wierd phenomenon, what's going on with my rosin? Options

[katemorrisviolin]

Hi lovely forumites, I noticed a strange phenomenon today when practicing. I noticed there was no rosin dust on my violin after I'd played for a bit, as there usually is. I was also getting frustrated with the tone of my playing too, the bow was not gripping the strings as it should and not sounding as nice as it should. I tried putting more rosin on the bow but it stubbornly refused to work, the rosin cake just didn't seem to be working, it was very smooth and hard, not dusting up as it should at all. There seemed to be zero rosin dust on the bow hair. I have two rosin cakes and both were equally useless. What's going on? Is it something to do with the damp weather we're having in Guernsey? Or the age of my bow hair or rosin? Wierd.
I'd ask my teacher but he's very selfishly and inconsiderately gone on holiday.

[katemorrisviolin]

Ah....it's over 20 years old, been unused for at least 10 years and I have been using it for about a year. I have not re-haired it since giving it a new home, because it seemed fine when I got it. It's been fine until today, it's suddenly gone like this overnight.

[owainsutton]

Ah....it's over 20 years old, been unused for at least 10 years and I have been using it for about a year. I have not re-haired it since giving it a new home, because it seemed fine when I got it. It's been fine until today, it's suddenly gone like this overnight.

That would fit - I've had bows go south in that sudden manner in the past. Also, disuse causes degredation of bow hair, thanks to bow mites (yeah, yuk), so it was inevitably near the end of its life before you got it.