As I stumble through my first violin bow re-hairing, I've been able to remove a piece of the tip plug, but I'm not sure if I've gotten it all.
How deep is a typical tip mortise?
Many thanks! Bill
Depth of mortise
Thursday, 10/19/2023
Craig Scollard
The depth of the mortise is all different sizes. Is it a wood plug or one of those odd plastic ones?
If you removed all of the wood plug and you don't see the wood of the stick at the bottom, there is most likely some leftover hair and string from the knot that is still at the bottom. If someone glued all of that into the tip, it's the same problem just more work to get it loose. Take a small sharp knife and carefully cut through that material and pick out the remnants. When everything is cleaned out it should look very even and bare wood on all facets.
Good luck, it takes several hundred rehairs until you are decent at rehairing.
As I stumble through my first violin bow re-hairing, I've been able to remove a piece of the tip plug, but I'm not sure if I've gotten it all.
How deep is a typical tip mortise?
Many thanks!
Bill
If you removed all of the wood plug and you don't see the wood of the stick at the bottom, there is most likely some leftover hair and string from the knot that is still at the bottom. If someone glued all of that into the tip, it's the same problem just more work to get it loose. Take a small sharp knife and carefully cut through that material and pick out the remnants. When everything is cleaned out it should look very even and bare wood on all facets.
Good luck, it takes several hundred rehairs until you are decent at rehairing.
Craig