My Grover 8x10 project has quickly gone from fabricating a tailboard to completely refinishing and refreshing the camera. Is it worth the effort in the eyes of many, probably not, but the idea of working with what I have is appealing and will make for an interesting story and a one of a kind camera at the very least.
Which brings me to bellows. I'm going to replace the 50+ year old red bellows and make a new one. I'm not a fan of red and I'm not sure how much life they have left in them. After quite a bit of research here and on other sites the consensus has been that no one really knows what material to use for the outer layer and what material might be good is hard to find or cost prohibitive. My initial thought was purchasing more of the 70 denier blackout cloth I bought ten years ago for my wet plate dark box from Freestyle photo, but unfortunately it is no longer available. So down the internet rabbit hole I went and I think I may have found a good solution. There's a 70 denier/1.9 oz (pre coat) rip stop black out fabric from Seattle Fabrics for around $12 a yard. Seattle Fabrics is geared toward the sailing and marine world. It comes in black and has the option for the blackout coated side to come in white or black. I ordered two yards of 60" wide black/black for $34 with processing fee, tax, and shipping included. I think this may be similar to what Intrepid is using.
I'll post updates once the material arrives, but I have high hopes that this will be a good material for the application.
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