Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 59
Scan 59
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 55. See the scan on archive.org.
1seen several of Tubb's bows, however, which have become warped after being for some time in use. Many new bows by good makers are indeed warped from the first, as any one may prove by trying a dozen at any dealer's—screwing them up till nearly straight, and then looking along the top of the stick from the nut to the point. Sometimes not one in a dozen will stand this test. The cause of this warping is sometimes bad or unsuitable wood, but more frequently pure carelessness or laziness on the part of the makers. The best material for a first-class bow is Pernambuco or Brazil wood, which gives both weight and a lasting spring. It is a popular idea that a bow is cut out of the wood in its curved form; on the contrary, the bow is made from a piece of wood not only perfectly straight, but which should also be perfectly even in the fibre, the necessary curve downwards towards the hair being afterwards given to the stick by means of dry heat. It is at this most important stage of the work that the careless or lazy bow maker gets in his shoddy work; for if the wood be not heated equally and to the very heart, those fibres which remain cold always tend to return to their original form, so the bow after a little use becomes either springless and straight or warped. It is to be regretted that so many bow makers use a dark or muddy varnish to cover up bad wood. Tourte and Dodd, who were unquestionably the greatest bow makers the world ever saw, did better, for they left the wood pale, and used a clear varnish, so that every fibre could be distinguished; and if a fault had been in the wood it would have been detected. To make a first-class bow, simple though it may appear, is more difficult than to make a violin; and there certainly is a grand opening for good artists at the present time—artists who will exercise acumen and honesty in the selection of the wood, genius in the shaping, and unwearied patience in the forming of the graceful downward curve—that curve which has done so much for the development of violin playing as compared with the clumsy upward curve of bows two centuries ago. This curve and the artistic shaping of the wood give what is known as "balance" to a bow; for as it is well or ill done, so must the "balance" turn out—all other things being equal. A well-balanced bow, which has a strong downward curve, falling exactly in the middle of the hair, and which is not warped—that is, bent to one side or the other, and is of the full weight and length, is a treasure to the earnest violin
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