Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 155
Scan 155
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
16 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 129. See the scan on archive.org.
1HOW THE STICK IS MADE
3One of the greatest essentials in making a good violin bow is the proper choice of the wood of which it is to be made. One should guard against using a piece of wood which a glance shows to be full of knots, cracks or other defects, for any labor spent on it would be a total loss. Any bow which has these defects in the wood of which it was originally made will not remain straight, nor will it possess the elasticity which should be its first recommendation.
5When a good, healthy piece of wood has been chosen, one whose grain instead of being twisted is very straight, one should begin planing and trimming one of the faces of the piece of wood in question. The face to be trimmed should be selected in such a way as to get as much out of the wood as possible, for the woods used in cabinet making, Pernambuco wood, for example, are very dear.¹
7Taking for granted then, that the piece of wood of which the bow is to be made has been cut lengthwise, say to a length of 73 centimeters (29") and that one of its faces offers a breadth sufficient to make two bows of it, one upon another; while the other face is only large enough to supply a bow and a half bow, the wood should be resplit in such a manner that the back of the stick will be on the side or face of which it is impossible to make two bows from the same surface of wood.
9The model is first placed on the trimmed face of which mention has been made, and the outlines of the model are traced with a piece of chalk, placing the model in such a way that the grain of the wood conforms to the grain of the model as closely as possible. This done, the compasses are used to trace the thickness of the stick on the side which forms a right angle with that of which the model of the stick has just been traced.
11It is necessary to remark in connection with this operation, that the stick of the bow should be split in such a manner that it measures at least 2 millimeters (about 1/10") over and above all its actual future dimensions, in order that later on these exact dimensions may be definitely established by means of the necessary tools.
13The piece of wood is then clamped in the workbench vise, and the stick-to-be is cut out by means of a circular saw.
15¹At the time when Tourte made his famous bows, from about 1775 to 1780, the wars carried on at sea between France and England, with their consequent interruptions of commerce, presented a serious obstacle to the importation of Pernambuc or Pernambuco wood on the continent, and the price of the precious dye wood rose to five shillings a pound. The rarity of the wood at the time Tourte made his bows explains the enormous prices the maker asked and received for them. He sold a bow with tortoise-shell nut, inlay mother-of-pearl head, and gold-mounted nut and button for nearly £12. His best silver-mounted bows with ebony nuts sold for about £3, 3s, and his ordinary unmounted bows fetched some 30 shillings.
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