Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Lars Kirmser
MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS:
•GOOD QUALITY BOW HAIR (min. 31")
•BOW WEDGE MATERIAL (Basswood)
•DARK SHELLAC STICKS
•* FINE (00) STEEL BINDING WIRE
•* NO. 40 HEAVY COTTON THREAD
•* WAXED DENTAL FLOSS
•* #25 LINEN THREAD
•CONTAINER OF FRESH WATER
•ALIPHATIC RESIN GLUE (Carpenter's Yellow Glue)
•POWDERED ROSIN
•000 STEEL WOOL
•BEE'S WAX
•TUNG OIL
A. PLACE THE BOW (WITH FROG ATTACHED) INTO YOUR REHAIRING JIG
Lubricate the frog liner with a small amount of paraffin.
Make sure that the assembled frog slides back and forth on the stick smoothly and easily. There should be a minimum of
side-to-side wobble, which would indicate a badly worn slide mortise (on inexpensive plastic bows, this consideration is
mute).
Adjust the frog's relative position is such that after the
screw comes into contact with the eyelet, make 5 or 6
complete turns to fully stabilize the frog on the stick.
With the partially assembled bow firmly in place in the
bow jig, carefully clean and "dress" the tip wedge
mortise and the frog wedge mortise at this time. Refer
to the graphic showing the correct shapes for each
mortise.
Fabricate the tip and frog wedges with precision. If
you have dressed the mortises, you will have to make
new wedges.
These wedges MUST fit their respective mortises
exactly, like pieces of a puzzle! I never reuse the old
wedges as they are generally spent after each use.
There can be no short cuts here, because if the wedges are over-sized, they will likely split-out the frog or tip; if they are
too under-sized, they will fail to hold the hair sufficiently. (See illustrations)
Validate the fit of the pearl slide and the ferrule; re-fabricate a new slide or ferrule if necessary.
Lubricate the slide with paraffin, and work it back-and-forth.
V. BOW HAIR SPECIFICATIONS
A. BULK
I recommend that you purchase your bow hair in bulk, from a reputable wholesaler. There are several companies which
qualify. Currently, I buy my hair from Wagman - Grenamyer, Inc., 10 Strawberry St., Philadelphia, PA 19106 (800) 229-
5059. Generally, I purchase 33" Black hair for student bows, and some Cello and Dbl. Bass bows. The cost of this black hair
is very reasonable, and the quality is often nearly as good as the premium white hair. In the shop we are able to use black
hair only on Dbl. Bass bows, and an occasional Cello bow, as most advanced violinists and violists strongly prefer the
white hair only. I do not recommend that you buy hair in the single coil form. They are rarely the correct size (number of
hairs per hank), and the price/per is usually prohibitive. If you ever do use a single coil, be advised that the ends are only
temporarily sealed with sealing wax, and must be re-wrapped and prepared as follows:
B. REPLACE THE FROG BACK ONTO THE STICK AND SECURE IT INTO THE JIG
Adjust the frog's position (relative to the stick) so that after the screw comes into contact with the eyelet, make 3 or 4
complete turns to allow for the adjustment of the new hair after it shrinks overnight from drying. Be sure that the frog is
pushed completely forward in its mortise while secure in the rehairing jig.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMATEUR FIDDLE MAKERS Q AND A ---Harry S. Wake Published by the author 1980
BOW MAKING - 1000 BOWS AND A TRIBUTE --- John Alfred Bolander Booklet
BOWS AND BOW MAKERS --- Wm. C. Retford --- Pub. Novello & Co. Limited Edition 1972
AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE VIOLIN --- Alberto Bachmann Da Capo Press, New York 1966
HOW TO MAKE A VIOLIN BOW --- Frank V. Henderson Murray Publishing Co. Seattle 1977
HOW TO REHAIR BOWS --- J. P. McKinney University Press Fresno, CA 1970
HOW TO SELECT A BOW FOR VIOLIN FAMILY INSTRUMENTS --- Balthasar Planta Zurich
A LUTHIER'S SCRAPBOOK --- Harry S. Wake Published by the author at San Diego, CA 1979
THE RETFORD CENTENARY EXHIBITION --- Ealing Strings London 1975
SOME NOTES ON THE REHAIRING OF BOWS --- Max Moller Reprint: Violins & Violinist 1959
VIOLIN BOW MAKING --- John Alfred Bolander Published by Boyd Poulsen, San Mateo, CA 1981
VIOLIN BOW REHAIR AND REPAIR --- Harry S. Wake Published by the author at San Diego 1975
VIOLIN MAKING AS IT WAS AND IS --- Ed Heron - Allen Ward Lock Ltd. London 1885