An organ builder friend had studied old organs in Europe and found very
old zephyr skin still good after eons of use.  So I decided to try using
it on the Reproduco, since they had used a very thin pneumatic cloth
originally.

These original pouches were dried out of course.  I replaced them with
zephyr skin, and they have stood up for fifteen years.  This was before
I knew about proper rebuilding techniques, and I used white glue on the
pouches. I cut each pouch by hand, and tested it to make sure there were
no holes.  It was slow and laborious.  Out of 88 pouches, there were
three that were discarded.  There was no compensation made in the bleed
size with the new material; I assumed that zephyr skin would be similar
to pneumatic cloth.  Repetition and sensitivity are normal.

At that time the current myth(?) was that zephyr skin was good, but
vulnerable to insects.  I have no factual data to back that up.  Zephyr
skin was a bit harder to handle than tan pouch leather.

Bill Chapman
La Quinta (pronounced la Keenta), near Palm Springs, CA