Bow Maker's Plane

Identity

Bow maker's plane (also bowmaker's plane) — the family label for small dedicated hand planes used by an archetier (bow maker; French archet, bow) to shape and graduate the octagonal and round cross-section of a violin, viola, cello or double-bass bow stick. Distinct from the Violin Maker's Plane, which works an instrument's plates.

Family / category. Miniature hand planes, lutherie/archetiery. The family has several geometries for different jobs, not one defining angle:

• Block-plane forms, roughly 42–55° effective — for general stick work and much of the graduation. CAG lists a 120 mm, 42° flat-sole bow-maker's plane [BM2]. Anthony DiMambro describes low-angle block planes with a 20° bed and a 35° blade bevel, about 55° effective, with which he completes most of his stick graduation [BM3].
• High-angle / near-90° scraper-plane forms — including Salchow-style scraper planes, used for rounding, difficult tearout-prone pernambuco, areas behind the head, and some near-finish work depending on maker practice [BM3][BM5]. CAG lists 70 mm and 120 mm 90° bow-maker's planes, "best suited for woods used in bow-making such as Pernambuco" [BM2].

Angles, kept separate. Bed angle, blade bevel, effective cutting angle (pitch) and blade orientation are different quantities. DiMambro's ~55° is a low bed plus a high bevel on a bevel-up iron; CAG's 90° and 42° are the manufacturer's stated cutting angles. Exact manufacturer terms are preserved.

One-line summary. A small family of planes — lower-angle block forms for most stick graduation, near-vertical scraper forms for rounding and difficult grain — used to bring a dense bow stick to its graduated dimensions.

How NOT to use it

not-for

• Carbon-fibre or composite sticks (moulded, then ground and sanded) [BM14].
• Heavy stock removal with a small scraper-form plane; that is block-plane work [BM3].

dangerous
Replaces the former negative-search paragraph. Controls from Fine Woodworking's hand-plane safety guidance and the Ontario technological-education hand-plane safety sheet [HS1][HS2], applied to a small, sharp plane on a thin stick.

• Unsecured or crushed work. Secure the stick in an appropriate bow-making fixture or padded vise so it cannot move, without crushing it. Confidence: HIGH.
• Hands in the cutting or return path. Keep fingers clear of the sole opening and edge during use, adjustment and inspection, and set up so a slip cannot drive the hand into the clamp, the bench, the bow head or the exposed edge. Confidence: HIGH.
• A dull, loose or over-projected iron. Use a sharp, correctly seated iron set for a fine cut; excessive projection increases effort, tearout, slipping and irreversible stock loss. Confidence: HIGH.
• Heavy cuts. Take light, controlled cuts. Confidence: HIGH.
• Uninspected stock. Check the stick's path for inclusions, cracks, damaged grain and fixture contact before planing. Confidence: HIGH.
• An exposed iron at rest. Retract or guard the iron for adjustment and storage; do not leave a loose sharpened iron on the bench. Handle removed irons by their sides and back, not the edge. Confidence: HIGH.
• Freehand grinding. Use eye protection when grinding or sharpening, follow the grinder's or sharpening system's instructions, and use a jig and heat control rather than freehand overheating, which also ruins the temper. Confidence: HIGH.

Sourcing note: no bow-making-specific injury dataset was located. That absence is a limit of the literature, not a safety assessment.

damaging

• Tearout on difficult grain. DiMambro reaches for a high-angle plane "if the particular piece of pernambuco is prone to tear out" [BM3]; a sharp iron, fine mouth, light cut and correct grain reading matter as much as angle. No source tested a low-angle violin or finger plane against pernambuco, so this entry does not claim one necessarily tears it.
• Over-thinning an irregular-grained stick can weaken it disproportionately (search-summarised trade source, reduced confidence).
• Irreplaceable stock. Given pernambuco's regulated status and long seasoning, a botched graduation pass loses material that is slow and costly to replace (this entry's synthesis).

