In this article I will teach you how look after your bow. The first thing you must remember is that violin bows are very fragile; you must treat them with care and respect.
Always keep your violin bow in your violin case never leave it anywhere where it can be stepped or sat on. Take care when you are using your bow not to hit it on anything like a table, door frame or ceiling. Do not forget to always loosen your bow when you are not using it, you can use this rhyme "Tighten to play, Loosen to put away" to help yourself remember.
Do not over-tighten the hair. Never tap your music stand with your violin bow as temptation as it may be a lot of bows have been broken this way. Wipe your bow stick clean after every use. Do this with a soft clean cloth with no oils or cleaning products on it. It is very important that you always keep all chemicals and cleansers away from the hair.
Extreme temperature and weather variations can affect your bow negatively. You must make an effort to minimize these variations, do your best to minimize the temperature changes your bow is exposed to. Control humidity as much as possible. Too much will cause warping and too little will cause cracking.
You may want to consider buying an instrument humidifier; these fit in your instrument case and will keep your bow at optimum humidity.
Rosin should be applied as often as you feel you need it, you want enough to be able to grip the strings but not so much that it creates a coating on the strings. Over time you will gain experience and develop a feel for the amount of rosin you need to use. There are many kinds of rosins, when heat or humidity is high you will want to use a lighter rosin and when it is cold or dry you can use a darker rosin. Also remember that lighter rosins will grab less than darker rosins.
You will need to rehair the bow depending on the frequency of your practice, if you practice every day you will need to rehair your violin bow about once a month, if you practice very little than you will only need to rehair about once a year.
You must never attempt to rehair the bow yourself; This is a very difficult job even for trained professionals.
You must monitor the condition off your bow constantly and seek professional help when needed, only trust your bow to a trained professional. If there are any cracks, splits or damages you should take the bow to a professional immediately.