdTyVEhiwIr1yN-5AkwEMEPElTQHUcHt9RJJ9cdv1PUsoniPYwqr992Kcw5u_LlTd4.38BT56S29bq3XSbAMNincPJPxD0uWs3bIAd9EIpxxV4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=605132128236&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9221298&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2623142170463263152&hvtargid=kwd-324338471741&hydadcr=19050_13435280&keywords=3%2Bring%2Bbinder%2Bspine&mcid=a6b31fa6d8d2328ebe33b33d7487becb&qid=1747362180&sr=8-19&th=1

Given how many different sizes there are, I'd double check that I picked the right one before placing an order! The British sized paper is different from North American sizes!

Somewhere I have a leather notebook holder which holds an 8 1/2 by 11 pad. I'll see if I can find it so I can tell you how the inner liner is attached. I'm pretty sure it's not glued, and like I said, the inner liner has to be slightly smaller to allow the holder or binder to fold without wrinkles. I know for sure the plastic ones aren't glued. When they fall apart from age, the cardboard stiffener isn't attached to the plastic.

[JDFred]

1 hour ago, Sheilajeanne said:

It is possible to get the spines separate from the binders, but you have to buy more than one: https://www.amazon.ca/GORGECRAFT-Mechanism-Replacement-Notebook-Organization/dp/B0D9Y52Q42/ref=sr_1_19?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8NrSbrqYITZvlCynqNpfPu-exYO4tl-IF9ia6PXcoSTyTXvV9nWv0Xg7qkbIn10tvLbazE6xn9rSz4gOWUj9uicoIo2jF7m3urxkAgkzQeartloL-wr6CyUEXhiVsETdikB4Jo2w1ROuR7SDmiIapV9R0fAZAqORWOWArg80HKt5ss7_WrAXfUKW39pJqJSUxhEw-5m3O2jY7dN3kHUOYJAUfGhnMf8Y0stERUwBkXdTyVEhiwIr1yN-5AkwEMEPElTQHUcHt9RJJ9cdv1PUsoniPYwqr992Kcw5u_LlTd4.38BT56S29bq3XSbAMNincPJPxD0uWs3bIAd9EIpxxV4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=605132128236&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9221298&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2623142170463263152&hvtargid=kwd-324338471741&hydadcr=19050_13435280&keywords=3%2Bring%2Bbinder%2Bspine&mcid=a6b31fa6d8d2328ebe33b33d7487becb&qid=1747362180&sr=8-19&th=1

Given how many different sizes there are, I'd double check that I picked the right one before placing an order! The British sized paper is different from North American sizes!

Somewhere I have a leather notebook holder which holds an 8 1/2 by 11 pad. I'll see if I can find it so I can tell you how the inner liner is attached. I'm pretty sure it's not glued, and like I said, the inner liner has to be slightly smaller to allow the holder or binder to fold without wrinkles. I know for sure the plastic ones aren't glued. When they fall apart from age, the cardboard stiffener isn't attached to the plastic.

Thanks for the link.  I glued the whole thing because I over build everything and I don’t know any better.  On my next liner I’ll try making the liner smaller and only glue the edges and see if that turns out better.