beginner-trap

• Treating graduation as a fixed-dimension target rather than a wood-responsive process — DiMambro: the wood "demands as much from the maker as the maker demands from it" [BM3].
• Assuming the scraper form is required for every stick, or that a block plane can never finish one — both depend on the stick and the maker [BM3].

lineage-misuse

• Sole mismatch — a flat sole on the curve behind the head, or the reverse; flat and curved versions are sold separately because one sole does not serve both [BM2][BM5b].
• Confusing the family's forms — using a large scraper-form plane to finish (DiMambro finds the Salchow plane too large for that) or a small scraper form for bulk removal [BM3].
• Confusing it with the Violin Maker's Plane, which works plates, not sticks.

Correct use

(brief — the workbench holds deep operation)

A maker-dependent sequence. Per DiMambro and the Lucchi workshop profile [BM3][BM13]: rough a square stick with a general block plane to roughly 1.5–2 mm over final dimension; plane the corners to an octagon ("all finely made bows start off octagonal"), using the facets as references for graduation and camber; continue toward 16 and 32 facets with small planes, then file and sand to round if a round stick is wanted. Block planes may do most of the graduation. High-angle scraper planes can be introduced for rounding, the area behind the head, difficult grain, or near-finish work, depending on the plane's size and sole, the stick, and the maker's practice [BM3].

What the scraper form adds. Its sole gives more registration and convenience on a small, tapering, round stick than a hand-held card scraper — a matter of control, not something a scraper cannot do.

Skill and access. Framed by operation and material value: early roughing on an inexpensive practice blank is a very different threshold from final graduation on valuable pernambuco. Espey's four-year figure is for professional-quality bow making, not for handling the tool [BM11].

Matching (the workbench's first read)

• Does: graduates and tapers an octagonal or round bow stick; block-plane forms remove stock and do much of the graduation; high-angle scraper forms round the stick and take clean shavings on difficult grain; curved soles shape the curve behind the head.
• Positive operations: roughing and initial faceting (block-plane forms); stick graduation; rounding from octagon toward 16/32 facets; working difficult grain; the curve behind the head (curved sole) [BM3][BM13].
• Materials: best documented here for pernambuco and other dense bow woods; suitability depends on grain, density, desired cut and plane geometry. CAG describes its 90° geometry as suited to hard woods "such as" ebony and pernambuco [BM2]; the Bate Retford catalogue documents pernambuco and snakewood bows, without by itself showing which plane was used on them [BM21].
• Kit-fit. Pairs with: compass/calipers, scraper or file, files and abrasives, deflection measurement, and secure bow-stick workholding. Alternatives: the choice between block and scraper forms depends on the stage and the stick.
• Not-for (project-keyed):
  • IF the stick is carbon fibre or composite, THEN this is not the tool: those sticks are moulded, then ground and sanded, not hand-planed [BM14].
  • IF the stock is pernambuco of unknown legal status, THEN resolve provenance and current CITES requirements before working it for sale or export.
• Secondary documented use: precision curved and flush work in fine cabinetmaking and spinet construction [BM4].
• Access. Specialist; skill depends on the operation and the value of the stick, not on a fixed apprenticeship gate.
• Revival. Shop-made tool-making is part of the craft today (Altman; DiMambro's book) [BM5][BM10].

Anatomy

Commercial forms. CAG: stainless-steel body, blade hardened to about 62 HRC; 70 mm/18 mm-blade and 120 mm/22 mm-blade 90° models, in flat and arched soles; and a 120 mm 42° flat-sole model [BM2]. Cremona Tools lists a near-identical CAG SKU; its "700mm" body length reads as a site typo for 70 mm and is carried as noted [BM1].

Named parts. Body (brass, bronze, aluminium or stainless steel in modern forms; iron in the Wilson example); a narrow mouth; a blade bedded low (block forms) or near-vertical (scraper forms); wedge-and-pin or screw-clamp retention. Altman's version: four silver-soldered brass pieces (two internal supports including the blade seat, two thin curved sides), O1 blade [BM5].

