Practically everyone in our field has heard of the nightmare that
Perflex caused a few decades back.  Basically, this new plastic film was
touted as the perfect pouch material: it was perfectly airtight,
perfectly flexible, and lasted forever.  Well,  reality reared its ugly
head a few years later when  the  Perflex  began to  fail, and some
instruments that had been  rebuilt  at a cost of  thousands of
dollars -- including massive church  organs -- needed  to be rebuilt all
over again.  Of course, that was back in the 60's and 70's, and a lot of
people got so disgusted, justifiably, with newfangled, space age
materials that I am not aware of any other synthetic material ever
being  offered again.

We have come a long way since then, scientifically speaking, and I am
certain that there must be a plastic film out there that will be fine
for pouches. If a plastic film could be found, then we would have the
perfect airtightness and perfect flexibility, that would make these
pouches out-perform any leather.  Obviously, any material suggested for
this use should be laboratory tested to avoid another Perflex disaster.
I have heard that it was the air pollution that destroyed the Perflex,
but this is just anecdotal.

Two plastics that seem worthy of testing are good old-fashioned Saran
Wrap which has been around for many decades, and the second is this new
type of plastic wrapping used by movers and shippers.  Objects can be
wrapped in it, and because the plastic clings to itself, it will never
unwrap itself, yet a person can easily remove it without sticky tape
residue on anything.  Naturally, any plastic material will have to be
sold as pre-made pouches glued to a paper ring so that the dip is
uniform, and it can easily be glued to, and removed from, wood.

Any suggestions out there?

Randolph Herr