cardboard folios

indianeagle

indianeagle

Member
back in the old days 1950s and earlier most federal agencies used a custom folio as there id. basicaly was paper glued onto a card board book form with the person photo agency etc etc. im trying to replicate some that i found for fbi, treasury dept, post office, cia, marsh service to display with the badges used during that time period. im having a hard time locating the folios was wondering if anyone had any info they could share?thanks
andy
 
Hi, I just get some glue, card, and whatever covering was used (cloth, paper, leatherette, etc) :)
The results can be quite effective.

Places selling bookbinding supplies can be a good source of covering material, although you might be surprised what's lying around your home.
 
Not particularly, but these just looked interesting :)

This was the one I copied.
 
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thanks for the info guys. what i was able to find is scans for 1898 secert service, 1914, 1879 postal inspector, 1935 marshal,1953 cia. the old postal ispectors ids are more than just ids there actually a nice piece of artwork that ids now adays lack. thing of beauty. also the ids from the movie shutter island are similiar to the marshal ids from 1935 but the eagle on the movie prop is a little different. also the badge used in the movie is actual a reproduction of the ike badge used from 1941 to 1970,s. the cia id former director allen dulles can be seen bye going to the cia's website looking under museum - artifacts- allen dulles id. im having the cia id duplicated bye a guy that works in french tv/ movie props. i will let you know how it turned out.
andy
 
I was trying something earlier.
It's usually impossible to have a cover with lettering as most of us lack the equipment to print light ink on dark background.

So I printed out on white paper a cover the correct overall colour with the lettering and crest on it, glued the folio together and then applied coloured boot polish :lol

It worked quite well, the boot polish is transparent enough to allow the lettering to show through (although it makes it a little darker) and it gives the cover a nice leathery book effect. The effect is better if the underlying card is slightly rough.
Try it :)
 
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Will do Rick.

I've just realised POWs used a similar method to make fake suitcases and belts from cardboard for escapes.
 
RickDeG said:
Hey Kenny, take a picture and share the end result!
I'm very curious as to how it looks.
Click to expand...

Almost forgot about this.
I'm afraid this is the best photo I can get :unsure it's difficult to get the light to shine on it to show up the texture.
I used white embossed card for the construction, printed with the full colours of the material itself and the logo, then used shoe polish.
Fabric effect on the left, leather effect the right.
 
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After I posted that, I wondered if laserprint was actually better.

It's not. It is great for modern props, but it just can't beat the look of ink.
That said, I called to a few print shops, book printers and manufacturers.

If you use the right pigment inks, it won't run. A friend of mine works at a large company that's getting rid of their printers (they do that every two years) and I'll probably get an A2 printer with seperate cartridges and spares in January. For free.
Hooray!

Anyway, could you explain the shoe polish technique a bit more detailed?
Maybe with some before and after pics?
 
The key is to use thin embossed card to make the outside covering of the folios. Even without polish it looks far better than smooth paper.
Most craft stores have a selection of thin cards in cloth or pebbled textures, both work well.

Print the covers in full colour with all the lettering and logos as close as you can get them.
Then once the folio is completed and the glue is dry, just apply boot polish, wait a few minutes for it to dry out a little, then buff to a light sheen.
Coloured boot polishes can usually be applied over the logos and lettering without darking them too much, but experimenting is essential. The materials are cheap, so it's not a problem to try a few things.

It's not that hardwearing, so i'm also trying out liquid boot polishes and leather dyes to see if they penetrate deeper and dry to a harder finish, first indications are looking good :)
Remember it will never be as hardwearing as actual leather or cloth, so it's just for light use or display.

I'll post new stuff as I do it, but i'm having a break just now, i've just did a load of cards for someone and i'm out of steam :lol
 
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Another idea for the outside of folios. I was looking round my local B&Q (like HomeDepot in the US) and saw some leather effect wallpaper.

I certainly wouldn't want it on my walls :lol but it looks as if it would look great on folios and books. I doubt it will take print, but for plain covers no problem, and no doubt there will be a lot more leather effect wallpapers out there.

I tore off a rather large sample to try out, so i'll see how it goes.
 
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