"New Gear" and restoration

[kleinbatavia]

On a whole, today has been a good day. After a bit of a drive, I met up with a man who was selling a SH57 at a very reasonable price. I only tested the movements and had a look at the bits and bobs when I collected it and already noticed dust.

Maybe I am just overly anal about my gear, but in general, I keep everything super-clean. If stuff gets dirty whilst using it in the field, I will wipe it down and clean it before storing it. NOT SO in case of this camera. It had gathered a serious amount of dust and appeared to have hardly been used. I've pulled the whole thing apart, including the back, bellows, etc. After a quick clean with a soft brush, I wiped it down with a moist cloth and then a dry one. There will still be some dust in corners I can not reach, but it is nigh invisible.

So now we should be happy... Almost! Although it is in great condition, the wood looks like it could do with a bit of wax or similar. Does anyone have a suggestion of what to use on a wooden field camera?

Thanks in advance!

[Doremus Scudder]

I like Carnauba wax. I've also used beeswax with good results. Some of the expert woodworkers may have a better suggestion though.

Doremus

[dsphotog]

I use Lemon Pledge, and Q-tips for detailing the hard to reach spots.

[kleinbatavia]

Thanks for the replies so far! I've heard of carnauba wax, seems to be used widely for carpentry. Not so sure about pledge, would that not have some funky additives? Any indication on how resistant the various options are?

[Jac@stafford.net]

Thanks for the replies so far! I've heard of carnauba wax, seems to be used widely for carpentry. Not so sure about pledge, would that not have some funky additives?

Pledge might not damage an existing finish, but its oil, silicone can penetrate and cause refinishes to fail.

[mdarnton]

I'm going to do a little rank pulling exercise here, speaking as someone who restores and repairs multi-million dollar musical instruments: you do NOT want to put any commercial furniture polishes anywhere near anything you value. As Jac mentions, silicone is death in so many ways. In particular, once it's in the wood, if anything breaks or comes unglued, you can forget about gluing it--forever. It does cause refinishing problems, too, but those can be gotten around if you know there's silicone present, but the glue joint problem is there, always. I cringe every time someones recommends Pledge on bellows, it is so much the wrong product to use for that, even if some ignorant bellows guy recommended it at some point.

Waxes are pretty much fine, but if you want to do the museum-appropriate thing, Renaissance Wax is the product that museums and instrument restorers use, and it's great stuff.

[Tin Can]

I'm going to do a little rank pulling exercise here, speaking as someone who restores and repairs multi-million dollar musical instruments: you do NOT want to put any commercial furniture polishes anywhere near anything you value. As Jac mentions, silicone is death in so many ways. In particular, once it's in the wood, if anything breaks or comes unglued, you can forget about gluing it--forever. It does cause refinishing problems, too, but those can be gotten around if you know there's silicone present, but the glue joint problem is there, always. I cringe every time someones recommends Pledge on bellows, it is so much the wrong product to use for that, even if some ignorant bellows guy recommended it at some point.

Waxes are pretty much fine, but if you want to do the museum-appropriate thing, Renaissance Wax is the product that museums and instrument restorers use, and it's great stuff.

Michael, that's a great tip. And the stuff is even affordable. I just bought some.

Thanks.

What are your thoughts about leather?

I use Obenauf's Heavy Duty LP, it is Propolis based. Seems the best I can find, but what do you use?

[Jac@stafford.net]

Michael, I would like to clean up my Century 1 8x10 to sell it, but I cannot tell if it has been treated with Bad Stuff, and will not proceed if I cannot be sure. Is there a way to tell?

I once got an old wood lensboard that had a dime-sized white spot in the finish, almost as if it were embedded. Mild soap and water did nothing for it. I threw it in the fireplace. Suppose it was Pledge or some other housewife's nightmare product?

[Drew Bedo]

What is good for a leather covered wood body . . .like a Graphic or even older bicycle camera?

[AJ Edmondson]

Stewart-McDonald "Preservation Polish" is one of the best I have found and contains no silicone as it was designed for use on musical instruments where the potential to need to refinish at some point precludes such products. It does contain a very fine rubbing compound!

Joel

[brucetaylor]

What is good for a leather covered wood body . . .like a Graphic

For leather I use products made for car leather upholstery or the old standards, saddle soap (to clean) and neet's foot oil (to condition). I have an old leather camera bag that my baby Speed Graphic came in. Over the years it had become very stiff. I treated it for a week or so with several generous applications of neet's foot oil-- it's very nice and supple now. Not bad after 77 years.

[mdarnton]

Michael, I would like to clean up my Century 1 8x10 to sell it, but I cannot tell if it has been treated with Bad Stuff, and will not proceed if I cannot be sure. Is there a way to tell?

I once got an old wood lensboard that had a dime-sized white spot in the finish, almost as if it were embedded. Mild soap and water did nothing for it. I threw it in the fireplace. Suppose it was Pledge or some other housewife's nightmare product?

There's really no way to tell until you try to refinish something. What silicone does in finishing is cause what's called fisheyes. These are spots where the silicone completely repels the new coating--the new varnish will draw away from any spot with silicone, and the fisheye is actually a dry spot in the middle of a new varnish coat--usually a whole bunch of dry spots that make the new job look like the surface of the moon. Weirdly, the way to avoid fisheye is if you know there's a problem you add silicone to the varnish you are painting on. That creates some sort of affinity, replacing the rejection. Guitar places like the aforementioned Stew-Mac sell fisheye eliminator for this purpose. This may not be a problem with oiled finishes--I've never tried.

