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| An early Wheatstone bellows in for restoration. The corners have all been split and poorly repaired. After removing all of the prior attempts at repair, the bellows corners are cleaned with warm water to remove all traces of previous adhesives and placed in the bellows clamping jig. Use of a clamping jig ensures that the broken corners will line up properly. | Corners are covered with .004" pneumatic grade leather and secured with fresh hide glue and returned to the clamping jig to dry for a couple of days. Each corner is separated from the other with a thin plastic film. Gluing the bellows into one attractive albeit useless mass is contraindicated. The entire circumference of each outside fold will be then recovered with a narrow strip of .004 leather carefully dyed to match the original color and skived to blend in artfully with the original bellows |
