Fabulous Finished Product

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

What's a linseed?

I finished my first pernambuco bow with several coats of linseed oil. As the oil dries, it darkens the wood, highlights the grain patterns, and forms a satiny protective coating over the wood. Not the same as a high-gloss French polish, but just as beautiful.

Coming together

Almost there! A little bit of oil polishing, leather and wrapping, and then the stick should be ready for hairing.

Grinding on a Budget

Ever since I started into this bowmaking work, I've heard again and again that I should get a grinder. Well, someone on the other side of town just upgraded his grinder and wanted to get rid of his old one for $25. It was a 'dealio' I couldn't refuse. I've since used my grinder to shape a single-bevel knife and to make a new, much-needed mini-chisel. Looks like this new tool is going to be seeing a lot of action.

Shop-made tools

I've been reluctant to make my own tools, but more and more I find that what I need to make a good bow is pretty hard to find (and expensive, too). So, I've begun learning how to make my own chisels, spade drill bits, etc. It's actually pretty fun, a lot easier than I thought, and very fulfilling.

Above, you see a set of DOCKYARD MICRO CHISELS, currently on sale for: $48.64.

Below, a set of PHILLIPS MICRO CHISELS and a 3.2mm spade bit, costing a grand total of .64 cents (plus a little elbow grease)! The wood is a maple dowel from Home Depot, and the metal parts are music wire (high carbon spring steel) shaped with a file, heated to cherry red over an alcohol lamp, tempered at 425 degrees in the oven for 30 minutes, and then sharpened to a fine edge on a stone.

Peeewwww!

I've had lots of trouble gluing the tip onto the Bubinga bow I gave Kristin for Christmas '09. I had tried wood glue, white glue, gorilla glue, and... you guessed it - hot glue (no project should be attempted without incorporating at least a little hot glue!).

This time around, I whipped out the epoxy. Never used it before, and figured I wanted to get it right the first time on this pernambuco bow. It turned out to be perfect for this job, but boy, does its smell bad! Last night, after I glued the top on and tied it up with dental floss, I went upstairs to join Kristin for part III of the new Sense and Sensibility (which is awesome, by the way!). It took some good coaxing and a few trips outside (closing up the garage, taking out some garbage bags, etc.) to win back that most coveted movie seat next to my baby!

The next morning, if you can believe it, the whole basement still smelled like fresh epoxy. I took out the garbage, threw away everything that had any glue residue on it (except for the bow, of course!), and now things are smellin' a little better down in the workshop.

Ebony & Ivory

The tip of the bow is protected (strengthened) from accidental blows by a covering of ebony and ivory. I've glued the two pieces together with gorilla glue and then filed the head to fit perfectly into the profile of the tip.

All Wrapped Up!

The underslide is glued into the frog, and the frog is placed on the stick to ensure a tight fit once the glue dries. The underslide will protect both wooden parts from the constant wear that would otherwise occur when the frog slides back and forth (tensioning the horse hair). The pieces are "all wrapped up" with high tensile-strength, waxed flattening string (um..., a.k.a. dental floss)!

The frog gets its legs!

Drying the frog after application of linseed oil.

Drilling the eyelet hole.

Screw/eyelet, frog, underslide, and ferrule (above) all come together (below).

Putting the hop into the frog

Forming (below) and drilling (above) the silver underslide.

Trapezoid-shaped frog blank (above), cut by scroll saw out of 1x1x12 ebony plank (below).

Who says you can't take 'em with you?

Kristin and I made this sweet bow holder out of 3" PVC pipe, lined with velvet and a moisture-blocking screw-top lid. Now I have a safe way to transport the bows to my mentor's studio, the local violin shop, and everywhere inbetween.

The frog starts hopping!

For Christmas, Kristin gave me a 12-inch piece of Gaboon Ebony from Woodcraft. I cut off a two-inch piece so I had a little block of wood that looked like a cool, black building block. I tapered the sides just a bit and took a picture of it (above).

It was a little higher than the 21mm it was supposed to be, so I put it sideways in my vise and cut it down to the right size with a coping saw.

I took about 10 breaks on these first two cutting jobs because the wood is SO hard, it takes forever to cut through it!

Almost there . . .

Whew, that took way too long! Next, I used my woodcarving knives and files (another Christmas present) and filed a half-circle for the metal ferrule, hollowed out the front part of the frog to be a lopsided-circle shape (a "handmade-look" tip from my mentor), and then started filing the groove on top where the stick will rest.

Next Steps

Bow in the vise for side planing.

Cutting the angle for the faceplate.

Front contours of the head are carved.

Width and height are brought within 1mm of finished dimensions. Corners are now planed/scraped away to create an octagon shape to the stick.

Bow #3

Me and my special little apprentice, Mary.

Happy New Year - 2010!!!

I'm now working on bow #3 . #1 cracked during cambering. #2 was Kristin's 2009 Christmas present. It played really well when I first gave it to her Christmas morning, but then I thinned out the stick to more traditional proportions and it became too flexible. I didn't think of it at the time, but the Bubinga wood I used on #2 is a little less dense than the traditional pernambuco wood, so it needed a little bit more thickness to keep the expected tension on the hair without bending away all the camber. Now that I've thinned it out, the hair doesn't get tight enough to play on until the stick is bent totally straight, which means the hair is too far from the stick and it feels wobbly. Also, somehow the horse hair became all mangled and twisted when I took the frog off the stick to work on thinning it out. Oh well, it does still play and sounds lovely (thanks to Kristin's great skills)!

So, now I'm on to bow #3. I'm really excited because I'll apply all the knowledge I've gained on my first two Bubinga bows toward a bow made out of the right kind of wood - Pernambuco. I cut a piece off of the stick last night and dropped it into water. The saying goes that if it sinks, that's cause to rejoice. Well, it sank right to the bottom of the cup!!!

I'm also going to make my own frog for this bow (Bolander says you can't call yourself a bowmaker unless you make your own frogs). I'll be more careful about not sanding down the button end of the stick. I'm going to practice with the thumb leather on other scraps of wood until I get it just right. I'll use precut ebony liner on the tip, and make the tip even narrower than previous bows. And, I'm going to start the wrapping a good inch or two above where I started on bow #2. All that should add up to somethin' special for Kristin.