Bow Ferrules

[UG Fiddlesmith]

I rehair several hundred bows a year and about 10% have bent ferrules where someone has pressed to large a spreader wedge under the ferrule. I have attempted to correct these problems by various means but would like some suggestions for the best way to restore the little pieces of metal. Thanks

[Brad Dorsey]

On 3/28/2011 at 8:25 AM, UG Fiddlesmith said:

I rehair several hundred bows a year and about 10% have bent ferrules where someone has pressed to large a spreader wedge under the ferrule. I have attempted to correct these problems by various means but would like some suggestions for the best way to restore the little pieces of metal. Thanks

Here's what I have done: I insert a long tapered half-round object into the ferrule. The object is sometimes a tapered half-round wooden dowel and sometimes a metal ferrule mandrel. The ideal is to stick something into the ferrule that will support its flat section. Then I lay the ferrule support on my bench top with the ferrule positioned over a hole, so that the curved section of the ferrule is dangling unsupported in the hole. With the ferrule supported in this fashion, I lay a flat wooden protector narrower than the ferrule across its flat surface and tap the wood with a little hammer.

If the ferrule flat is pressed against a flat surface, as described above, it might tend to spring back up a bit. So this method might work a little better if the support inside the ferrule is slightly concave across, so that the ferrule flat is supported only along the corners, and the wood protector is slightly convex.  You definitely do not want to strike the ferrule directly with the hammer because this will mar and distort it.

Another method I have sometimes tried is resting the curved part of the ferrule in an open-topped concavity that perfectly matches the curve of the ferrule. The cavity is cut in the edge of a metal block. Then I tap the ferrule flat with the hammer and wood protector, as described above. The metal block is the die that I use for forming the curved parts of ferrules. It has six semi-circular cavities of various diameters cut into its edges like a miniature blacksmith's swage block. It is crucial that the ferrule curve fit its support exactly, or else the curve will be distorted or mangled.

I am not altogether satisfied with these methods, and I hope someone else has a better idea.

[danielmiller]

I have not used this method yet personally, but have been told that the only way to restore the ferrule properly is to take a jewelers saw and open the ferrule at the solder joints so that it is in two pieces. You then straighten the flat piece of the ferrule, solder the two pieces back together and file the excess silver off of the flat piece. The reason these extreme measures are needed is that the silver is so soft that it stretches when messed up by an oversized spread wedge and is unable to be flattened perfectly without distorting the curved side of the ferrule. If you have made ferrules before, this is not a terribly difficult process, it just takes time and you have to be very careful.

I have used similar methods as Brad in the past, but have not found them to ever work perfectly.

[Brad Dorsey]

...the only way to restore the ferrule properly is to take a jewelers saw and open the ferrule at the solder joints so that it is in two pieces. You then straighten the flat piece of the ferrule, solder the two pieces back together and file the excess silver off of the flat piece....

I wouldn't dare try that, even though I have made a bunch of ferrules, for fear of mis-aligning the pieces when I soldered them back together. But even if it were done correctly, the after ferrule would be smaller than the before ferrule by the width of the saw kerfs, so I'm not sure if I even like the idea.