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Overheard a guy at the repair shop say he uses a hair dryer to soften old leather bellows, and I gave it a shot
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johnson.lee27d agoMost Upvoted
Hold up, I gotta disagree hard here. You said "soften old leather bellows" like that's a good thing, but bellows NEED to be stiff to actually push air properly. A hair dryer is just going to dry out the leather way faster in the long run, making it crack and fall apart. The heat pulls out all the natural oils, then you're stuck with brittle leather that won't seal right. If anything, you should be conditioning them with neatsfoot oil or something cold, not cooking them with hot air. I've seen too many old tools get ruined by people trying "quick fixes" like this.
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evan15127d ago
Two years ago I would've been the guy saying "just heat it up a little" but you're totally right. I wrecked an old pair of barn bellows doing exactly that and they're basically junk now.
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