fiddleiphile - Posted - 06/27/2011:  21:57:00

I just recieved a great manual that I bought on ebay,  Violin Bow Rehair and Repair by H.S. Wake.  Lots of information and tons of photos.  This manual even has very detailed plans for building your own bow holding jig.  Library Of Congerss card No.  81-186555   

Edited by - fiddleiphile on 07/04/2011 11:39:12

ronwalker49 - Posted - 06/28/2011:  04:12:30

I purchased that book quite a few years ago along with his book on building a fiddle...I have Henry Strobel's on building as well and it was a bit easier for me to follow... I purchased my bow holding jig from Stewart MacDonald but they are pretty expensive these days..

bj - Posted - 06/28/2011:  06:23:28

IMHO, Wake leaves out a few steps . . .

Diane G - Posted - 06/28/2011:  14:58:29

I would agree with BJ and Ron....Strobel's manuals are much better and more accurate.. Harry does things that are difficult and his fiddles do not sound very good. I have one. Roger Foster's Bow Rehairing DVD is really great...check out Foster's Violin Shop in Orange, Ca. Step by step DVD on rehairing. Diane in SoCal.

coelhoe - Posted - 06/28/2011:  15:42:40

Back in the mid 70's I was doing guitar / banjo set ups for a big music store and decided to try my hand at bow rehairing. I had Wake's book(s) and a jig and I set out to do it. I finally decided that with the time involved it wasn't economical, not for me anyway. In the time it took me to fix one bow, I could set intonation on four guitars and make 4x the money. I've never regretted having a pro re-hair my own bows. I just took one in today.

woodwiz - Posted - 06/28/2011:  16:48:30

Takes about 20 minutes if you're set up for it, and do them every day. Could take half a day if you are just learning, and you'll likely have a poor job besides. At least, that's been my experience.

echord - Posted - 06/28/2011:  19:27:30

quote:

---

Originally posted by coelhoe

Back in the mid 70's I was doing guitar / banjo set ups for a big music store and decided to try my hand at bow rehairing. I had Wake's book(s) and a jig and I set out to do it. I finally decided that with the time involved it wasn't economical, not for me anyway. In the time it took me to fix one bow, I could set intonation on four guitars and make 4x the money. I've never regretted having a pro re-hair my own bows. I just took one in today.

---

That was pretty much my experience 15 years ago when I tried it. By the time I paid for hair, books and equipment, I could have gotten a couple of new bows. And I found it very frustrating in any case. That's the kind of thing I leave to the pros. It ain't for the faint hearted. 

ronwalker49 - Posted - 06/28/2011:  20:14:18

I have done a number of them... Occasionally a half sized or even smaller will pass through my hobby shop that needs re-haired and I will do it.. I can't do one in 20 minutes unless I start timing myself after I have everything set up and ready....

fiddleiphile - Posted - 06/29/2011:  03:32:08

Well, It is easy and cheap to just buy a "new" bow or have a "pro" do it, not so cheap. If you want to know how to do something yourself, you have to learn how somewhere. I'm sure the first few may not be wonderful but I will learn. "Pros" don't get to be pros by having someone else do it for them. (Do they?) Hair is cheap, the book seems simple enough to understand. I have 12 bows that need hair or they are just fire wood.(a few are anyway). There are a few that were very nice. I'll practice on the trash and then hopefully be able to restore the better ones. Nothing ventured, Nothing gained!

fiddleiphile - Posted - 06/29/2011:  04:31:01

B.J. what steps did Wake leave out? I'll take note before I start the process.

emviolins - Posted - 06/29/2011:  06:59:38

If you are serious about rehairs, you might take the "pro" approach and take a class, I might suggest Lynn Hannings class, worth every penny. Then after a 1000 bows you are a "pro". Look forward to glued in plugs and carving square a lot of mortises. Decent hair makes the job easier and is not cheap. Do you know how luthiers become millionares? They start off with 2 million.

fiddleiphile - Posted - 06/29/2011:  12:15:00

Look, I'm not planning to open a shop nor do I need to learn a new trade. I just want to try my hand at learning something new for my own instruments. It aint missle science and there are other people that can do it, so if it's alright with everybody can I give it a try?  By the way, It is my understanding that if the bows were rehaired properly there should be no glued in wedges.

Edited by - fiddleiphile on 06/29/2011 12:32:59

Jaunskots - Posted - 06/29/2011:  14:37:39

Woodwiz et al. are perfectly correct., in my limited experience...

But I don't think anyone is really trying to discourage you from trying to rehair a bow that's not worth a lot of money. It's an amusing way to spend some time and money. I had a friend who knew how show me a couple of times, and did a couple myself. In the end I spent more on it than a good rehair would cost, spent a lot of quite pleasurable time, redid the whole works, and ended up with an outstandingly -- well, barely -- adequate job in the end. It's a good thing I didn't actually need them to come out right. All in all, the experience made me appreciate people who do it right, quickly and relatively inexpensively, every time.

I think rehairing bows is a skill like painting watercolours: the first few hundred don't count, but they can be fun if you don't expect to make a living at it. By all means try it out on junk bows. Have fun. But have a pro rehair your good bows if you're like most of us.

Harold

bj - Posted - 06/29/2011:  16:14:59

If I knew which steps Wake left out I'd have bows that were at least playable after my rehair jobs.

emviolins - Posted - 06/29/2011:  16:38:00

Most of the inexpensive chinese ones usually have glued wedges and round mortises in the frog. You will see a lot of them if your friends have you do theirs or if a school needs them done.

