Guest Post: giving a 1998 Filofax Savannah back its dignity

Janet Carr

April 23

I am so delighted to host a second guest post - this time about the restoration of a Filofax Savannah. I really loved my Savannah, which I donated to a lovely reader for The Filofax Project, so I was thrilled to see how beautifully they age if taken care of. Filofaxes with removable rings are great!

I believe it all started with me wanting nice things but having no real means to buy them. My first bicycle was an old Swedish Crescent that I took apart, cleaned, painted and put together again. It looked like new and I learnt a lot doing it. Some years later it was time for a moped. Then a motorcycle. More motorcycles. Vintage cars and boats. Etcetera.

Through the years I have restored everything from watches to houses – and everything in them. I have always strived to do it all by myself. Having control of the result and picking up skills on the way. Around when I was 40, I realized I could buy pretty much what I wanted – but I still continued to restore old things. I even needed to do it. With a strictly theoretical job situation, with almost no definitive closures, I need to make something with my hands and be able to say – "hey… look what I have done".

There is great satisfaction in taking an old, worn and disregarded item and give it back its dignity. Depending on how much of the original that can be saved, I choose my path in the resurrection. Sometimes I restore things to as new, or better, and other times I just preserve the patina. Regardless of path, I look upon it as helping a tired and scarred hero to make a last minute comeback with honour.

Sooo… When getting into Filofaxes/binders again I just could not help myself. I had to take one apart and restore it. A binder is not rocket science. Nor is an old engine and gearbox or building a spoked wheel - and I thought – if I have done that, this cannot be that difficult. And it was not.

The Filofax below is a Personal Savannah and it belongs to my wife. She got it as a gift from a good friend in 1998. She was starting her own company and used this Filfofax to keep track of everything. It was used a lot. A lot! It got scarred, bruised and took every kind of beating. Looking at it I thought it had the ambiguous charm of an 1950s French welterweight pro boxer. It still looked good and had all the moves but was extremely tired and literally hanging on the ropes. It had been floored multiple times during the bout but was still standing when the bell rang for the last round. I asked my wife if I could be its cornerman and give it a chance at a comeback.

Savannah looking tired in the 11th round!

Savannah prepped for the 12th and last round!

Savannah with a winner's cigar – tired but happy and enjoying a successful comeback!

It all started with me restoring things because I had no other choice if I wanted something. Today I restore because I love to do it. I need to do it.