Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

It surprises me that the bow clips holding the frog end are so common. The turning piece has a nasty habit of catching the hairs when removing the bow . Sometimes the pivot can allow a single hair to be trapped. I have a solid wooden coffin case and the pivot design is made of wood and the pivot cobbled together with a piece of gut string . A simple replacement with some leather and glue to fix one side can be fitted . The leather would be held across the bow by Velcro or even a pair of magnets , I had a large spring clip covered with corduroy in a paper machee case and that never damaged the bow hairs .

[skylerwhite]

[John Cadd]

Hello skylerwhite. I changed the old clip in the coffin case .I put some small wooden blocks to fit the frog end .One inside the gap where the thumb usually goes. So that contains it and it needed something to keep it there . I used some green plastic from a container for Frog sticky tape. (I didn`t think of the pun at the time. )The plastic started as a cut out circular disc.The centre has a hole for a screw and washer for rotation . Then a section was cut out to release the bow when you turn it in the right position . Normally the disc stays in place when the case is carried. Get the screw tension just right to stop it flopping around .A bow stick should be downwards and the hair up in the case.
It works very well and the hair is safe .

[John Cadd]

I moved one violin from an old molded case made of some sort of tough paper mache . Being careful with the bow clip I notice that the clip is short enough to need the hair to be pushed in before turning then rotating clip. Notice with these clip parts the casting edges (not smoothed down at all ) are not outwards , away from the bow hair , but right there against the hair . That makes it more likely to hook itself onto the hairs .So you need to press the hair inwards to make sure the clip is not trying to damage the hair.
Pushing the hair inwards breaks the golden rule which is not to touch bowhair if possible. The hair will soon build a nasty grease mark that will not play well.
Cases are made of softer material than old ,clunky ,wooden coffin boxes so a way around this is to try some velcro that can be glued on to any fairly stable surface . Easier said than done .Work out what screws are holding the plastic clip in place and try to attach a thin piece of wood to glue on some velcro . The harsh tough velcro that straps a violin neck in the case will be too grippy for violin hair. Just give it half a chance and you might regret it. A piece of cotton tape with a small softer velcro tab might hold the bow safely .
Who would have thought a simple mechanism to hold a bow would make an easy ,simple ,thing like learning a violin to become so complicated .
You could buy 2 magnets with holes and stitch one to the lid and another magnet stitched to cotton tape that would keep the bow still.
Look up How to attach a magnet to a hard or soft .surface . Ladies or girls might have an advantage with these skills .
Incredible 15,000 views already.

[Marquita]