bow maker

A bow maker is a person who builds, repairs, and restores antique or modern bows for bowed string instruments. These include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, viola d'amore, viola da gamba, etc. The French word for bowmaker (bow maker) is archetier, meaning one who makes bows of the string family of instruments such as violin, viola, cello and double bass. The root of the word comes from archet—pronounced [aʁʃɛ]—the bow. A bow maker typically uses between 150 and 200 hairs from the tail of a horse for a violin bow. Bows for other members of the violin family typically have a wider ribbon, using more hairs. White hair generally produces a smoother sound and black hair (used mainly for double bass bows) is coarser, producing a rougher sound. Lower quality (inexpensive) bows often use n...