Sole shape is operation-specific. Flat soles for general graduation; curved or rounded soles for the curve just behind the head [BM3][BM5b]. CAG sells both flat and arched versions [BM2].

Size range. CAG 70–120 mm long, 18–22 mm blade [BM2]. Salchow-style scraper planes: large 125 × 25 mm, medium 93 × 15 mm, small 55 × 10 mm, plus curved-sole versions [BM3][BM5b].

Variations (living)

The family varies by geometry, sole, size and intended cut:

• Block-plane form vs. high-angle scraper-plane form — ~42–55° effective vs. near-90° [BM2][BM3].
• Flat vs. curved/rounded sole [BM2][BM5b].
• Size — from 55 mm scraper planes to 120–125 mm forms [BM2][BM5b].
• Body material — brass (shop-made, e.g. Altman), aluminium (Salchow/Condit and LAH), stainless steel (CAG/Cremona), iron (the Wilson example) [BM1][BM4][BM5][BM5b].
• Shop-made vs. bought — making one's own is common; Altman's planes are hand-fabricated from brass pieces and silver-soldered [BM5], and DiMambro wrote a book on making bow-making tools [BM10].
• The "Peccatte-style" plane — a shape named after Dominique Peccatte, made by individual makers today [BM3].

"Tradition" is reserved for documented transmission among makers; the different angles above are functional variants, often in one maker's kit.

Trades

• Bow making (archetiery) — violin, viola, cello and double-bass bows; the defining and primary trade.
• Fine cabinetmaking and spinet construction — documented secondary use for small curved and flush-fitting work [BM4].

Lineage

Ancestors. The general miniature-metal-plane root documented in Violin Maker's Plane. George Wilson made the Anthony Hay Cabinet Shop's bow maker's plane as a modern shop-made tool alongside the shop's small planes [BM4].

Contemporaries — a maker's kit of size- and task-specific planes, per DiMambro [BM3]:

• Large block planes (e.g. Stanley 9-1/2, Lie-Nielsen 60-1/2, low bed with a steep bevel) — "most of my graduations of the stick."
• Standard block planes (e.g. Stanley 102, Lie-Nielsen 102) — ebony frog work and general use.
• Salchow-style scraper planes — flat and curved soles in three sizes; the small one for rounding, the larger and medium ones for difficult pernambuco, the curved sole for the curve just behind the head. DiMambro also says the Salchow plane is too large to finish bows with and that he does not use it much any more [BM3].
• A "Peccatte-style" plane — a design named after archetier Dominique Peccatte; no source ties it to a surviving Peccatte-owned tool.
• The Ibex finger plane, borrowed from the violin-plane family for frog shaping.
• A jack plane and a compass/caliper ("coom-pah," per Ken Altman) for dimension checks [BM5].

Modern named makers of the planes.

• William Salchow (1926–2014) — first American to study bow making in France (1959 Fulbright; trained by Georges Barjonnet and Charles Alfred Bazin in Mirecourt); founded Salchow & Sons, New York, 1960 [BM6]. He designed a scraper plane in several sizes later produced in milled aluminium by Warren Condit of Sandy Hook, CT [BM7][BM3]. (The earlier "until 2000" end date is dropped pending a direct source.)
• Lynn Armour Hannings (LAH Bows, Freeport, ME) sells scraper planes "based on the original Warren Condit planes designed by William Salchow" — aluminium body, cherry palm rest, D2 blades, flat and rounded soles in 55/93/125 mm [BM5b].
• Ken Altman (Silverton, OR) makes small brass bow planes from patterns learned from French archetiers at an Oberlin College workshop; his site captions them "Brass bow maker's planes, which I made myself" [BM5].
• CAG Tools / Cremona Tools — stainless-steel bow-maker's planes as catalogue products [BM1][BM2].

History

The job. A bow stick is graduated so that it is evenly flexible throughout, worked from a single blank, typically octagonal first and often rounded after [BM8]. Pernambuco is dense and can tear out; high cutting angle can reduce tearout, but mouth opening, iron sharpness, depth of cut, grain reading, sole registration and workholding also decide the result.

