Best leather cream for arca swiss leather bellows?

[l2oBiN]

I would like to recondition the outside of the arca swiss 171-171 wide angle leather bellows. What is the best product for that?

[Mark Sampson]

Lexol. Designed for leather-bound books, often recommended for automobile interiors, good for leather bellows.
Saddle-soap is for very dirty equestrian tack.
Neats-foot oil- good for baseball gloves, it may dissolve the glue that holds your bellows together.
Anything containing silicone- I'd stay away.

[Collas]

I'd ask the people at http://www.leathercaredirect.com/ as they are keeping the skills of the, now-defunct, Connolly tannery (as used on Rolls-Royce motor cars) alive.

"Leathercare has been at the leading edge of repair and restoration to leather upholstery since its foundation in 1988.

It was established by two time served Connolly Leather renovation department members who wanted to bring their vast experience and expertise to the North West of England.

This expertise is maintaining and restoring such prestigious projects as the House of Commons, House of Lords, The British Museum and the QE2 to name a few. We were quickly offered the exclusive licence to use Connolly's name and products."

If they haven't got a suitable product, then they know who else to recommend. Excellent service.

Nick

[toyotadesigner]

A leather care without silicone! I'm using a German product, but unfortunately they don't have a web site.

Until 2008 I've used British products - these guys have a long experience, know how and tradition with leather and leather care. But the company ceased the production and focused on different products, so I searched for 2 years, talked to many specialists and finally discovered a small company for perfect leathercare for camera bellows.

[eric black]

i second the Lexol recommendation- its the only product I use for any leather items- bellows included

[E. von Hoegh]

Lexol. Designed for leather-bound books, often recommended for automobile interiors, good for leather bellows.
Saddle-soap is for very dirty equestrian tack.
Neats-foot oil- good for baseball gloves, it may dissolve the glue that holds your bellows together.
Anything containing silicone- I'd stay away.

Lexol is very good.
What is mostly sold as neat's foot oil is, if you read the lable, actually "neatsfoot oil compound". This may be good for baseball gloves and cheap shoes, but pure neat's foot oil is available, I've been using it on two sets of bellows with excellent results. Apply sparingly.

[l2oBiN]

So Lexol or neats foot oil compound? Lexol comes in cleaner, conditioner and neatsfoot leather dressing...are all three necessary? The black bellows leather leaves a very small amount of black dust when I run my fingers on it. I presume this is the outer dye/coating coming off? Would I need to clean this off first?

[E. von Hoegh]

Lexol is very good.
What is mostly sold as neat's foot oil is, if you read the lable, actually "neatsfoot oil compound". This may be good for baseball gloves and cheap shoes, but pure neat's foot oil is available, I've been using it on two sets of bellows with excellent results. Apply sparingly.

[c.d.ewen]

A leather care without silicone! I'm using a German product, but unfortunately they don't have a web site.


Ever use Effax Lederbalsam (http://www.effax.de/produktuebersicht.php)? A local tack shop recommended it. Contains lanolin, avacado oil and beeswax. No mention of silicone. Nice smelling, but leaves a somewhat waxy feeling to the leather.

I always swore by Propert's, but since Kiwi acquired them and put the stuff out as Meltonian, I stopped trusting it.

Charley

[TheDeardorffGuy]

Everyone has mentioned the leather. What about the underlying glue? I recomend Lexsol whole heartedly. But a product that penetrates slower is mink oil. There's two areas that need to be adressed. If the bellows is new. You should treat it with the same product for ever. I had deardorffs Bellows maker make me a Leather bellows for V8#17. This was now nearly 25 yrs ago. I started it out on Mink oil. Another bellows that was dry and older did not respond to mink oil. But did fine with Lexsol. And now I've done dozens. What works best on older bellows is lexsol. Never had a delamination yet.

[l2oBiN]

I appologise, but I am still unclear on exactly which of the three lexol products is the appropriate one. Is it the lexol leather cleaner, lexol leather conditioner or the lexol neatsfoot leather dressing?