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.

Bow hair wearing out seem like the most likely explanation to me. How long have you had the bow, and was it new or newly-rehaired when you got it?

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.

I can't be of much help, I'm afraid, but I was searching this just now and came up with this:
http://www.zaretandsonsviolins.com/faq.html (the 1st 2 Q&As) But I think it might be better to wait until a more experience player to turn up...

That made me laugh! Sorry, um, that wasn't meant to be funny...

yes it was!
Interesting article, thanks.

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.

Thankyou for your help. Darn it, I was hoping it would only be a matter of a new rosin. Guitarists don't have to mess about so much with these things! They just fuss over their nails. Still, worth it eh.

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No, not usually, I only got the other one out today because my usual one wasn't shedding dust at all today. Thanks for the tip.

Time for a rehair - I've had both of my viol bows done this last year - one becasue it had lost too many hairs (partly due to it rubbing up against something sharp during transit one day) the other through age (about 6 years). Luthier was of the opinion that unless your a demon player, about 3 years wouldl be a reasonable interval. Look to about GBP40 ish - it's a pretty quick job. some luthiers offer a postal service.

It sounds similar to what recently happened to my bow. Took my violin to a luthier for the equivalent of a spa day and while I was there, the lovely luthier spotted my bow and asked if I was putting more weight than usual onto my bow. When I replied "yes", luthier suggested that my bow needed a rehair. Apparently the hairs nearest the frog were looking a bit grubby and possibly dirt from the bow was being left on the strings which meant I was having to put more weight than usual to get a sound.

Bow has now had a rehair which cost 40 pounds plus I've now learnt how to tell when it's going to need it's next rehair

I have selling rosin in tonnage quantities for many years (eg to adhesives industry). In the chemical industry its called WW Gum Rosin, ex China or Portugal, but the same stuff as you string players use. It's a very stable product and doesnt 'go off' in time. So it does seem this is a bow hair problem.
In reply to Flossie, rosins are extremely inert and will not react with each other.

Thankyou guys, it all makes sense now.