Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 153
Scan 153
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
26 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 127. See the scan on archive.org.
1used to saw iron, brass, ivory, mother-of-pearl and, in general, all hard substances used in bow making. It is a tool which may be purchased in any hardware shop.
3The Files.—Files of various sizes and forms are necessary to the bow maker.
5For the stick, flat files and half-round files, as we will explain later, are used; while round files are required for the nut.
7These files, in general, should be fine rather than coarse, but not too fine. Practice and experience will soon teach the user which files are best adapted for various purposes.
9The Drawing Plate and Its Gauges.—This is another tool which may be purchased ready-made at a tool shop, and all that need be done when choosing it is to select one whose guide screws are in conformity with the article which is to be made. To this end one should calculate the size of the smallest hole of the drawing plane on a violin bow screw, and the largest size of the largest on the bow screw of a double bass.
11The Vises.—Finally, the bow-maker must have two vises: one with a jaw or clamp width of 7 centimeters (2 3/4"), and a screw and plate at one end by means of which it may be fixed to the end of a board, which in turn is attached to the workbench by means of a jack. In addition a small hand vise which serves to clamp the small pieces which cannot be held in the hand, such as the screw of the nut, the screw of the bow, etc., is necessary. Both these tools may be purchased in a hardware shop.
13Scrapers are also tools which the bow maker uses. Having described them in the first part of this work, it is needless to revert to them here.
15THE ACTUAL MAKING OF A BOW
17Like the violin maker, the bow maker also has different models, which are made on planks or boards of hard wood, about 2 or 3 millimeters (about 1/8") thick.
19The most important among these models is that of the stick. In order to obtain it, the first thing to do is to secure a bow which leaves nothing to be desired as regards beauty and shapeliness.
21Then a small piece of flat wood should be taken, and three small notches, like those shown in Figure 4, Plate 39, should be cut in it.
23This small piece of wood will serve as a guide to establish the various thicknesses which the bow should show along its length.
25The largest notch should have the exact thickness of the end of the stick, where it joins the button of the screw. The second notch should show the exact thickness at the middle of the stick. The third notch, finally, should give the exact thickness of the stick at the head of the bow.
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