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Putting Rosin on new hair

 
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rust-t
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Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 2
Location: North Carolina USA

PostPosted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:53 am    Post subject: Putting Rosin on new hair Reply with quote

Hi rust-t (Russ)

I tried this last night to put rosin on a new bow.

Use a little turpentine on a tooth brush to soften the rosin and then rub it on the hair.

Now is is a home made bow my first try and I used a piece of leather (I have no horse hair) but it worked? Has any one tried this on horse hair?

If some one has a bow to try it with it may be the way to first rosin a bow.

Let me know what every one thinks and if some one tries it let me know.

Russ

Update: tried it on my home made bow with leather in place of horse hair, it drew a tone the first try using weedwacker strings (string E) bass not Finnish yet.
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FiddleDoug
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Joined: 08 Sep 2007
Posts: 227
Location: Hilton, NY

PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a really bad idea to me. Sticky rosin with turpentine on it is likely to stick the hair together into a goopy mess. Stick with the dry rosin. As far as rosin goes, you can put it on almost anything to get a tone. Axe handle, hockey stick, piece of wooden dowel, pruning saw. Look it up on Youtube.
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rust-t
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Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 2
Location: North Carolina USA

PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Doug

I had not though of that, but I have no real bow to try it on.

But I agree with you on sticking the hair all it to one mass?

Thank you for the feed back

rust-t (Russ)
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1946DudeBoy
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Joined: 07 Jul 2011
Posts: 5
Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:03 pm    Post subject: Rosin application Reply with quote

I sometimes apply 70% alcohol with a pad (the type used prior to injecting medication--available at most chemist's shops) to the rosin cake. I have found that the hairs do not stick together if I rosin-stroke in front of a fan, so that the alcohol evaporates, leaving each hair coated with rosin. I find much less flaking and powdering if I rosin this way. One needs to bear in mind that I live in humidity between 20% to the single digits, so unless you are in the Sahara, Kalihari or Gobi your results may vary.
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FiddleDoug
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Location: Hilton, NY

PostPosted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"I sometimes apply 70% alcohol with a pad (the type used prior to injecting medication--available at most chemist's shops) to the rosin cake. I have found that the hairs do not stick together if I rosin-stroke in front of a fan, so that the alcohol evaporates, leaving each hair coated with rosin."

So you need to carry a fan with you to gigs? Seems excessive. Rosin right off the cake works fine. If you're starting a new rosin cake, roughen the surface with some coarse sandpaper to allow the strings to break through the glazed surface. Once that's done if should work fine. Also, please note that there would be a huge difference between using alcohol and turpentine.
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1946DudeBoy
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Joined: 07 Jul 2011
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Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No Doug, I do not have to carry a fan to every gig because:
1. I only seriously rosin once or twice a week at home.
2. Living in the Chijuajuan Desert climate (humidity rarely above 20%), fans are available in most civilised locations.

I hold the slightly moisturized rosin cake in the airflow (if I am at a remote location, I can use the dashboard vent of my car) until it begins to powder. I do sometimes dry-rosin during breaks in long sessions, but if you have never been in such dryness, you cannot understand how much of this dry-applied rosin winds up on my instrument, stick and my upper airway.

I am sure water can easily be used in place of alcohol but it takes much longer to dry. I once cleaned my hair with an alcohol pad, but it took hours in front of the airflow to dry sufficiently to be rosined.

My personal rationale for using alcohol is:
1. Being a registered nurse, I have a nearly free unlimited supply.
2. It cleans at least as well, if not better than water.
3. It evapourates more rapidly than water and daysbefore any other solvent, especially kerosene (the cleaning component of most furniture polish).
4. Pure alcohol leaves no residue.

I can use it to clean my rosin from my fibreglass stick, but would hesitate to use it on my rosewood sticks, and would NEVERlet it near the secret-formula varnish of my violin body.
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Lemuel
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Joined: 12 Aug 2010
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Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario

PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What type of rosin are you using? Brand? Dark? Light?

There are many types and brands of rosin on the market. Some are suited to environments with more or less humidity.

If you live in dry humidity, you'll want to get a rosin with more tack. For example Hill Dark rosin (for low humidity) has more tack than Hill Light rosin (for higher humidity). Using Hill Light rosin in low humidity would lead to a lot more dust (besides the cake more likely to crack).
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gavin_rossdale
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Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rust-t wrote:
Thanks Doug

I had not though of that, but I have no real bow to try it on.

But I agree with you on sticking the hair all it to one mass?

Thank you for the feed back

rust-t (Russ)
You will need to rosin your bow frequently after the rehair until it gets worn in...just have to be patient.
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ctviolin
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Joined: 07 May 2009
Posts: 961
Location: Roswell

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting. Just for the fun of answering.

I re-hair, many many bows at certain times during the year.

I do have a can of ground up powdered rosin, (ground extremely fine) , that can be applied to any bow (newly re-haired or not) in a few seconds.

I use a small piece of wood with a piece of leather on one end, rough side facing out, to dip into the powered rosin can and wipe it directly on the (tightened) bow hair a few times...

It gives exactly the same result as applying the cake rosin with much rubbing does, but is much quicker. then, play the violin with the bow and wipe off the excess rosin to start. The rosin dust that winds up on the violin (not the bow hairs) that is

Using a leather strip in place of the bow hair is interesting. But it is not what violinists usually use.

OK, I'll state it simply, its not what they ever use.

In my opinion, I believe that this method is usually what I see bow craft persons in the field usually use, when they want a simple correct rosin job on bow hair and when they have to do it VERY often.

New hair, old hair, ... whatever - they just want it done, so that the bow works correctly (and quickly.)

When working on MANY bows it's simply a time saver

(I've never seen anyone use alcohol when rosining a rehair or simply old hair. I have seen people use it, when they are attempting to clean off crap from the hair - but it's a thing that must be done with a certain procedure, in my opinion, or you can really mess up the hair if you don't know exactly what to do and what not to).
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Last edited by ctviolin on Thu Oct 25, 2012 12:56 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Lemuel
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Location: Mt. Elgin, Ontario

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 2:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try this out.
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ctviolin
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Location: Roswell

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2012 7:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lemuel wrote:
Hi Craig,

Thanks for the tip. I'll have to try this out.




Cool.
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