Rehair Violin Bow

Bow Rehair - Discussion Forums - Fiddle Hangout

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Violin bow rehair and repair

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Violin repair guide, illustrated step-by-step instructions for bow rehairing, repair and restoration of the violin, viola, cello and string bass

How to rehair a violin bow

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