WE Hill & Sons violin bow tortoiseshell frog with extensive mite damage as presented. Tiny mites eat away at the material leaving rough voids.
WE Hill & Sons violin bow tortoiseshell frog with tinted epoxy repair. Custom tinting of optical epoxy is used to fill the voids and match the surrounding untouched material.
WE Hill & Sons violin bow tortoiseshell frog with extensive mite damage before repair. Tiny mites can do damage to natural tortoiseshell frogs and buttons. They eat away at the material leaving rough voids.
WE Hill & Sons violin bow tortoiseshell frog with tinted epoxy repair. Custom tinting of optical epoxy is used to fill the voids and match the surrounding untouched material. I learned this method from Jerry Pasewicz.
These two knives with ebony and birds eye maple handles have blades ground from antique straight razors. The name “Fetique-style” stems from an old photograph of Victor Fetique where he is holding a long bladed knife. They have a low angle, single bevel blade with a higher angle “micro bevel”. They cut mostly as an aggressive scraping tool.
The Bamboo Leaf Knife is a traditional Japanese woodworking tool that has become popular among some bow makers. I believe it was originally used for bow making by Mitsu Sasano. The tool has two bevels on either side of the blade and cuts in both directions. This example is made from a high carbon file blank with leather grip. The double bevel side is shown here.
The Bamboo Leaf Knife is a traditional Japanese woodworking tool. The flat, reverse side is shown.
Two knives based on examples used by Eric Grandchamps and Stephane Thomachot. These have matching wood handles of marado. The blades are ground from antique straight razors.
Three knives based on examples used by Eric Grandchamps and Stephane Thomachot. The upper pair have ebony handles and the bottom knife has a pernambuco handle. The blades are ground from antique straight razors. Both types are double bevel tools. The Grandchamps-style has a curved profile and the Thomachot-style has a straight profile.
Set of four bow making knives with matching curly maple handles. The uppermost knife is in the style of Thomachot, the two in the middle are a small and large Grandchamps knife and the bottom knife is in the Fetique-style. The blades are ground from antique straight razors.
John Dodd transitional violin bow frog and stick, before repair.
John Dodd transitional violin bow frog and stick, after repair consisting of stick end extension and full cheval to ebony frog.
John Dodd transitional violin bow frog and stick, after repair consisting of stick end extension and full cheval to ebony frog, reverse side showing NORRIS brand.
French bass bow with snub-nosed head as presented. Note how subsequent tip repairs shortened the overall head length. The owner asked me to try to lengthen the head artistically.
French bass bow with snub-nosed head after I used a cylindrical graft of pernambuco to lengthen the head. A new faux ivory tip was then applied.