White spots are often caused by moisture--like the white rings glasses leave on furniture. That's moisture that's gone into the finish and clouded it. They can often be removed by careful treatment with the finish's solvent--alcohol, for instance, but it's touchy work, since you are dissolving the old finish, too. Sometimes you can just spray on a heavy coat of solvent, but not enough to run, and walk away for a couple of hours and the problem fixes itself. . . . or you get a mess. With something like a lens board I'd put it in a tupperware container with a little cup of solvent (try alcohol first) and let it stew for a couple of hours, then if that works, take off the lid, don't touch anything, and let it harden back up.

The Stew-Mac Preservation polish is pretty good. We use it on our rentals. It does contain an oil that evaporates, so a couple of days later, when the oil is gone, things don't look as nice as you thought they did. But it is a good cleaner and it doesn't hurt anything.

[John Kasaian]

For leather I use products made for car leather upholstery or the old standards, saddle soap (to clean) and neet's foot oil (to condition). I have an old leather camera bag that my baby Speed Graphic came in. Over the years it had become very stiff. I treated it for a week or so with several generous applications of neet's foot oil-- it's very nice and supple now. Not bad after 77 years.

I'd rceommnd pure neatsfoot oil, not the cheaper compounds that rot stitching.

[Luis-F-S]

I use Lemon Pledge, and Q-tips for detailing the hard to reach spots.

+1

[kleinbatavia]

I'm going to do a little rank pulling exercise here, speaking as someone who restores and repairs multi-million dollar musical instruments: you do NOT want to put any commercial furniture polishes anywhere near anything you value. As Jac mentions, silicone is death in so many ways. In particular, once it's in the wood, if anything breaks or comes unglued, you can forget about gluing it--forever. It does cause refinishing problems, too, but those can be gotten around if you know there's silicone present, but the glue joint problem is there, always. I cringe every time someones recommends Pledge on bellows, it is so much the wrong product to use for that, even if some ignorant bellows guy recommended it at some point.

Waxes are pretty much fine, but if you want to do the museum-appropriate thing, Renaissance Wax is the product that museums and instrument restorers use, and it's great stuff.

That sounds great! Thanks for this. Will be looking to get some. Just to be sure, is it "micro crystalline wax polish"? That's what seems to turn up on most of my searches.

[Mark Sampson]

Renaissance wax is the way to go. I haven't looked a my can of it lately but "micro-crystalline" seems right. A little goes a long way.

[kleinbatavia]

Well, I've just ordered a small can of "renaissance wax", will try it on an old cabinet I have standing around in the garage, but I'm quite eager to get it on the camera. The thing just disserves a second lease on life and I really want to get out and play with the 5x7 format. Seems about ideal for portability whilst still being large enough for contact prints. Thank you all for the suggestions!

[neil poulsen]

I'm going to do a little rank pulling exercise here, speaking as someone who restores and repairs multi-million dollar musical instruments: you do NOT want to put any commercial furniture polishes anywhere near anything you value. As Jac mentions, silicone is death in so many ways. In particular, once it's in the wood, if anything breaks or comes unglued, you can forget about gluing it--forever. It does cause refinishing problems, too, but those can be gotten around if you know there's silicone present, but the glue joint problem is there, always. I cringe every time someones recommends Pledge on bellows, it is so much the wrong product to use for that, even if some ignorant bellows guy recommended it at some point.

Waxes are pretty much fine, but if you want to do the museum-appropriate thing, Renaissance Wax is the product that museums and instrument restorers use, and it's great stuff.

Sounds like great advice! Thank goodness that I saw this post before polishing my wood camera. :eek:

Old wood cameras consist of combinations of finished wood, metal, and leather. I would be very careful about a polish or enhancer intended for any one of these surfaces reaching either of the other two.

[RSalles]

Thanks for the replies so far! I've heard of carnauba wax, seems to be used widely for carpentry. Not so sure about pledge, would that not have some funky additives? Any indication on how resistant the various options are?

What's Carnauba? It's a tree, found at the northeast of Brazil

Nome científico: Copernicia prunifera (Miller) H.E. Moore
Família: Palmae (Arecaceae)
Sinonímia: Copernicia cerifera Mart.

The wax is extracted from the leaves, the process is a mix of dry-wet sequences, and - after more then 30 years woodworking for hobby and as furniture maker that's the more environment friendly and high quality product I had used.

Cheers,

Renato

[kleinbatavia]

Pledge might not damage an existing finish, but its oil, silicone can penetrate and cause refinishes to fail.

Wow, glad I never put that on my camera! Just ordered a small tin of renaissance, let's see how that turns out. Thanks for the warning on pledge though!

[Patrick13]

I used renaissance wax instead of lacquer on the brass bits of an agfa-ansco, it gives a friendly warm glow instead of the super shiny plated instrument look. I'm not really a "better than showroom" kind of fixer upper so your mileage may vary, I feel that if something is almost a century old it won those battle scars fair and square and I'll work to preserve the character while making it a user again.

[Jmarmck]

For leather, a simple saddle soap.