WILL’S BOW Part 7. Rounding stick and carving head.

When the bow feels good, whiplike in the hand, it can be rounded. In the French tradition, bows in the very early 19^th century were often octagonal; Tourte and Eury are good examples although they also made round bows. Then starting with Persois and Peccatte the general preference was for round bows. But whether or not the maker plans for a bow to be round or octagonal, the bows are planed down to size as octagons. Then if a round bow is planned, the corners are taken off making it sixteen sided and then 32 sided at which point it is practically round with a few more strokes of the plane.

Here we are rounding the bow and concurrently the head is getting carved down as well so the curves of the head flow into the stick.