The light traps in my Korona 12x20 plate holder have failed. The holder is very old, so I guess it was inevitable.

I took the plate holder to a local woodworker who said he was willing to give it a crack.
I explained to him what I thought needed to be done, having never seen the inside of a plate or film holder before, and he very very gently unscrewed and pried the ancient glued wooden artefact apart. He worked so gently, working against the old glue and nails buried in the wood. He managed to get the face off the plate holder and we were met with this:




I wasn't expecting two strips of felt but it made sense as soon as I saw it.

We looked closer:



Whatever the metal is, tin, is so thin, about as thin as aluminium foil, and it is folded over in half. The felt is glued to the top of this strip and the corner of the tin is 'crimped' over the outside edge of the felt, I assume to prevent the dark slide from catching on it when it is being inserted.




The tin has corroded and lost it's reflex along the edges. In some parts it's more or less rusted away entirely.



Also, the wooden groove that this strip of tin slits in has a very very slight overhanging lip over it that the 'crimped' part of the tin sits under.

The woodworker was very impressed with the ingenuity of the design and the craftsmanship that has gone into a very simple concept. He was really excited about the age and seeing the marks from the tools used to make it.

Anyway, so we're at the point now where we realised that the thin tin needs to be replaced, and the felt too. The material needs to stand up to silver nitrate, which is corrosive to organic material. We're thinking about what could be used. Triple folded leather? Rubber sponge with velcro or a similar material glued over the top of it? The new darkslide I have for this palte holder is made out of .6mm colourbond steel. Any of you guys have any ideas as to what we could use to create a springy light trap in this little slot? We've come this far so total repair is entirely possible.

Any help would be greatly aprpecited from this point.