"I would suggest learning some new curse words and oaths, since you're going to need 'em! "

        Thanks, Wilco48; I think I remember a few choice ones that I picked up over in Korea. They are usually reserved for a balky lawn-mower or other such special occasions - only trouble is, the good Lord understands Korean just as well as anybody!

        And thanks again for all of the tips, encouragement, and links, everybody!

        I actually got a nearly recognizable "Frog In The Well" ("Keemo-Kimo") out of the old fiddle by ear with the 10" Psaltry bow!

I suspect that the long bows are a requisite for those long, sustained notes in Classical Music but the shorter ones would probably work for most of your Minstrel tunes and Celtic Hornpipes, Reels etc.. Is that a reasonable speculation?

        Having disected that old busted bow and examining all of those teenie-tiny little blocks, wedges, shims etc. that are used to hold the hair in place, I had sort of a brilliant revelation;
"There's gotta be a simpler way to do this!" I exclaimed, to no one in particular.

That little Psaltry bow is jigsawed out of 1/4" plywood, with a little hole up through each end; the "hair" (I think it's really some kind of thread) is run up through the front one and tied in a knot on top.   In the rear, the hole runs up into a perpendicular tapered hole where the "hair" stuff is wound around a tuning peg a turn or two and through the string hole.... and you guessed it; tied in a knot!   The tension is cranked on with the peg and it is jammed down into the hole to stick it; voila!; a simple yet effective bow!

        I stopped at the Town Library this Afternoon and perused a few books on making simple instruments out of gourds, tin cans, and bric-a-brac (some pretty neat stuff in there!).
In one they show a bow made by gluing a couple of blocks on each end of a wooden stick. Eye-bolts are run through a hole through each block, and secured with washer and wing-nuts on the outside.
You open up the loops on the eye-bolts just enough to pass a thread through, then wind cotton-covered nylon thread around between them about 50 times, then tie the end off to one of the bolts. Crank up one of the wing-nuts to the desired tension, rosin her up, and away you go!   When one side of the loop wears thin, just let the tension off, run the "hair" through to swap sides, and repeat.

        Looks like a job a non-Rocket Scientist might be able to pull off.

So I'm re-designing the bow to sort of a hybred between my psaltry bow and a "proper" bow, using a shaft from one of these relics and whittling a new peg-wound frog and modified tip from scrap black walnut.

        It will be a cinch to "re-hair", and who knows; it might just work - at least well enough for a reprobate old hillbilly Fiddler!

        At the very least, it will surely annoy proper Classical Violinists to no end!