This started out as a reply to a beginnng
fiddler who wrote to me asking if they should try rehairing their
own bow. I intend to gradually update this page with more bow
rehairing information.
You could look for someone in your area to apprentice with, or
take a bow rehairing class yourself at the"Summer Violin
Institute," at UNH, Durham, New Hampshire, USA. Give them
a call to get the course schedule sent to you- 603-862-2015. Also,
there is a good book by Harry Wake on bow rehairing. I met Harry
a few years back, at his home in San Diego, and bought a bow from
him.
From
my experience, its almost impossible to rehair a bow properly
by yourself without training and some specialized bench tools.
I learned this during a summer course in bow rehairing at the
University of New Hampshire. Even though I took the course, learned
to rehair, and I'm pretty skilled with tools, I still send my
own bows out to persons in my area who rehair bows for a living.
I could rehair a bow if I had to, but its much easier to let a
pro do it. Learning to rehair bows quickly and accurately takes
lots of time and practice, just like playing an instrument! Knowing
what I know now about bows, I would never recommend that a beginner
try it from scratch, except on a real "junker," for
fun. Its really easy to damage a nice bow if you don't know what
you are doing!
I've briefly described and illustrated the construction of violin
bows in my book, The Fiddle and Violin
Buyer's Guide. There are also many other sources for violin
related information in the book.
In this picture, Ryan learning rehairing from Arnold Bone at UNH.