HOW RESTORATION STRINGS SUPPORTS CONSERVATION
Trees are one of the greatest treasures we on this earth. In their life they provide us with fresh air and enumerable foods and products, in their death, shelter, function and beauty. With proper management they are the most renewable, most recyclable, most biodegradable and greenest option for our planet.
While most of the trees used by consumers are fast growth, the wood needed for instrument manufacturer is slow growth. Many decades can pass before a tree is large enough to be made into a violin. Consequently, the supply of this type of wood is very limited and each year grows smaller. The old growth forests of Europe are almost gone, and the tropical woods used for bow making and violin fittings are no longer available for harvest or export. Tropical trees were so plentiful at one point in history that shipping crates to France were made from Pernambuco! Unfortunately that is not the case today and in order to preserve these resources for future generations and instrument makers to use, conservation is critical.
Restoration Strings actively supports the conservation of these resources both financially and through our store policies. Our goal is to provide a new focus in the instrument world and to move away from the mass produced/disposable instruments and bows currently flooding the market and focus on sustainability. Many instruments of the past still have years of music left in them to share, they just need to be repaired and restored. The wood of these older instruments is often far superior to the wood used on modern instruments and has the added benefit of being seasoned, aged and stable. Many bows from the great heydays of instrument manufacture used wood of amazing quality, wood that is not even available now! Many times, these bows just need recambering or balancing to make them playable once again.
We want the instruments and bows we offer to have the lasting values of quality construction, beauty and wonderful tone. These are the traits we look for, they can and should be preserved. Towards that end we are constantly sourcing older and select new instruments and bows that we feel are worth the cost of maintaining and repairing. We are working to combine the craftmanship and traditions of the past with the innovations of the present to preserve and pass these instruments on to the future.
If you choose to have your bow rehaired in our shop a portion of each rehair goes to
support the conservation of the trees historically used for bow making.
