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I'd been wishing for more storage and organization-flair posts here, so I though, "why not be the change you want to see in the world"...
Maybe I didn’t have enough filing space for index cards yet? Maybe it was because the price was too alluring to resist? Maybe it was because of the stunning black and grey powder coat? Maybe it was because I didn’t have any serious Steelcase in my atomic era furniture collection yet? Maybe it was the stunning art deco styling touches on the aluminum drawer handles and label frames? Regardless of the reason, the undeniable fact of the matter is that I’ve got another card index filing cabinet for my index card-based commonplace book/zettelkasten and a boatload of other stationery goodies.
Black powder coated card index filing cabinet with no drawers. The fully loaded Steelcase card index is finally assembled and ready for use. Close up of the top of the filing cabinet with the Steelcase logo and the first drawer. There is a fine industrial luster of light glinting off of the powder coated metal.This one is is a 20 gauge solid steel behemoth Steelcase in black and silver powder coat and it is in stunning condition with all the hardware. It stands 52 1/4 inches tall, is 14 7/8 inches wide, and 28 1/2 inches deep (without hardware). Each drawer had two rows of card storage space totaling 55 inches. With 8 drawers, this should easily hold 61,000 index cards.
One drawer of the filing cabinet filled with 7,000 blank index cards wrapped in blocks of 500 cards each.Sadly, someone has removed all the card following blocks. I’ll keep an eye out for replacements, but I’m unlikely to find some originals, though I could probably also custom design my own. In the meanwhile I find that a nice heavy old fashioned glass or a cellophaned block of 500 index cards serve the same functionality. The drawer dimensions are custom made for 4 x 6 inch index cards, but A6 cards and Exacompta’s 100 x 150mm cards fit comfortably as well.
Based on the styling, I’m guessing it dates from the 1940s to early 1960s, but there are no markings or indications, and it will take some research to see if I can pin down a more accurate date.
The aluminum label frames, handles, and drawer thumb lock switches have some lovely thin black detailing that gives the cabinet a nice art deco appearance.A few of the indexing label frames on the unit are upside down and one or two are loose, but that’s easily fixed by removing a screw and cover plate in the front of the drawer and making a quick adjustment. I’ve also got a few extra metal clips to fix the loose frames.
Much like my Singer card index, this one has internal sliding metal chassis into which the individual drawers sit. This allows them to be easily slid out of the cabinet individually for use on my desk or away from the cabinet. The drawers come with built-in handles at the back of the drawer for making carrying them around as trays more comfortable. The drawers are 10.6 pounds each, each chassis is 4.6 pounds, and the cabinet itself is probably 120 pounds giving the entire assembly a curb weight of about 240 pounds or about an 1/8 of a ton.
Eight empty drawers in grey powder coat sitting on the floor in two rows ready to be placed into the filing cabinet. An empty drawer sitting on the floor next to its steel frame chassis. An empty drawer sitting on the floor ready for installation into the filing cabinet.Placed just behind my desk, I notice that the drawer width is just wide enough, that I can pull out the fourth drawer from the bottom and set my Smith-Corona Clipper on top of it. This makes for a lovely makeshift typing desk. The filing cabinet’s black powder coat is a pretty close match to that of the typewriter.
A Smith-Corona Clipper sitting sideways in a drawer allow it to be used as an impromptu typing desk.I’ve already moved the majority of my cards into it and plan to use it as my daily driver (and why not, it's almost as big and heavy as a car sitting in the corner of my office). This may mean that the Singer becomes overflow storage once I’m done refurbishing it. The Shaw-Walker box, which was just becoming too full and taking up a lot of desk real estate, will find a life in the kitchen or by the bar as my recipe box.
I’ve also noticed that some of my smaller 3 x 5″ wooden card indexes sit quite comfortably into the empty drawers as a means of clearing off some desk space if I wish. Of course, the benefit of clearing off some desk space for that means that I can now remove individual drawers for working with large sections at a time.
A steel case drawer of two rows of 4 x 6 inch index cards (approximately 5,000) filed behind a forest of tabbed card dividers. The drawer is out of the filing cabinet and sitting on the edge of a desk. The two label frames on the front of the drawer are labeled 'Memindex' and 'Beatrice Webb' respectively.This may be my last box acquisition for a while. Someone said if I were to add any more, I’ll have moved beyond hobbyist collector and into the realm of museum curator.
The best part of the size and shape of the drawers is that until it's full of index cards, I can use some of the additional space for a variety of additional stationery storage including fountain pens, ink, stamps, stamp pads, pen rolls, pencils, colored pencils, tape, washi, typewriter ribbon, stencils etc. One of the drawers also already has a collection of 3.5 x 5.5 inch pocket notebooks (most are Field Notes) which are also easily archivable within it.
One of the drawers has a collection of over a dozen Field Notes sized pocket notebooks. Another pair of empty drawers has boxes of Musgrave Tennessee Red, Blackwing 602, and Blackwing Natural pencils and a packet of A5 Campus notebook paper. Steelcase file index card drawer dedicated to stationery supplies including pen rolls, colored pens, fountain pen ink, typewriter ribbons in a rainbow of colors, several stamp pads, some stencils and a pencil case in the shape of the brown and yellow colored squirrel-esque Pokémon named Evie.Anyone have any clever ideas for small washi tape storage solutions that will fit into the 4.6" x 6" x 27" drawers here?