Silk bow wrap durability?

[MarkBouquet]

I'm wondering about the durability of silk bow grips. Are they subject to staining? It seems like they might be a maintenance liability over the years. I've noticed that they seem to be increasingly common on new bows. Thanks!

[FenwickG]

Silk wears quite well, but does get dirty and is difficult to clean. Silver  tinsel, which is silver wrapped around silk, tarnishes and if cleaned too hard can break the silver wrapping. For silk it seems best to go for darker colors that don't show the dirt as quickly.

[Brad Dorsey]

Many years ago when I was in her classes, Lynn Hannings recommended applying Scotchguard to silk windings to make them stain resistant.  I've never tried it because I don't do silk wrappings.  A quick internet search tells me that there are several different Scotchguard products; I don't know which she was using.

[MarkBouquet]

Thanks for the replies. I've seen used bows with silk wrappings that looked pretty dogged and drab, so I kind of knew the answer to my question already. But it happens that I'm bow shopping now, and as I said, seeing a lot of modern bows with silk wrappings. The lack of long term durability makes me lose interest. One could always switch to a different wrap, but it's an artistic choice the makers made and I'm not inclined to cavalierly change it. Not to mention the balance changing issue. It seems a shame that so many bows I might otherwise be interested in get dropped from my list for that, but so be it.

[PASEWICZ]

I would question whether they are indeed silk and not nylon.