Hi All,  In his posting from Tue, 25 Jan 2005, Conrad Bladey, asks
the age-old question, 'What can I use to seal aging bellows cloth'.
Naturally, my professional response is, 'Don't seal it, rebuild it'.

At best, a sealer will give the bellows a few more years of service.
Every sealer I've ever tried provides just a couple thousandths of an
inch of sealing material which acts somewhat like a balloon.  Imagine,
if you will, a layer of flexible material stretched across any size
opening.  Now apply pressure.  What do you see?  Apply enough pressure
(or vacuum) and... POP!!

I recently wrote a posting about how deceptive worn bellows cloth
really is.  What may look and feel perfect good can indeed be perfectly
lousy.  Others have written similar postings about both old and new
cloth.  The point is, it's basically a waste of time to seal old
bellows cloth.  Furthermore, applying a sealer to anything will make it
stiffer.  It's just basic science.

All that said, if one insists on sealing old bellows cloth, the best
sealer for the job is Phenoseal.

Musically,

John A Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, New Jersey, USA