Ken Altman Bow Maker Finely crafted bows for violin, viola, 'cello and bass. |
© Ken Altman 2004 |
Soldering a silver ring for the button. The button ring begins as a flat piece
of metal, silver or gold, that is bent into a short, round tube. A small
snippet of silver solder is placed where the two ends of the metal meet.
When the metal reaches the proper temperature, glowing bright red hot, the
solder "flows", joining the two ends. When this solder joint is filed clean,
the joint "disappears". |
After the ring is soldered, it is pounded on a tapered mandrel in order to make it
perfectly round, and of the proper diameter. (This is actually a ring for a frog
eye, but the process is the same.) |
A rough piece of ebony held in the jaws of my old Atlas machine lathe. There's a sharp cutter held in the metal block near the ebony. The cutter is moved
in and out, and left and right, by turning the handwheels. |
BOW MAKING - A BRIEF OUTLINE THE BUTTON At the bottom of the page are links to pages depicting frog and stick making. |
The chuck holding the ebony is spinning, as the cutter is moved into the work. I'm
turning the ebony down to the rough diameter of the button. After this step,
a small shoulder is turned into the ebony to accept the silver ring. |
Checking the fit of the silver ring. |
After the proper fit is achieved, the ring is glued into place. |
Using the handwheels to control the movement of the cutter, the collar of formed. |
The shape of the collar is refined using a small file. |
Drilling the hole for the screw into the ebony. |
Boring the recess in the button that will engage with the nipple on the end of the
stick. |
Checking the fit of the nipple in the button. I'll bore the hole in the button gradually
larger and larger until the fit is just right. |
With this end of the button roughly finished, the button is sawn from the ebony stick.
|
Driving the screw into the button. The screw and eyelet are the only parts of the
bow that I don't make myself. |
The screw is then held in the lathe chuck and the shoulder for the second ring is
turned. |
The second ring is then glued into place. |
Boring the hole in the end of the button for the pearl eye. |
Filing the turned, round button into an octagon. This is done freehand, stopping
occasionally to take measurements. |
Here's a roughly finished button. Two small silver pins will be driven and glued
into holes drilled through the rings, helping to insure that the rings stay in
place. The pins are then filed flush with the rings. A mother of pearl eye will
be turned to fit the recess in the end of the button. The whole thing is then
sanded with progressively finer grits of sandpaper, and polished to a high shine. |