Leather For Violin Bows

[belljn]

First off, thanks for this site, I'm sure my question will be answered by some one who is knowledgeable. I know absolutely nothing about working with leather, I make violin bows. You might ask, what does leather have to do with violin bows? On a violin bow, just ahead of the frog, (that's the square block that hangs below the bow that the hair comes out of), is a leather thumb wrap which provides a bit of comfort for the player and it has some bearing for weight and balance.

This thumb wrap is a piece of thin leather, .50mm thick, one inch wide and when not on the stick about an inch long. You can buy it in one inch strips or by the single piece.

Here's my problem. A friend of mine just closed down his furniture store and gave me a lot of leather samples which are about ten inches by six inches in size and are 1.00mm thick. They are of various colours and look great. I can't buy these colours from bow supply houses so I would like to use these pieces. The problem is they are too thick. I tried to shave them down with a knife, a straight razor, sanding disc, (that was fun), and a wire wheel. Nothing seemed to work. Anything I do leaves a whole whack of fuzz and an uneven surface. The regular thumb wraps have no fuzz, (there is probably a real name for the fuzz) and is nice an smooth. So I'm turning to you guys to learn how to do it right.

Any suggestions on how to do this properly. I have Canadian Indian (First Nations) ancestry (Metis) and they would know how to do this but unfortunately they've been dead for the last 100 years. Culture does die out.

Thanks for any help you can give and if I can clear up any problems you might have with your violin bows just let me know.

[Ferg]

You need a very sharp leather splitter. Bruce Johnson is probably the man to contact. Just put his name in the search box.

ferg

First off, thanks for this site, I'm sure my question will be answered by some one who is knowledgeable. I know absolutely nothing about working with leather, I make violin bows. You might ask, what does leather have to do with violin bows? On a violin bow, just ahead of the frog, (that's the square block that hangs below the bow that the hair comes out of), is a leather thumb wrap which provides a bit of comfort for the player and it has some bearing for weight and balance.

This thumb wrap is a piece of thin leather, .50mm thick, one inch wide and when not on the stick about an inch long. You can buy it in one inch strips or by the single piece.

Here's my problem. A friend of mine just closed down his furniture store and gave me a lot of leather samples which are about ten inches by six inches in size and are 1.00mm thick. They are of various colours and look great. I can't buy these colours from bow supply houses so I would like to use these pieces. The problem is they are too thick. I tried to shave them down with a knife, a straight razor, sanding disc, (that was fun), and a wire wheel. Nothing seemed to work. Anything I do leaves a whole whack of fuzz and an uneven surface. The regular thumb wraps have no fuzz, (there is probably a real name for the fuzz) and is nice an smooth. So I'm turning to you guys to learn how to do it right.

Any suggestions on how to do this properly. I have Canadian Indian (First Nations) ancestry (Metis) and they would know how to do this but unfortunately they've been dead for the last 100 years. Culture does die out.

Thanks for any help you can give and if I can clear up any problems you might have with your violin bows just let me know.