Metal Bow Hair?

[Cody Sisk]

Has anyone ever rehaired a bow with metal hair? I have a customer that brought in a bow the other day that was broken but the hair was metal. He swears that it eliminates the "hiss" sound that the hair makes on the higher notes on a violin.

He wants me to put metal hair on his bows but I'm not sure where to get the hair. I reverse-engineered his bow and it seems that you'd just rehair it as you would with horse hair. Am I wrong?

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by DallasStrings

Has anyone ever rehaired a bow with metal hair? I have a customer that brought in a bow the other day that was broken but the hair was metal. He swears that it eliminates the "hiss" sound that the hair makes on the higher notes on a violin.

He wants me to put metal hair on his bows but I'm not sure where to get the hair. I reverse-engineered his bow and it seems that you'd just rehair it as you would with horse hair. Am I wrong?

Wow, that post turned out completely different from what I was expecting based on the title

I was looking for some hardcore type of a bow for heavy metal music.

George

[fdeck]

From an iron horse?

[robobass]

Interesting. My teacher, Homer Mensch, experimented with metal hair. The idea was that since bassists had switched to steel strings, perhaps horsehair was not optimal. He told me that he had had a normal bow prepared with some kind of metal wire ( I don't remember which) and played it on a stage with other bassists listening. The result was very positive for a few minutes, but the metal "hair" would not hold rosin for any duration. That was the end of the experiment.

[JtheJazzMan]

Horse hair holds the rosin in decent quantities in the rough texture of the hair, yes? Wire would be smooth I assume, and therefore not so useful.

[Cody Sisk]

Originally Posted by JtheJazzMan

Horse hair holds the rosin in decent quantities in the rough texture of the hair, yes? Wire would be smooth I assume, and therefore not so useful.

Yes, this is the case. The scales on the surface of the horsehair will hold the rosin. In the case of metal, I wonder if zinc plated copper might act the same after being played in a bit. The plated metal sheering off of the inner core creating a rough surface?

My customer insists that it holds rosin every bit as good as horsehair..

[mje]

It's not the scale. Roisin is held on horsehair via electrostatic attraction.

[Ed Fuqua]

Kind of like my ex-wife...

[forester]

steel/steel and reciprocating motion...recipe for magnetism?

[fdeck]

Any idea what metal? There aren't very many alloys that would hold the tension but not corrode.

[sirero]

well, how long does it need to go without starting to break down? because I reckon you'd rehair before it really rotted away, also couldn't the coating of the rosin act in a similar manner to painted iron?

[robobass]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Any idea what metal? There aren't very many alloys that would hold the tension but not corrode.

The corrosion might be just what you need to create the texture and hold the rosin. Think rebar!

[timobee4]

hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahaha!

Originally Posted by fdeck

From an iron horse?

[zeytoun]

maybe the customer had something else in mind when he asked for "metal hair"

[Cody Sisk]

Originally Posted by zeytoun

maybe the customer had something else in mind when he asked for "metal hair"

Hmm, Aquanet in the place of rosin?

[fingertap]

Aluminum has an interesting property: spalling.

From Wikipedia: "...Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body and can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ball bearing)...."

I know that many alloys of aluminum, when under pressure, in contact with harder materials such as steel or harder alloys of Al, and as a result of contact motion under these circumstances, will exhibit spalling. This is usually referred to as a "defect" and must be accommodated in mechanical machine design.

Perhaps this may be considered a benefit in the design of a metal bow. Spalling may serve to hold rosin. A different rosin characteristic may be required. Empirical testing seems to be the quickest avenue to exploitation of this idea. I fear there are other difficulties.

One is the 'hair' aspect. Would any alloy of Al be of sufficient mechanical strength to last for any time in a diameter close to horsehair? I think maybe not but it has been a while since I have toyed with such design ideas.

Technique requires the 'bounce' and 'feel' provided by the physical characteristics of conventional bows (tension, for instance). Therefore, an hybrid mechanical 'alloy,' possibly with another metal such as steel or copper; or in composite (possibly, embedded) with(in) a suitable polymer might be investigated.

One thin, flat ribbon of Al alloy comes to mind, as proof of concept. Two, or several flat ribbons set at an angle would allow flexibility.

Other metals such as Cu, Zn, Sn, etc. may yield better results...

~

[Cody Sisk]

Somewhere I have the remains of a broken bow that was haired with metal hair. A customer gave it to me to reverse-engineer. When I get back to the shop after the holiday, I'll grab it and post pics. If I can find a source for the hair, I'll try one out.

[Cody Sisk]

flickr


flickr


flickr

Here's the pics I promised. It looks as if the hair was prepared as normal horsehair was (plugs, wedge, etc). It's super-thin metal, definitely the same diameter as horsehair. Evidently metal hair is all the rage in Germany according to my customer..

[George700DL]

Originally Posted by DallasStrings

Here's the pics I promised. It looks as if the hair was prepared as normal horsehair was (plugs, wedge, etc). It's super-thin metal, definitely the same diameter as horsehair. Evidently metal hair is all the rage in Germany according to my customer..

I wonder what that would do to plain gut strings.

George

[JtheJazzMan]

Im really interested now.

But where would you get it from?

Even if I could just get the raw hair I could then take it to a bowmaker for a rehair.