Care and feeding of bellows

About a week ago I picked up my first 9x12 camera - a Zeiss Ikon 207/1. It's not my first bellows camera, but is a good 25 years older than anything else I've intended to use regularly. The bellows have a few pinholes, but that won't be a problem. What I'd like to know is what to use to keep the bellow in good shape, especially as I could end up racking the thing out pretty far sometimes.

I think the bellows are leather - considering the age and manufacturer, would they have used genuine imitation leatherette?

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jim

You're correct that pre-War Zeiss bellows (except on the very cheapest models from just before the War) are leather, and as such they benefit by the same care you'd give any other fine leather item (baseball glove, saddle, dress gloves, etc.).

First, if you own a bottle of Armor-All or similar spray treatment, throw it away. Those products are the worst things you can put on leather, and they're not much better for vinyl; don't use them on your car, either.

Now, get a small tube of neats-foot oil and a small block or jar of saddle soap. Clean the bellows with a damp cloth barely touched to the saddle soap (support from inside to avoid creating misfolds), then rinse with a cloth dampened with clean water; never apply more than the absolute minimum amount of water. Allow to air dry, then apply a *very thin* coat of neats foot oil, and rub into the leather until the surface no longer feels oily. It may feel slightly tacky; that's okay, it will pass in a week or so. Leave the bellows extended for about 24 hours after this treatment for the oil to cure and soak into the leather even more.

You shouldn't need to do this more than once or twice a year, unless you get the bellows wet.

Don -
Thanks for the tip! I would have never thought of the saddle soap option on my own. I'm not sure what the Ukrainian for 'neats foot oil' is but since I'm slated to start riding horses again soon, I'll ask the saddle soap guy about an equivelent. One motorcycle UG I used to hang out on had a posting recommending bees wax for keeping leathers supple - which brought up comments on whether the pants should be worn during the process.
The 5x7 B&J Grover had a neoprene bellows, I IIRC, and I miss it, but this Zeiss is a work of art in comparison.

I'm involved in an Old West shooting sport and the holster makers detest saddle soap! They say it ruins the leather.

Proceed with caution!

I have rebuilt a number of bellows cameras, and have never had much luck with saddle soap, saddle soap is designed for hard leather applications which you will find in the horse industry, but does not do real well in the thin leather industry, one of the best products I have found for real leather bellows is 'Lemon Pledge' it works good and does not dry out, like a great many of the other conditioners that I have tried.

Dave

JiminKyiv said:

What I'd like to know is what to use to keep the bellow in good shape, especially as I could end up racking the thing out pretty far sometimes.


Thanks,
Jim

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I rub a coat of Johnson's baby oil on the bellows of my cameras every year or so. I figure if it is good for a baby's butt it won't hurt the bellows.

Sandy

I've been using a Turtle Wax brand leather cleaner/treatment made for leather car seats. So far, it's worked just great - grimy old leather bellows clean up easy and soften up. It's not sticky and dries pretty quickly. I'd guess just about anything designed for car seats would be ok, that leather is relatively thin too.

Nathan

nsmith01tx said:

I've been using a Turtle Wax brand leather cleaner/treatment made for leather car seats. So far, it's worked just great - grimy old leather bellows clean up easy and soften up. It's not sticky and dries pretty quickly. I'd guess just about anything designed for car seats would be ok, that leather is relatively thin too.

Nathan

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Thanks for the tip Nathan, I had never even thought about the car care products, some times the simple answer is the hardest to find, thanks again!

Dave

You can substitute mink oil for neat's foot oil, directly. The wax based automotive products are good, but those and the Lemon Pledge are likely not available (at least in those brands) in Ukraine. A very soft carnauba wax might work, but I don't know that I'd want to test it on a bellows without first seeing its effect on some other, less costly leather product.

I hadn't thought about the differences between hard leather (some saddle leather is boiled in wax to harden it during the process of making the saddle) and soft leather -- Dave's point is well made, that they very well might require different care. I have a few leather bellows, and I'm afraid I'm guilty of neglecting them (mostly waiting to see if more pinholes will appear and require me to figure out how to replace them on a budget -- or at least that's my excuse), but Turtle Wax treatment might be good. Look at the label to be sure it's based on natural waxes like carnauba, or natural oils like mink or neat's foot, rather than synthetics and silicones.

Above all, DO NOT use Armor All!! It makes stuff nice and shiny by coating it with silicones, but it actually dries out leather and promotes brittleness and cracking of vinyl. I shudder to think what it does to tire sidewalls...