Horse Hair: Does it matter where it comes from?
 

I was talking with my wife about some horse hair that I had been looking at online at various sources. It seemed that hair from Mongolia is very popular, as well as Siberia.

But my question is this: Why not hair from local horses (Canadian in my case)? Why can't I go to my local horse ranch and get some hair from their horses? I'm assuming that there is cleaning that must be done but are there other reasons?

Why is Siberian horse hair $500.00 a pound?

I'd just love to get me some local Ottawa/Aylmer horse hair for my bow. :)

Jason

I know that Prochownik uses Canadian horse hair and it's fairly different.

Interesting
 

That's very interesting. Do you know how it is different?

IIRC, the colder the climate, the better the hair is for bows. I believe this may only apply to white hair but I could be wrong.

Canada may produce decent hair if that's the case; but at the same time Mongoia and Siberia get pretty cold too.

I imagine that different breeds of horses have hair with different characteristics. That's not to say you couldn't find usable hair but it may be a bit hit or miss.

I wonder if Dragonetti had Mongolian horse hair on his bows.

some links to read...

http://www.bowhair.ca/
(on that site, Canadian horse hair is the most expensive )

http://www.allthingsstrings.com/layo...Sound-and-Feel

(here and below it says the descriptions are only partially based on horses' country of habitat. "Canadian" horse hair could come from Siberia, and vice-versa.)

http://www.wilderdavis.com/en/furthe...plies-bow-hair

Also very interesting - maybe you can get it translated with Google: http://www.polychord.com/bogenhaare/bogenhaare.html . Best, Tom

Or go to the English page on the site:
http://www.polychord.at/xchange_adva...eite.php?ID=18