Best way to soften vintage bellows (probably leather)

Leigh B · Oct 2, 2016

I have a number of NOS bellows that I would like to make available.
These are still flat, with cardboard strips holding them closed.
But they're stiff, and potentially failure-prone.

They need to be softened if they're to be useful.
I don't know how to do that.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

- Leigh

shutterfinger · Oct 2, 2016

Start with Lemon Pledge, the Yellow can only. With the bellows fully extended spray all sides and allow to sit 15 to 30 minutes. Supporting the bellows from the inside rub the Pledge into the bellows while wiping off the excess. Use a clean cotton towel or paper towels without printing.
For very stiff bellows or as a followup to the Pledge treatment get some Pure Neatsfoot Oil, not the blended stuff. Use a cotton ball and apply a thin, even coat of Neatsfoot Oil to the bellows. Allow to dry/soak in for several days and repeat if necessary.
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/tandy-pure-neatsfoot-oil
Too much Neatsfoot Oil may do harm to the leather. Leather supply stores should have some creams/conditioners for brittle/dry cracked leather.

The Pledge also works on Naugahyde, Neatsfoot Oil does not.

Leigh B · Oct 2, 2016

Thanks for the suggestions, but...

These bellows are fully compressed, as for packing and shipment.
I'm afraid they'll crack if I try to extend them, which is the problem I'm trying to correct.

- Leigh

Patrick Robert James · Oct 2, 2016

Old (like decades old) dry leather golf grips are often softened with Castor oil. I have also found Aloe Vera (pure) to be useful. Personally with what I have seen with Aloe I would use that first, but they are your bellows so... If the bellows are pure leather (not lined or reinforced with cardboard) you can soak them in something. Remember that leather is skin, so what works for skin...

Leigh B · Oct 2, 2016

Thanks for that.

These are probably 80 years old, perhaps more.
They appear to be for old folding roll cameras.

I bought out an old camera repair shop maybe 30 years ago. These are NOS stock from that shop.
The shop was opened before WWII. I don't know when it closed. I bought it from the guy's son after he died.

- Leigh

shutterfinger · Oct 3, 2016

I've been dealing with Graflex cameras from 1915 to 1940 for over 10 years. Graflex used leather bellows from 1895 to 1946. Many have the bellows stuck together from storage or display. The Pledge and or Neatsfoot oil has worked well.
Do not soak them. Remove the restrainer. Start separating the pleats at one end by placing a finger between the outer most pleats, leather side, and gently working around the bellows then go to the next pleat.
Pledge will penetrate to a degree and may help loosen the pleats. Slow and careful should get them loosened.

Leigh B · Oct 3, 2016

Thanks very much. I'll give that a try.

These are not necessarily Graflex bellows, but I expect all pre-WWII bellows were rather similar.

- Leigh

shutterfinger · Oct 3, 2016

Leather camera bellows are leather camera bellows. All makes use similar materials for linings and stays. I do not know the source for the leather, but its tanned animal skin.

Leigh B · Oct 3, 2016

shutterfinger said:
Leather camera bellows are leather camera bellows.
All makes use similar materials for linings and stays.
I do not know the source for the leather, but its tanned animal skin.

I expect that's true of vintage products like the ones at issue here.

Modern (mid-20th C and later) products undoubtedly use some synthetic material.

- Leigh

shutterfinger · Oct 3, 2016

Naugahyde was developed in 1936. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naugahyde
I do not know when it went into use for camera bellows industry wide. Graflex started using it in 1947.

Leigh B · Oct 3, 2016

shutterfinger said:
Naugahyde was developed in 1936.
Graflex started using it in 1947.

It takes a number of years for naugas to mature.

They're quite small at birth. Growing to camera size may take a decade or more.

- Leigh

choiliefan · Oct 3, 2016

I read a post somewhere that banana skin oil can be used to condition leather.
Apparently you rub the inside skin on the leather...

benjiboy · Oct 12, 2016

In the olden days they used beeswax.

Ian Grant · Oct 12, 2016

Leigh B said:
I expect that's true of vintage products like the ones at issue here.

Modern (mid-20th C and later) products undoubtedly use some synthetic material.

- Leigh

A form of artificial leather or rather a maeterial that outwardly looked like leather was used for bellows since at least the 1890s probably until the newere materials in the mid to late 1930s.

I've 4 or 5 sets of bellows that literaly disintergrate if you try to do anything with them, They seem to be made of a soft card material and the outside is coated/embossed to look like leather, sometimes there's a sthin cloth mesh.

You have to be careful as cameras from the same manufacturer may use different materials. For instance my 10x8 Agfa Ansco Commercial View has leather bellows but my 10x8 Universal View doesn't it's paper/card material with a cloth interior. The 10x8 Deluxe Universal View is listed as having leather bellows but in 15 years I've never seen a single Deluxe "Gray" version (not to be confused with the later post 1941 Gray Ansco cameras which were made elsewhere during WWII and differ in fittings etc).

Ian

Best way to soften vintage bellows (probably leather)

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