diff --git a/headers.js b/headers.js
index 0548213..cf978e1 100644
--- a/headers.js
+++ b/headers.js
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+var toBuffer = require('to-buffer')
+var alloc = require('buffer-alloc')
+
 var ZEROS = '0000000000000000000'
 var SEVENS = '7777777777777777777'
 var ZERO_OFFSET = '0'.charCodeAt(0)
@@ -71,12 +74,6 @@ var toTypeflag = function (flag) {
   return 0
 }
 
-var alloc = function (size) {
-  var buf = new Buffer(size)
-  buf.fill(0)
-  return buf
-}
-
 var indexOf = function (block, num, offset, end) {
   for (; offset < end; offset++) {
     if (block[offset] === num) return offset
@@ -175,7 +172,7 @@ exports.encodePax = function (opts) { // TODO: encode more stuff in pax
       result += addLength(' ' + key + '=' + pax[key] + '\n')
     }
   }
-  return new Buffer(result)
+  return toBuffer(result)
 }
 
 exports.decodePax = function (buf) {
diff --git a/pack.js b/pack.js
index 025f007..0bb57f6 100644
--- a/pack.js
+++ b/pack.js
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 var constants = require('constants')
 var eos = require('end-of-stream')
 var util = require('util')
+var alloc = require('buffer-alloc')
+var toBuffer = require('to-buffer')
 
 var Readable = require('readable-stream').Readable
 var Writable = require('readable-stream').Writable
@@ -11,8 +13,7 @@ var headers = require('./headers')
 var DMODE = parseInt('755', 8)
 var FMODE = parseInt('644', 8)
 
-var END_OF_TAR = new Buffer(1024)
-END_OF_TAR.fill(0)
+var END_OF_TAR = alloc(1024)
 
 var noop = function () {}
 
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ Pack.prototype.entry = function (header, buffer, callback) {
   if (!header.gid) header.gid = 0
   if (!header.mtime) header.mtime = new Date()
 
-  if (typeof buffer === 'string') buffer = new Buffer(buffer)
+  if (typeof buffer === 'string') buffer = toBuffer(buffer)
   if (Buffer.isBuffer(buffer)) {
     header.size = buffer.length
     this._encode(header)
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 2a25292..717b285 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "bl": "^1.0.0",
+    "buffer-alloc": "^1.1.0",
     "end-of-stream": "^1.0.0",
     "readable-stream": "^2.0.0",
+    "to-buffer": "^1.1.0",
     "xtend": "^4.0.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {