DIY Network

Handmade Violin Bow: Fashioning and Bending the Stick From "Handmade Music" episode DHMM-205

Steven Beckley checks his work as he fashions a newly made violin bow from pernambuco wood.

This episode of DIY's five-part series on violin-making focuses on the creation of a violin bow. In the four preceding episodes, we saw students and instructors at the Chicago School of Violin Making go through all the steps in the creation of a violin.

Though to the novice it may look like little more than a stick, you'd likely be amazed at the complexity, precision, and dedication required in building violin bows. In this special episode on the violin bow, we show you how it's done.

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What's the difference between a violin and a fiddle? Most people say the only difference is in the violinist or the fiddler. In other words, it's how the instrument is played. One thing that's the same for both is the importance of the bow If you think of a violin as a high-performance machine, then the bow is the fuel that powers it. Without the very best fuel, a violin can never reach its maximum potential. For a violinist, performing with a 19th century French bow can be a dream come true, but those bows command a king's ransom. Today on handmade music we'll discover how modern craftsmen offer alternatives for the world's best musicians.

Our lesson in bow making brings us to Mendocino, California where Steven Beckley creates bows of exceptional craftsmanship and beauty. Steven's task is not unlike that of a symphony conductor. Both must interpret master works with great respect and understanding. Steven makes each bow his own with a tip of the hat to the classics.

To show you how to build a bow, we focus on two of its components, the stick and the frog.

Beginning with the stick's construction, sticks are made with pernambuco wood. A bow must be dense, strong, elastic, light and -- if that's not enough -- beautifully grained and colored. That makes pernambuco the only choice. But don't expect to find it in your local lumberyard. In fact, with its South American habitat severely threatened, bow makers have become the tree's protectors.

	A completed violin bow seen next to a solid pernambuco "blank" before it has been shaped and bent.

The role is something Steven takes seriously and his first step proves it. He marks-out a bow blank from a template with great precision. Wasting material is considered a mortal sin among bow makers. Using a band saw, Steven creates a blank before checking its quality.

Rapping the stick against his palm tells him plenty about the character of this wood. He's feeling for vibrations that indicate a stick's action. To judge wood, time and experience are the only forms of education a bow maker receives.
The transformation from blank to bow begins with the head. In the first stage, Steve marks a profile and cuts away a rough shape.

In this stage, Steve also attaches the tip. The tip's job is to hold the horsetail hair to the head. Traditionally the tips were made from ivory, but amazingly the material of choice has become mastodon tusk -- an animal that has been extinct for about 10,000 years. Frozen remains are still found today in the artic tundra.

Steven attaches it to the roughly carved head with glue (figures A and B).

Figure A

Figure B

His clamping method (figures C and D) gives an idea of the practical and independent nature of bow makers.

"Sometimes the simplest is still the best this way," says Steve, "I'm able to apply pressure over a large area with quite a bit of tension. It's very non-marring so I don't have to worry about using a caul or something like that to protect any of the pieces.

Figure C

Figure D

Figure E

After the glue dries the tip's placement proves helpful in carving the head (figure E).

"Not all bow makers put the tip on this early," says Steve, "but to me I find it really helpful to have the point of reference of the tip. It really tells you where everything is. You obviously now know the height of the head you know the length of the head you know where the bow starts at so it's really nice to be able to have a solid point of reference like that."

Figure F

The band saw only roughed out the head's shape. Steven will methodically transform its shape from rectangle to triangle to violin bow head (figure F). Files, scrapers and knives gradually form a shapely head.

Next, Steven adds a mortise to the tip. This will eventually be the entry point into the head for the horsetail hair. The Initial hole is drilled into the tip using a
bow-lathe for control (figures G and H).

Figure G

Figure H

Figure I

Using a past work for its pattern Steven scribes the lines for the mortise (figure I). Eventually a wedge will trap the horsetail hair into this mortise.

