We operate an overnight bow rehair service. Richard undertakes rehairs in our Hawthorn shop and Alex completes all bow rehairs at Collingwood. This involves clearing the workbench of instrument repairs at the end of each day to prepare for bows and enjoying the change of task.

Alex first learned the intricacies of bow work whilst still at college from the English bow maker, John Stagg. Subsequently he worked on advanced techniques with the renowned Parisian bow maker Edwin Clément and also with Marcus Worz, both of whom had served time in the workshop of Stephane Thomachot in Paris. Another great inspiration was French Canadian André Lavoy who had a most natural and intuitive approach to bow work.

In the main, we use only the finest quality mare's hair which originates in Italy. This is cleaned and processed in England by highly experienced horse hair "dressers". Alex then sorts the "dressed" hair, filament by filament, in his workshop, a process which picks out and rejects 15% to 20% of the available hair and this ensures that only the very finest are incorporated into the rehair.

Bows booked into the workshop by 12.00 pm will generally be ready to be picked up by 11.00 am the next day.

Occasionally we can be overbooked with bows so it would pay to phone ahead to be sure of having your bow serviced on the day of your choice.

Rehair charges are as follows: