Posted on November 30, 2024May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Bow Making Planes It Worked for Me: Bow Making Plane by Ken Altman Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 I attended a bow-making workshop at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio with an exceptional bow maker named Stephan Thomachot. These are French bow-making planes very much like the ones he used. They are a good size and shape for bow work, they have good heft for their size, and they have good thick blades to keep them from chattering. They are easy to make, and the same method could be used to make planes of different sizes and shapes for other purposes. The bodies of the planes are made by soldering easily-shaped pieces of brass bar stock together, rather than by machining them from solid metal, as they are more typically made. I get the brass from Alaskan Copper & Brass here in Portland, Oregon (503-238-6840). They are an industrial supplier, but they have a small selection of remnants where I’m generally able to find what I’m looking for. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 30, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Bernard Millant Meet the Maker: Bernard Millant by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 In 1973 I was a dance student at Juilliard, in New York. One of the best parts of going to school there was walking past the practice rooms and hearing some of the finest student musicians in the world at their work. One day I passed a couple of violin students who were inspecting a bow that one of them had recently acquired. I heard the other student gasp, “How much? $2,400?? I can’t believe it! What a deal!” I was living hand-to-mouth, and I was shocked. I knew that fine violins were expensive, but $2,400 in 1973 dollars for a hank of hair and a stick? Then the blinding light of stupidity hit me, and I realized that without a bow there is no violin, no cello, no viola, no orchestra, and none of the musical literature which relies so heavily on those instruments. I have been curious about bow construction ever since. Paul Schuback hosted the 2004 Violin Society of America Meeting and Competition in Portland, Oregon. When he invited me to attend and gave me the opportunity to meet Bernard Millant, an internationally recognized authority in the field of bow making, I jumped at the chance. Mr. Millant was both lecturing and judging, so he was a very busy man during the conference, but he was kind enough to meet with me one evening in his hotel room and tell me a little about his life in the craft. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 6, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Building the Kamanché Building the Kamanché by Nasser Shirazi Originally published in American Lutherie #4, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The word kamanché in the Persian language (Farsi) means “small bow.” This instrument, with varying shape, size, and material, is widely used in Middle Eastern countries. The kamanché described in this article is modeled after the Persian (Iranian) instrument. The kamanché is a very old instrument and possibly dates back as much as 1500–2000 years, being another form of the ancient Indian ravanstron. In 1418 A.D. Ben Abd-ul-Cadir wrote a treatise (the manuscript of which is in the University of Leyden) which shows that its existence today has changed little since that time. A 16th-century Iranian miniature painting in the Khamza of the poet Nizami shows a kamanché very similar to the one described below. Various early European travelers to Iran have described it also. Among these are Sir W. Ouseley in 1819,1 and Sir Percy M. Sykes.2 Sykes describes a kamanché in Khorasan, an eastern province of Iran, as follows: “...made of walnut wood. The total length is 37", with fingerboard 9" in length. The instrument is handled like a violoncello; but in shape resembles a mandolin with a long spike of worked iron. The belly is constructed from a pumpkin covered with parchment and mounted with stripes of bone radiating from a turquoise. The neck is pierced on each side with three holes, and with a hollow at the back, 3" in length; there are three wire strings and six pegs, three of which are dummies. The bow resembles our double-bass bows and is 22" in length; it is made of gypchin wood and has a strap and a loop with which to tighten the horsehair. To complete the equipment, a bit of beeswax is tied on to serve as rosin.” Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 1, 2022May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Violin Bow Hair Storage It Worked for Me: Violin Bow Hair Storage by Al Stancel Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Storage of violin bow hair might be a problem for some. Here is how we solve it at Casa Del Sol Violins. We make a wire horseshoe, insert it into the big end of the bundle of hair, tie it with dental floss, lightly superglue the hair ends, bend the wire back as shown in the drawing. Hang the bundle from the ceiling with a plastic bow tube slipped over it as a dust protector. The tube can be slid up and over the bundle for cutting individual hanks. The hair never gets dirty or tangled. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Small Bow for Psalteries and Dulcimers Small Bow for Psalteries and Dulcimers by Tony Pizzo Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #38, 1976 This data sheet provides plans for a small, simple bow (especially well-suited for bowed psalteries) which I am still in the process of developing. There is no need for frogs and threaded shafting, etc. as the bow hair is held tightly by means of tension. Until information on simple bow making becoms more accessible, bows such as this serve quite well. (The shape is adapted from an illustration in Lynn Elder’s “How to Play the Bowed Psaltery”, and as I developed my bow through a process of trial and error from that initial point, I don’t know how far the similarity carries from there. At any rate thanks to Mr. Elder.) Materials: bow — mahogany (or other hardwood 13" × 1 1/4" × 5/8" (or 1/2")shims — rosewood inlay strip 1" × 1/8"× 1/28"doweling — 1" lengths of 1/2" and 3/8" diameter dowelsbow hair — approx. 13" length (suggestion..“Chieftain” Nylon Bow Hair available from International Violin Co./1421 Clarkview Road, Suite 118/Baltimore, MD 21209. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