Dated sequence.

• Before 1750 — with rare exceptions bow makers were anonymous; the violin maker often made the bow or had it made in the shop (David Boyden, via [BM8]). A bow-shaping plane from this era would be indistinguishable from a general small workshop plane.
• Mirecourt. The Musée de Mirecourt records a luthiers' charter of 1732 (a luthiers' body, not specifically a bow-makers' guild), and archèterie emerging as a distinct trade between 1751 and 1761, with four archetiers recorded in 1761 [BM9]. No tool object from this period was located.
• Late 18th / early 19th century — François Xavier Tourte (1747/48–1835). Tourte's workshop is widely associated with major refinements and the mature modern bow model; the Smithsonian library record supports "final improvements" [BM20]. Individual features (stick length, camber, screw button, ferrule) are not attributed to a single act of his here, since earlier bows already had screw buttons and modern-like frogs. No source documents Tourte's own tools.
• 19th century — the Mirecourt teaching lineage is well documented, but no source documents their specific planes.
• 20th century — George Wilson's shop-made bow plane in the Anthony Hay Cabinet Shop kit (2011 post) is a modern shop-made tool, not evidence of period manufacture [BM4]. Salchow's 1959–60 training and scraper-plane design follow [BM6][BM7].
• Present — commercial bow-maker's planes from CAG/Cremona [BM1][BM2]; shop-made and small-batch planes from makers such as Altman and Hannings [BM5][BM5b].

Patents. No relevant patent was located in the searches documented for this entry (Google Patents, queries "bow plane" and "bowmaker's plane," 2026-09-02; DATAMP not reachable) [BM17]. This says nothing about whether a patent exists.

Human side

Traditions & trades. Bow making (archetiery) is the defining and primary trade. A documented borrowing into fine cabinetmaking: Ed Wright of the Anthony Hay Cabinet Shop used the shop's bow plane for spinet work — "the bow plane refined the center oval to final shape" on veneer banding, "helped finish the convex portion" of a baseboard curve, and "helped [with] final flushing of the ends" on braces [BM4].

Named hands.

• William Salchow — see Lineage; also a rosin bearing his name (1970s) and a family firm [BM6].
• Ken Altman — trained by French archetiers at an Oberlin College workshop; makes brass bow planes, documented in a first-person account: brass cut with a jeweler's saw, the blade seat filed flat with a slight concavity, the assembly silver-soldered, an O1 blade quenched from a "red hot glow" [BM5].
• Anthony DiMambro (AD Bows LLC) — trained through bow rehair and repair, worked under a student of Bill Salchow, attended a workshop with George Rubino, later mentored by Rodney Mohr; wrote Tool Making for Bow Makers because "many specialized tools are not commercially available or are extremely cost prohibitive due to small batch productions" [BM10].
• George Wilson and Ed Wright — Colonial Williamsburg tradespeople [BM4].
• Peg Baumgartel, Charles Espey, Mariia Gorkun — bow makers interviewed by Strings [BM11]. Espey: apprenticeship "could take four years or so to start making bows of professional quality," and "the rest of your life refining." Gorkun apprenticed to David Hawthorne.
• William Charles Retford (1875–1970), W. E. Hill & Sons, author of Bows and Bow Makers (1964) — his workshop and tools are in the Bate Collection, Oxford [BM12][BM21].
• Giovanni and Marta Lucchi (Cremona) — Giovanni founded Italy's first dedicated bow-making school (active from 1971) [BM13].

Stories. Altman's photographed build account is a rare record of how these planes are actually made [BM5]. The Anthony Hay 2011 comment thread is mostly about violin-plane toothed blades; its bow-plane content is Ed Wright's post itself [BM4]. The Maestronet threads on bow makers' toolboxes exist but could not be read [BM18].

Proof of existence

Bate Collection, University of Oxford — Retford workshop. The Bate catalogue gives the Retford display and all its tools collection number 929 and points to a separate handbook/checklist [BM21]. This is stronger institutional provenance than a secondary account, but without the checklist it does not confirm a separately accessioned bow plane.

