Cleaning a Violin Bow

[@jkbish1]

I have some old bows I am going to play with as I learn the art. I will try your cleaning ideas.

[@mccypr]

Thanks! Great info! 😎🌞🎻🎻🪕

[@JesseBrazilViolin]

Thanks you helped me remember I bought some citris cleaner called De-Solv-it. It worked great on glass and even better on my 200 year old french bows tiger wood!

[@ChrisEbbrsen]

Dear Sir, I have successfully used eucalptus oil to clean bow stick. It does not appear to remove any of the varnish on my current bows. I have also used eucalptus oil on my violin bodies without any harm. I use a mixture of white vingar 5% and t.s.p. to spray onto toilet paper thence to bow hairs to remove grease. Ordinary rubbing alcohol 70% is what I use to rid my bow hairs of excess dirty rosin. Remove frog hold stick upside down vertically and skip rope with the loose bow hairs until reasonably dry. I dont mean to litterally skip rope, just whirl the horsehair in the air like when skipping rope. This should airate the hair and evaporate the alcohol after 2 to 3 minutes of twirling in the air. Then shake out bow with frog dangling and reinsert frog into mortice in bow stick. An ordinary fine comb can straiten hairs if used gently. Hope this helps.😅

[@gervasegallant]

Glen, I've been using the same methyl hydrate product you use in my violin spirit varnish. Seems to be basically same as ethanol, but with a greater quantity of wood alcohol. So when I'm finished my container, going to purchase ethanol (ethyl alcohol) instead hoping it lessens the headaches. I don't believe there are other alternatives in Canada. ??? You can't buy Everclear in Canada I think.

[@TheQwuilleran]

Oh. I've had the same bow for thirty years (got out of playing over a decade ago) and I always thought the rubber finger grip was sticky because the rubber was breaking down. Rosin makes much more sense.

[@JesseBrazilViolin]

don't clean to much just a little because you can wipe the varnish off. lol Luckily its towards the frog and the rest of the bow looks good still, but I kept rubbing what looked like dirt and instead it was varnish coming off. Maybe not a tigerwood bow after all. Still looks french because of the circle shape under the frog.

[@joedoucettemusic]

Thanks for the info my bows are filthy