[Leica] All you ever wanted to know about the care and feeding of Vulcans

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

From the archives:

- ----------
From: Bill Satterfield <cwsat@cyberhighway.net>
Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 09:32:15 -0500
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] How to treat and protect old M3 vulcanite?

Leica, NJ recommends Lexol. This is used on leather saddles. Most hardware
stores have it. Leathers by Mary Terry recommends Leather Armor or something
that sounds like that. I have used Lexol on my M3. M5, M6 and Rollei TLR. I
hope
Leica is right because they all look LN. Hopes this helps.

- ----------
From: "Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2000 10:23:16 -0000
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Subject: [Leica] Re: care for vulcanite & leatherette

Last time I was in the USA, I bought a bottle of lemon oil (it's a
dressing for wood furniture, not an essence of lemon used by
aromatherapists!), and have applied that to my cameras about once or
twice a year. My M2 had shed a patch of vulcanite in early 1997 (thus
my interest in the topic), and I'd successfully glued it back into
place. Since that date, I've been using lemon oil and have had no
further problems. The advice given to Steve McWherter probably came
from Leica USA - Leica UK say they have never heard of this trick.

- ----------
From: "Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Date: Sat, 6 May 2000 09:12:59 +0100
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Subject: [Leica] Re: Vulcanite maintence

I apply the stuff, leave it on overnight, then wipe the vulcanite dry
using soft kitchen tissue. The vulcanite rapidly returns to its normal
appearance, and the camera does not feel oily. Vulcanite is a very
hard and brittle plastic-type material, so I'd imagine it absorbs only
the tiniest amount of the lemon oil.

Whether applying lemon oil actually achieves anything is hard to say
until a few more decades have gone by, but Leica UK once told me that
cameras which are used are less prone to "vulcanite disease" than
those which are not. If they're right, it's possible that the
vulcanite on cameras which are regularly used is absorbing moisture or
natural oils from the user's fingers. So the lemon oil may have a
similar effect.


And my personal favourite:


- ----------
From: Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>
Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 22:03:59 -0500
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Subject: Re: [Leica] M4 Reliability

Not really.  You see, the vulcanite of the earlier, LTM cameras, was
actually furnished from the inner layer of the bark of a rare tree that
grows in the German Black Forest.  It would be collected by young virgins,
selected for their delicate fingers and only harvested between 4:30 and 5:15
AM, when the dew ensured that the humidity was such that the material
wouldn't be harmed.

Then followed an arduous process of curing the material, followed by
imprinting of the characteristic vulcanite pattern, which is actually
achieved through meticulous hammering with small, ivory hammers by elderly,
experienced craftsmen, selected for their delicate white hair.  If you look
carefully, you'll notice that the pattern of each camera is different,
because each craftsmen had to spend their apprenticeship manufacturing their
own hammer -- a process that reliable sources (which I'm unfortunately
unable to name) tell me took no less than 12 years for the person of average
dexterity.

Of course, now-a-days, the whole process is ISO 9001 and Y2K certified and
the vulcanite is actually an artificially produced material.  The old stuff
needed some attention, and Leica shops around the world would ensure that
there would be a qualified white-haired gentlemen with a small vial of
mountain dew on hand, to coat the vulcanite when the camera was handed in
for service.  But then the depletion of the ozone layer and increased labour
costs meant that collecting the mountain dew became too expensive, and the
modern stuff just needs to be wiped clean with a pair of Ted's drawers if
exposed to sea water, but otherwise is fine.