Storing bows for later use

Do you store them in the cases?
Have you tried keeping them in the open air, like a wall-mounted coat rack?

 

Don’t store bows in cases. A dark cool environment is ideal for mites that subsist on the hair.

Horsehair is hair and can be shampooed. When the hair on my bows gets gunked up I clean it with unscented baby shampoo and warm water, taking care not to get the wood wet, and hang them up to air-dry.

 

You can also (gently) use a vacuum cleaner to remove old rosin dust from the hair.

 

3 - 5 days to get back to playing level? You are much more patient than me. I use sticky Pops on bows that have not been played for a few days. It wakes them up. Normally I use a hard Swedish rosin and my favourite bow often does not need rosin. The unplayed bows need sticky rosin to come to life. I hang my 6 bows on the wall and try to rotate through them.

 

Anyone got pictures of their bow-hanging apparatuses ? My practice space is at the entrance to our house and I need to make any such setup aesthetically acceptable to the review committee , as well as present plans before installation.
And before you wags start in, they don’t complain about practicing time or volume. I’ll take that tradeoff ;-)

 

Bow Rack

 

So I find this an interesting thread, but what about tension for long term storage/inactivity with a bow.

 

Just slack the hair.

 

A Harbor Freight angle-grinder gets the rosin off very quickly! Plus, they're inexpensive.

(jk)