A common crack on the thumb projection of the frog has long been repaired using super glue and ebony dust as fill; this repair leaves a conspicuous shiny line. The technique that we prefer utilizes the end mill and matching ebony strip to remove the crack. Materials &Tools Paper Towels Cyano Acrylate (CA) – Thin Red ‘Hot […]
A silver wrap is a classic bow adornment that adds some weight to the bow to help adjust the balance point. Our goal is to make a beautiful, shiny, tight, and even wrap that gives us all the right measurements. Materials Blue masking tape Scale Pencil Ruler (both inches and millimeters) Spool of Silver wire […]
A headspline is a common way to repair a bow that has been irreversibly broken at the tip. Once the bow is glued back together, a piece of pernambuco is inserted crossgrain to help support the glue joint from coming apart. Tools and Materials Thin Cyanoacrylate Adhesive Toothpick sharpened into a paddle Mini straightedge Lathe […]
As published in the IPCI Book. The following article describes a procedure we use in our shop to repair a broken tongue made of ebony. When this procedure is successfully completed, the grafted tongue will be as strong as the original and the repair will be virtually invisible. This procedure is not appropriate for tongues made of […]
An eyelet is the threaded brass piece in your frog that allows your bow to be tightened and loosened with a turn of the button. When a bow is unable to be tightened, it could be caused by a number of factors and a stripped eyelet is definitely on the list of usual suspects. […]
A cheval is a form of wood replacement. Often, due to a bow frog’s small size, an entire section of wood has to be replaced with new wood to reinforce the structure and to supplement missing wood. Traditionally, a cheval is performed by planing away original material and replacing it with new wood. A rounded cheval maximizes the surface area […]
The thumb leather can help you grip the bow, but it can also make your bow more stylish. In this post I will list the materials you will need to make a thumb leather, show you the different kinds of leathers that we use in the shop and describe their attributes, and give you step-by-step […]
Often, a musician will wear a divot in the bow where the thumb contacts the stick. The use of the optical epoxy to fill the worn area is a noninvasive and reversible restoration and looks good as well. MATERIALS AND TOOLS -good-quality, non-stretching transparent packing tape – modelling clay or candle wax – 1 dental dappen dish – […]
As published in the IPCI Book. The conventional manner to repair damaged tortoiseshell has been to fill the frog with small pieces of tortoiseshell cut from combs, oriental fans, or other flea-market finds and glue the pieces into place using CA glue. However, results of this time-consuming method varied and, today, tortoiseshell has become very […]