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The Mixture

  
     
  The mixture consists of, 500ml of pure Neat's-foot oil, not the raw stuff, as it stinks to high heaven, 4 oz's of beeswax, or 4 of those ingot type bars you can buy from any good hardware store, and four rounds of rosin for violin bows, the rosin acts as a setting agent and anti melt catalyst, to stop the mixture from bleeding through the leather again.

DO NOT  get things so hot that the oil is smoking, Or you could get chip pan syndrome, where everything bursts into flame, Only do this operation when the missus is out, melt and blend all the ingredients slowly until the oil is clear of lumps, when the mixture has cooled, it should resemble that of lard, see picture below.

Seasoning the bellows

Remove bellows clack valve and outlet tube, bung the outlet with a cork  pour in about a cup full of mixture through the bellows valve, cover valve hole with another cork, then swish it around for a few seconds, remove the outlet cork and let the excess mix  drain out, when everything cools down, you should have a nice air tight set of bellows, and make sure to remove any excess mixture that might have set in the outlet tube.

  
     

     
     
 

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