2005fiddler - Posted - 06/29/2011:  18:44:21

I bought a video from a guy on e-bay, I think he goes by mitch37308, I have real good results, my father in law had a home made jig that he built years ago and he didn't use it anymore so I got it and added (don't laugh because it works) are 2 mouse traps, this guy shows you how to use them to hold your hair on the video. Now I rehair all my bows and I'm a happy camper. :)

fiddleiphile - Posted - 06/30/2011:  02:47:14

Thanks for the post 2005 fiddler, I was hopeing to hear from someone that was sucessful. So it can be done with good results.

2005fiddler - Posted - 06/30/2011:  03:53:45

The only problem I had was the mouse traps. The ones I bought was cheap and the spring would not hold the hair as tight as I wanted, so I have to add a small close pin clamp on the end of the mouse traps, the traps are retro-fitted so you have a flat surface on the board side and the spring side. They are mounted in such a way they are a part of your jig and help keep the hair nice and flat and straight and holds a bit of tension. He does a much better job explaining it than I do and you can watch him actually do it. Hope this helps.

dogwalkin - Posted - 06/30/2011:  04:23:04

Ok here is my experience. I got a bow hair jig that came from International Violin. A friend bought it and got frustrated so I got it from him. About two years ago I set out to rehair some bows. I started on some very cheap bows. First work on just getting them apart that can be very challenging. Take your time its not rocket science. Then take your time prepping the hair and making new plugs. If you take your time and use some common sense I bet you can do a good job. But make sure to get some good hair. I get mine from a pro here in Nashville. I have done about 30 while I am not a pro I feel like I can do a decent job. I have also been doing some for a local music school. Two of the instructors do play professionally and I have rehaired there bows for them and they were pleased. Especially since I did them in a reasonable amount of time and did not keep there bows for a month.

ronwalker49 - Posted - 06/30/2011:  05:30:41

Fiddleiphile,
I'm not sure I would call someone who can re-hair a bow a pro...There's not that much to it... Don't let anything discourage you... I've messed up a couple of them...
--- "In the end I spent more on it than a good rehair would cost"--- Me too, at first.. But now I can do it for penny's on the dollar and I'm really glad that I endured the frustration and the cost of the learning experience...If you tough it out you'll be glad you did...

As for being a pro---There is only one qualification to be a pro in my book... If you can take a crummy sounding fiddle and make it sound wonderful, then I am willing to call you a pro...I am not pointing fingers at anyone on this forum, but I have wasted a lot of money on "Experts" in the last fifty years... I have heard a lot of talk about the mystery and magic of their craft but in the end they have been wood-crafter's of varying degrees and I ended up paying lots of money for something I could have done myself for nothing..
I took a snake-wood bow with an ivory frog and silver metalwork to the violin shop in Cincinnati once and he busted the side out of the tip...Instead of fixing it he called me down there to tell me my bow was junk and wanted to sell me a reasonably good bow he happened to have for 6 or 7 hundred dollars...
Take your time--Do your research--If you have problems take some pictures and send them to me, I will try to help you...
The main point is this--It's only a fiddle bow and it belongs to you and if the truth were known, most of us have messed up a couple of those at one time or another...So what do you have to lose..?..

The really important things in life are another issue entirely...After all aren't we--- "just fiddling around"...?

ronwalker49 - Posted - 06/30/2011:  14:52:51

Oh, I forgot to mention that he stole the silver tip from it... I never noticed until later.... I would not recommend their services to anyone..

emviolins - Posted - 07/01/2011:  07:57:24

A quick tip. A lot of beginners tend to use too much hair. It makes it hard to put the slide in and most time overpowers the bow and makes it less responsive. Use a little less than you think you will need. Also buy a good grade of hair.

fiddleiphile - Posted - 07/04/2011:  10:42:32

Thanks for the good words Ron W, yeah I've messed up a few bows had 2 just slip from my fingers and pop the tip off. That's part of the reason I'm interested in becoming able to rehair and repair.
emviolins, I live a long way from anywhere. All of my parts shopping is done online. I have purchased some hair off of an ebay site. It was very inexpensive but I have no way of knowing the quality. What should good quality hair cost. Who would you recommend to purchase from. Most of the hair i've found comes in 150 to 180 hair hanks. Would you recommend using less and if so how much less? Thanks for the info in advance. Jerry

PeterG - Posted - 07/05/2011:  10:48:41

I rehair my own bows but usually when someone comes to me for a rehair I refer them to a guy close by that does a real professional job at a great price. I am a do it yourselfer so I like to do my own. One thing to watch for when you rehair is to watch your side pressure in the bow tip. Its quite easy to take out the tip that way. The trash bows may be harder to work on to start but it will be good experience anyway, no harm done.

fiddleiphile - Posted - 07/07/2011:  04:41:30

Hi Peter, I am sure it will take some time and practice to learn the art. It's a 200 mile trip to get someone to work on fiddles or bows. Add the cost of gas and lost time on top of the cost to have the work done and it gets pretty expensive. I've worked on my own and other peoples guitars for 40 yrs. I got into working on fiddles out of necessity. So far I have'nt run into anything I could'nt handle. Just taking it all slow and easy and paying lots of attention to detail. I'm sure it will come to me just like it did to all of those who made up thier minds to "Just DO IT"

emviolins - Posted - 07/10/2011:  04:30:03

I usually buy a tail from an established wholesaler. If you only need a few occasionally I would recommend International Violin Baltimore, Md. I don't count hairs I usually pinch and adjust by eye.I hope it works out for you. Another tip, When you have the knot in the mortise, make sure it is straight and even side to side.