Restoring bow.

Sippy · #1 02-27-2007, 01:49 PM

I have a pretty old bass bow I was able to get my hands on very cheap, the owner had no idea what it was so he sold it to me for $5. I've decided to restore it just cause I like the feel of it and the look of the finish. I was wondering if you could all help me discern what wood the bow is. And if you think I should replace the frog or not.
I'm going to put in a very nicely figured abalone slide in it, bone tip, and gold wiring.

**Basschair** · #2 02-27-2007, 02:12 PM

I'm thinking it's Brazilwood (at best): I'd expect pernambuco to be a bit more orange (assuming that the pics do justice to the color), to absorb a bit of the light before reflecting (making it a bit translucent). Although you could argue that the finish is keeping that from happening, I've never seen a bow where a heavy finish was put on over pernambuco, as that translucency (did I butcher that spelling?) is looked for...basically, I wouldn't expect a maker to cover pernambuco up with a thick finish that hid its characteristics.

Could you take a pic of the very tip from the front? From one of the angles it looks like it might be chipped. Not a big deal, but figured I'd ask. Actually, scratch that: not cracked...there's just not much of it. That will change when you put the ebony (or fiberpaper) liner on it.

I enjoy making the slides for frogs a lot...don't ask why, it's just meditative I guess. Try to get some shell material that matches the color (not necessarily the figure) of the eyes in the frog so there's some congruency.

As for the frog, you may want to get yourself a 2 or 3mm beveled-edge chisel and clean up the mortise a bit, just to remove debris and to make sure there is an undercut on the back wall (screw side, not ferule side) of the mortise. There's no reason that I can see to replace the frog: my first frog had a wing that completely split from it, and I was able to affix it with CA and after some micro mesh and detail chiseling, you can't see the join at all. You'll learn a lot more by working on the frog versus just buying a new one (plus, you just never know if a new one will seat properly). Speaking of, how does the eyelet fit into the channel in the stick? Is it snug, or is there any side-to-side (lateral?) movement? The nipple looks good...hahaha, I said "nipple."

Also, get yourself some sort of paraffin-based lubricant, such as Door Ease and put just a bit on the threads of the screw and the edges of the new slide to ensure that everything will move when you want it to.

Sippy · #3 02-27-2007, 02:22 PM

LOL yea the frog is fine, except it seems the mortise is a bit beat up. I'm 99.9999% it's not pernambuco but I'm also 90% sure it's not brazilwood. That's why I'm asking. it actually looks like cherry, but I've never seen a bow made from Cherry. I'm very confident in my ability to restore this bow, just wanted some input as to the wood.

p.s. it sounds very interesting to make my own slide. I have no tools to work with shells or anything like that. But I may look into it.

**Basschair** · #4 02-27-2007, 02:27 PM

I got carried away there

I've got a stack of student bows that are that red color, many of which are actually brazilwood. I found this out when retipping one, and having to do some fine sanding to correct some things. It took the red right off, leaving the browns and grains which look (to me) like brazilwood. There are quite a few woods out there which are great substitutes for pernambuco, some of which are red in nature...

At any rate, have fun!

Sippy · #5 02-27-2007, 05:53 PM

Yea It's actually a very nice bow, I was just curious about the wood because, I'm considering stripping the finish off this bow (it's pretty old and has it's own fair share of gouges) and putting on a lighter finish... I just can't see the grain very well and wanted to know what to expect.