Brad Dorsey

The button broke off the back and it was repaired. The "two notches" that you see are where it broke. How strong it is now depends on how the repair was done. The repair could have even made it stronger than it was when it was new. Possibly the button was doubled to reinforce it, as GeorgeH suggested, but it's impossible to tell for sure from your pictures. A close-up shot of the edge of the button might tells us definitely. It's also possible that the button was reinforced with an invisible patch, or that there's no reinforcement at all.

The most authentic would be to find a frog by the same maker that was salvaged from a terminally damaged stick. Second choice would be to have an accurate replica made by a bow maker.

No. I don't know how the heat would help without pressing the rib into a corrective counterpart, which would be impossible to do with the top on, and you would risk damaging the varnish. To do a minimal repair, I would open the back/rib seam from the lower block to the corner then press in the bulge as well as I could while regluing the seam. You might be able to partially eliminate the bulge. As far as I can tell from your pictures the top edge overhang looks even, so I would leave the top seam glued.

I have changed my mind about this bow; I'm now pretty sure it is genuine. The thing that changed my mind is the stamp at the winding. I mentioned in my description of the bow that I had in my shop that it is stamped twice, but I never indicated where the second stamp is. The bow on Ebay has the second stamp in exactly the same spot by the winding as the one I worked on. I was fooled by how the stamp in the usual place by the frog is so crudely done, and I was surprised to see my own description used in the Ebay listing. The stamp by the winding looks right.

Not the way I've been doing it. I'm not a maker, but I reset necks, shim fingerboards, make new fingerboards and pull back necks. I always aim for the same projection. Should I be doing something different?

I'm not entirely sure, because the flat winding, the frog and the button are all pretty distinctive, and they all look correct. But two things make me very suspicious: The stamp looks really bogus, and shermfiddle lifted the description that I wrote. If this is a fake, it is not a casual fake; it is an extremely good one.

A violin bow with an obviously bogus "CORNELL" stamp is listed on Ebay by "shermfiddle": https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Cornell-Violin-Bow/292772015971?hash=item442a926f63:g:4lMAAOSwnCFbw8yf:rk:25:pf:0 The Ebay description is copied verbatim from my description above. The Ebay pictures are of a different bow, but they show a bow with the same type of frog, button and very distinctive silver wrapping as I pictured above. I'm trying to figure out how shermfiddle did this. He or she must have made the "CORNELL" stamp after seeing this thread. (I can imagine that lots of bow fakers have stamps saying "NURNBERGER," "OUCHARD," "SARTORY," etc., but who would have a "CORNELL" stamp lying around?) And where would shermfiddle get a bow with the same frog, button and wrapping as I pictured above? It would be too much work to make a custom copy to put on Ebay. Could shermfiddle actually be selling a genuine L H Cornell bow? Am I spending too much time on the internet? I expect shermfiddle will see this post, and I wonder what his or her response will be. Shermfiddle, Would you care to explain yourself?

The way to get the value is to hold a straight edge along the center line of the top of the fingerboard extending to the bridge position with one hand. Hold a ruler in the other hand and measure the distance between the straight edge and the top at the bridge position.

I pictured and explained how I fix this type of rib bulge without removing the top here: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/330430-how-to-fix-this-rib-deformation/

I heat with wood so I can use all of them.

I tie the ends of the hair with thread. When I do this, I wind the thread around the hair a 4 to 6 times and tie a knot. I repeat this when I tie the frog end of the hair if I want to leave extra hair in the frog. The weight of the extra hair is too small to make a difference. Very cheap Chinese bows usually have poorly cut frog mortises. I always have to recut them to the right shape and size.

I think that since you are a familiar only with frog-first you should continue rehairing that way. But you could still put some extra hair in the frog to let out if you need to by tying off the frog end as I have described.

It is a sickness that I'm trying to overcome. In the last two years I've managed to reduce my herd from about 110 to about 80. No pictures, though.

http://masterbaitonline.com/

Definitely nickel mounted and definitely not Pernambuco. It appears to be in great condition. To decide if I thought it were worth rehairing I would have to flex the stick to see if it felt strong enough. I think it probably is judging by other bows like this I have encountered.