effet of varnish on the playing qualities of a bow

[geigen]

Having driven 3 hours to get a rehair job "while-u-wait" yesterday I happily opened the bow case when I arrived back home. I was shocked to see that the guy did not only put new hair on as he was supposed to, he had also polished the silver parts of that very fine French bow with a grinding machine (ouch!!!!) and he had also laquered the stick. ARRRGH!!

The silver parts of frog and button are now all scratched. And by the way I like those slightly patinated silver parts.

When I tested the bow I did not like it as much as before, it was just very different, but I was not sure if this was due to the amount of hair. The bow felt dull and strange and did not produce that beautiful strong resonant tone anymore.

Today I decided to try to remove the varnish - and what a wonderful suprise, as more and more of the varnish got off its wonderful tone and excellent playing qualities came back. The varnish was not extremely richly applied and I was not aware of the obviously rather drastic effects of a thin layer of transparent varnish on the playing qualities of a bow.

Anne

[~ Ben Conover]

Generally the silver parts can be poslihed with jewellers rouge and a rag, without making scratches.

Bows are often French polished or oiled, I don't suppose it affects the tone in any way at all and affords the wood some protection when playing in different climates.

[fiddlecollector]

Having driven 3 hours to get a rehair job "while-u-wait" yesterday I happily opened the bow case when I arrived back home. I was shocked to see that the guy did not only put new hair on as he was supposed to, he had also polished the silver parts of that very fine French bow with a grinding machine (ouch!!!!) and he had also laquered the stick. ARRRGH!!

The silver parts of frog and button are now all scratched. And by the way I like those slightly patinated silver parts.

When I tested the bow I did not like it as much as before, it was just very different, but I was not sure if this was due to the amount of hair. The bow felt dull and strange and did not produce that beautiful strong resonant tone anymore.

Today I decided to try to remove the varnish - and what a wonderful suprise, as more and more of the varnish got off its wonderful tone and excellent playing qualities came back. The varnish was not extremely richly applied and I was not aware of the obviously rather drastic effects of a thin layer of transparent varnish on the playing qualities of a bow.

Anne

No Comment on the playing qualities,but im totally against these repairers/rehairers who obcessively stick a coating of shellac on bows whilst rehairing.Just like an instrument bows develope a patina on the varnish as well as the wood and to me coating with more shellac destroys this.I noticed on another forum people saying they do this as a matter of fact.Same goes for the silver parts .

[geigen]

Right... (by the way, it was bow #1, the perhaps-Sartory). I was very upset

[Josh Henry]

Regarding the playing qualities of the bow due to the varnish, I've don't think that there would be much difference on the same bow with or without varnish. However, I remember reading on Andrea Bang's website (www.cremonainseoul.com -- which does not seem to be working at this time) about his magic varnish being the 'missing link' between poor quality sound and Strad-like sound . He applied this magically-formulated varnish to bows, bridge blanks, sound posts, and even violins claiming that it made for better sound. It sounds to me like a magic marketing scam.

I do clean and polish every bow that comes my way for rehairing, but over-coating it with a thick lacquer on the stick is absurd. After cleaning off the rosin build-up from the stick, it shouldn't need any more than a good rubbing with a cloth or a light French polish. The term French-polish means different thing to different people, but essentially, it is a light surface application done by rubbing a cloth with something like linseed oil or mineral oil and a drop or two of shellac onto the stick. This will restore the sheen without over-varnishing the stick.

When I was taught to rehair bows, buffing the metal pieces was commonly done (although mostly just on nickel-mounted bows). However, very few people today will use a buffer during the rehairing process because it just takes too much metal away from the original and dulls and rounds all corners and edges. Besides, if you've ever caught the corner of a frog in the buffer and had it thrown across the shop (destroying it upon impact), you'll hesitate to do it again. Buffing is a practice that just shouldn't be used on bows. It sounds like the person that buffed your frog didn't even use the finest polishing rouge, but rather a courser grinding polish that left the scratches. Bad Form.

My personal approach to polishing the silver pieces is to do it only when requested. I use only the finer grades of Micro-Mesh and a sliver-polish cloth on the silver. This still leaves the sharp edges of the ferrule and button as they were, but also still leaves a slight bit of tarnish in the low spots.

My first thought about your bow not playing as well is that it probably has more (too much) hair in it. Too much hair slightly shifts the balance point forward on the stick, but more significantly, deadens the responsiveness and playability. It is also possible that the hairs are twisted from end to end, and perhaps not parallel with the stick. These rehairing mistakes also dramatically affect the feel of the bow.

By the way, it is a good idea to check over any repair work that has been done before you pay, and while you are still standing if front of the repairman. This way, you can either compliment him on his work or take up any issues like you've mentioned.