Colonial Williamsburg shop object — George Wilson's shop-made bow plane, photographed and described in 2011; a modern tool, not a period antique [BM4].

Other museums. No individually accessioned "bow maker's plane" was located in the Smithsonian, Met, Musée de la Musique, Ashmolean, Deutsches Museum or National Music Museum searches.

An unverified 19th-century example ("19th century bow maker's plane, with mahogany wedge," seen on a collector's Pinterest board) is a lead, not evidence.

Commercial evidence. CAG Tools and Cremona Tools list bow-maker's planes with published specifications [BM1][BM2].

Patents. No relevant patent located in the documented searches [BM17].

References

• [BM1] Cremona Tools, "CAG Bowmaker's Plane St Steel" product page. [manufacturer/retailer]
• [BM2] CAG Tools, planes catalogue, cag-tools.com/planes — 70 mm and 120 mm 90° bow-maker's planes; 120 mm 42° flat-sole bow-maker's plane; hard woods "such as" ebony and pernambuco. [manufacturer]
• [BM3] Anthony DiMambro, "Bowmaking Tools: Hand Planes," AD Bows LLC, adbowsllc.com/2020/03/01/bowmaking-tools-hand-planes/; also "Rough'n It" and "Round vs. Octagonal." [named maker, primary]
• [BM4] Anthony Hay Cabinet Shop (Colonial Williamsburg), "Small Planes: More Tools of Our Time," 2011, anthonyhaycabinetmaker.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/small-planes-more-tools-of-our-time/. [trade-shop blog, named practitioners]
• [BM5] Ken Altman, "Stick Making," altmanbows.com. [named maker, primary]
• [BM5b] Lynn Armour Hannings, "Bow Scraper Planes," shop.lahbows.com. [named toolmaker]
• [BM6] William Salchow biography — Brobst Violin Shop; The Strad obituary; Violinist.com. [trade press/dealer]
• [BM7] Andrew Bellis, "The Bow — Part Six: Bow Making in the Americas," cellomuseum.org. [named historian/practitioner]
• [BM8] Wikipedia, "Bow maker," citing David Boyden and Stewart Pollens. [encyclopedia, secondary]
• [BM9] Musée de Mirecourt, "Histoire de la facture instrumentale à Mirecourt," musee-mirecourt.fr/fr/histoire-de-la-facture-instrumentale-a-mirecourt.html. [museum]
• [BM10] Anthony DiMambro, "Getting Into Bow Making," AD Bows LLC. [named maker, primary]
• [BM11] Cristina Schreil, "To Bow or to Bow Out," Strings, May–June 2020. [trade magazine]
• [BM12] Andrew Bellis, "The Bow — Part Four: William Retford and Arthur Bultitude," The Cello Museum. [named historian]
• [BM13] Amorim Fine Violins Cremona, "A Look Into The Workshop Of Bow Making" (Giovanni and Marta Lucchi). [dealer blog, named makers]
• [BM14] The Strad, "Making a carbon fibre bow in 10 steps" (Bernd Müsing, Arcus). [trade magazine, manufacturer]
• [BM15] CITES, SC78 traceability report, Annex 2, cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/E-SC78-73-A2.pdf. [regulatory]
• [BM16] IPCI; CodaBow, "The Sad Reality of Pernambuco Wood." [manufacturer blog]
• [BM17] Google Patents searches "bow plane" / "bowmaker's plane," 2026-09-02; DATAMP not reachable. [search log]
• [BM18] Maestronet Forums, "Bow Makers Toolbox Tool ID Help" and "2nd plane for bow making?" — exist; not read. [forum]
• [BM19] Violin Maker's Plane — sibling corpus entry.
• [BM20] Smithsonian Libraries catalogue record, subject "Tourte, François, 1747-1835" — "final improvements." [library record]
• [BM21] Bate Collection, University of Oxford, Retford catalogue, bate.ox.ac.uk/files/reginalbrasspdf — collection number 929; pernambuco and snakewood bows. [museum catalogue]
• [BM22] CITES, CoP20 implementation document, cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/COP/20/agenda/E-CoP20-097.pdf — CoP19 amendment to Annotation #10, effective 23 February 2023. [regulatory]
• [HS1] Fine Woodworking, "Safety Manual: Handplanes," finewoodworking.com/project-guides/hand-tools/safety-manual-handplanes. [safety guidance]
• [HS2] Ontario Council for Technology Education, hand-plane safety sheet, legacy.octe.ca/download_file/force/941/390. [safety guidance]

