Does anyone know how to get the leatherette off of a Zorki 4 short of a grindstone? I just tried acetone, which had no effect. Trying to scrape it off with an X-acto knife is going to take two weeks. There's got to be an easier way.

Have you tried heat, with a hair dryer?
PF

Not yet. That hadn't occurred to me.

Well, the heat didn't work, so I decided to ask an expert, Morgan Sparks. He recommended using a type of paint stripper that eats it up. It can be any brand, but it has to contain methylene chloride. The stuff works great, but it does take two

I read somewhere that the Zorki covering is painted on, and that was going to be my next suggestion.  I don't ever plan on doing that to my Zorki, unless I get crazy one day, and try to cover it in cherry wood veneer.
 
PF

No it does not take two weeks with a knife; I have done it in a couple of hours. Some old Feds were painted a wrinkled finish, thick paint. The Zorkis I have from 1 to 4 all have Vulcanite or something like Vulcanite. You should be able to scrape it off

To clarify, the edge of the vulcanite will not pry up. I broke two blades trying. Cutting through the stuff, I found that the aluminum under it cut almost as easily as the vulcanite. I'm going with the paint stripper. I'm already going to have to

Cook the alloy body casting/extrusion at 200 deg C, then using a scraper that uses the long Stanley knife blades, apply constant pressure and lift the covering off in a large continuous piece. As Prasanna states, the secret is to apply the scraper b

The paint stripper worked perfectly. It came off as goo instead of shrapnel though.

BTW, I checked with Morgan Sparks again. He says the leatherette on my Zorki was not vulcanite, it was something more like Bondo.

Yes;they seem to have used different materials in successive batches. Some of them even get brittle and crumble to pieces like very old paper. I found them difficult to repair in patches. Best to scrape off and clean down to metal surface, then use new

Well, mine was not ready to crumble. It was as hard as a rock.