Historical gut strings manufacturing: cleaning with the thimble

The last cleaning passage of the fresh gut was made using a copper thimble, pressing hard the thumb on the index finger. They did this 3 times a day for almost one week, using chemicals, and standing behind big tables with a parapet to protect them...

G. P. Pinaroli, Polyanthea Technica, Roma 1718-32

Catalogue from Mirecourt, 1912

Factory La Bella, New York Long Island, 1940/50 (courtesy of mr. Daniel Mari)

Factory La Bella, New York Long Island, 1940/50 (courtesy of mr. Daniel Mari)


Tags

baroque music, double-bass strings, early music, gut strings, gut strings history, gut strings maintenance, gut strings manufacture, viol strings, viola da gamba strings, viola strings, violin strings, violoncello strings


You may also like

Varnished or not Varnished

Why I don’t like varnished strings: Maybe if you live in a very humid place, like Vietnam or Japan, it looks like this is the only solution. It may be true in fact if you want to buy a “ready to use” string.But if you have the patience of organizing your olive oil process and

Read More

Polished or Rough Strings

What happens to a string while polishing. (one more way to save money) The difference between a slightly polished string and a perfectly smooth string and why it is definitely worth to choose the first One. Want to know more? There’s a downloadable report here, it’s free, no opt-in required!

Read More

Italian gut string Factories Process, part 4

Drying, polishing, packaging The strings dried and still on the frames were polished by hand, using horse hair, or equisetum, polish stone or powder, or, later, sandpaper. About horse hairs: equisetum is also called horse tail, so for a long time wi thought that when they say we polished with horse tail, they were referring to

Read More