Material context — pernambuco and CITES

Paubrasilia echinata (pernambuco) entered CITES Appendix II in 2007 under Annotation #10, whose original scope covered logs, sawn wood, veneer sheets and unfinished articles for bow fabrication. That scope is historical. At CoP19 the annotation was amended to cover all parts, derivatives and finished products, except re-export of finished musical instruments, finished musical-instrument accessories and finished musical-instrument parts; the new annotation took effect on 23 February 2023 [BM15][BM22]. Current requirements cannot be read from the 2007 wording. Before acquiring pernambuco stock, documenting it, selling a bow or blank, or moving either across a border, check current CITES requirements and those of the relevant national management authority. IPCI (founded by bow maker Yung Chin) works on pernambuco conservation [BM16].

Research gaps

• The Bate Retford checklist has not been read; whether a bow plane is itemised is open.
• Maestronet threads not readable.
• The Salchow/Condit production end date needs a direct source.
• No named historical archetier is tied to a surviving plane.
• The CITES annotation should be re-checked against the current text before any transaction advice is extended; regulatory scope changes.

The reviewer's corrections (12)

• BLOCKER — Fix 1 — Exact claim: “modern commercial bow planes are built and sold around a 90° (vertical) cutting angle” and “Defining spec across every current commercial source: the 90° (vertical) cutting angle.”
• BLOCKER — Fix 2 — Exact claim: “a near-vertical iron ... exists to survive and cleanly cut a wood the violin plane's own low bevel angle would tear apart,” plus the documented sequence's instruction to “Finish the near-final graduation pass with the d …
• BLOCKER — Fix 3 — Exact claim: “Any material outside pernambuco/brazilwood-family bow stock; no source documents this tool's use on carbon-fiber or composite sticks” and “any wood other than pernambuco/brazilwood-family bow stock, per every source's e …
• BLOCKER — Fix 4 — Exact claim: “No CPSC/NEISS record, clinical injury dataset, or bow-making-specific safety literature was found or expected to exist ... Carried as an honest absence, not filled with an invented scenario.”
• BLOCKER — Fix 5 — Exact claim: “CITES Appendix II listing for Paubrasilia echinata (pernambuco), effective 13 September 2007, Annotation #10 (logs/sawn wood/veneer/unfinished bow-fabrication articles; finished bows excluded from the original scope). …
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 6 — Exact claim: “Cutting-angle tradition, genuinely two-way — commercial 90° vertical ... vs. shop-modified ~55° ... both real, sourced, currently practiced, and not reconciled here.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 7 — Exact claim: “1756 — archetiers first appear as their own named profession in Mirecourt records.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 8 — Exact claim: “c.1785 — François Xavier Tourte ... standardizes the modern bow form (lengthened stick, concave camber, screw/ferrule mechanism).”
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 9 — Exact claim: “Ken Altman's hand-forged brass planes” and “Altman's own hand-forged brass planes.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 10 — Exact claim: “Violin, viola, cello, and double-bass bow making is the sole trade this tool serves” and “the sole trade documented for this tool.”
• SHOULD-FIX — Fix 11 — Exact claim: “Patents — a clean negative finding” and “no toolmaker-mechanism patent located.”
• MINOR — Fix 12 — Exact claim: The opening, provenance, references, and confidence notes include “fresh corpus-wide reconnaissance,” queue state, run numbers, “research passes,” “the model,” “this run,” tool-access failures, and re-verification process nar …