The angles are cut with precision to make the fit absolutely perfect (figures J and K). Keep in mind that the hair will be changed often over the life of the bow, so glue can never be used to hold the hair or the wedge in place.

Figure J

Figure K

Figure L

After carving the rough profile of the head and attaching the tip, Steve's ready to bend the stick. The stick's bend is called its camber, and every aspect of the bow's camber is controlled, before bending. by creating a predetermined taper -- or graduation. That progression means Steven will mark changes in thickness along the stick (figure L).

	Figure M
	Figure N

He makes adjustments with a hand plane, and checks constantly on his progress (figures M and N).

The square bow blank will eventually be circular, but the transformation happens in stages. Stage one requires Steven to plane the blank into an octagon. With eight forty-five degree facets, the task of creating a circle is simple. He just rounds the edges. But that stage will have to wait. In the short term the stick remains an octagon.

Ideally, before moving on, the head should share the stick's design. It too will be rounded in time and adding facets will aid that task. This step is really about symmetry. Steven wants a smooth flow extending from the butt end of the stick up over the head and all the way to the end of the tip.

" I always like to think of it as like throwing a pebble into a calm pond," says Steven, "but in this case you get to control how the ripples in the water are."

Steven's eye for detail and coordinated carving are major assets. This work is certainly not recommended for a first time luthier. When the stick and the head are evenly tapered and sporting an octagon shape it's time for the stick to become a bow. In other words it's time to put the camber into the stick.

"Camber is the bend that we put in the bow," say Steven, "and it's kind of like a suspension like a leaf spring is a suspension for a car. You put that suspension under tension with the hair and then the hair and the camber ride against each other."

	Figure O
	Figure P

The dry heat of an alcohol lamp is used to prepare the wood for bending (figure O). It provides a low temperature flame that penetrates inside the stick without damaging the exterior. When a specific area is warm enough Steven provides pressure to force the bend (figure P).

"Lately I've been just bending freehand and what I'm trying to do control the bend," says Steven "by heating it evenly and then putting some stress on the stick and just letting it take a natural bend due to the stress. I think that a bow has somewhat of a natural bend. Your exact bend is kind of a partnership with what your graduations are. You have to go back and forth with what your graduations are and your camber -- to get it all come out even."

Clearly Steven's technique demonstrates an intimate understanding of pernambuco's character. Its camber must be created inch by inch. All along he keeps an eye on the direction the stick tries to bend. If it's getting out of square, more time in the flame might be required.

RESOURCES :

The Art of Violin Making
Authors: Chris Johnson and Roy Courtnall
Published by: Robert Hale & Company (1998)
ISBN: 0709058764
Order this book from Amazon.com.

Violin Making: A Practical Guide
Author: Juliet Barker
Publisher: Crowood Press [UK] (2001)
ISBN: 1861264364
Order this book from Amazon.com.

Violin Making: A Guide for the Amateur
Author: Bruce Ossman
Publisher: Fox Chapel Publishing Company (1998)
ISBN: 1565230914
Order this book from Amazon.com.

Useful Measurements for Violin Makers: A Reference For Shop Use
Author: Henry A Strobel
Publisher: Henry Strobel Publisher (5th edition - July, 1989)
ISBN: 0962067326
Order this book from Amazon.com.

The Violin Makers of the Guarneri Family, 1626-1762
Authors: William Henry Hill, Arthur F. Hill, Hill Alfred Ebsworth
Publisher: Dover Publications; (Reprint edition - October, 1989)
ISBN: 0486260615
Order this book from Amazon.com.

Antonio Stradivari, His Life and Work, 1644-1737
Author: William Henry Hill
Publisher: Dover Publications (2nd edition - June, 1963)
ISBN: 0486204251
Order this book from Amazon.com.

GUESTS :

Steven Beckley
Owner, Bow Works
Little River, CA
Phone:707-937-0570
Email: Steven@Beckley-ViolinBows.com