A customer of mine, who is a knowledgeable dealer, has commented that the hair in some bows that I recently rehaired for him has a "slight bulge" on each side where it leaves the ferrule, rather than being a ribbon with a uniform thickness. This must be a result of my wedging technique:
With my fingers, I spread the hair, near the head, to a uniform-thicknessed ribbon, of a width perhaps 50 percent wider than the inside of the ferrule. Then I insert a fine-toothed comb into the hair where I have spread it, run the comb down to the frog, and drive the wedge into the ferrule with the comb. This would put more hair at the edges of the ribbon, at the ferrule, than in the middle. I have always intentionally tried to put more hair at the edges, because I have observed that that's where the hairs most often break.
From this customer's comment, I am wondering if I am over-doing it, or if I should be doing this at all.
How do folks here do it? Do you aim for a uniformly thick ribbon at the ferrule, or do make it thicker in some places and thinner in others? Do you spread the hair wider than the ferrule with the comb?