My father was a very good violinist, and tried to teach me a bit. My father's violin had an old bow, and my brother wanted to learn it, so he had acquired a couple of cheapie/nasty modern bows. He had also - at the suggestion of his apparently idiot violin teacher - fitted all steel strings instead of the gut & steel combination my dad had.

I got the thing repaired because the steel strings had bent the finger board. George (an Italian) did the violin work for cash and traded my two new bows for rehairing and fixing the slight warp that had happened to the old bow.

It was some sort of blackwood, could have been Pernambuco or Brazilwood - about half the diameter of the two modern bows, and about 1/4 the weight.

Now for ordinary folk/bluesgrass music, you may want a nice heavy bow that you can scrape away with to your heart's content, but for classical music, the best sort of bow is the lightest one you can get! :-)

If you want to play fast (any style of violin/fiddle music), the lighter the bow the better!

If you feel that you are having to press down on the strings,

1) either the bow must be in a state of incorrect rosin load - too much is as bad as too little - the quality of resin comes in several grades - talk to someone who really knows about that, like a specialist violin shop, who will carry a range of products.

2) or you are holding the bow incorrectly - I'm still struggling to learn, so don't ask me for help! :-) But I do know just enough to know that the bow (however light) should hold ITSELF on the strings by gravity, AND the action of the bow across the strings. It should "float", I'm told if you are doing it right. If you push down on the strings, you will easily get that lovely scraping sound generated by all beginners....
:-)

The only tip I can give is that the body (and arms) should be relaxed, not tense for best tone production. Easy to say - now try to do it.... :-)

Traditional Folk musicans may have other opinions - do what you feel like, I don't care - the difference in generated tone between an instrument played for classical music and the acceptable tone for folk/trad/irish/bluesgrass is a pointless discussion I do not wish to get involved in - there are no winners in that argument - it's all a matter of tradition, taste, and opinion!

Incidentally the exact correct spot for the bow to contact the string varies, both with the type of tone you are generating for the note - guitarists should easily understand this concept! and also for each pitch on the string - further away from the bridge for higher pitched notes.

The link above is excellent - I learned a lot myself! Things about where the balance point is and such...

Hope this helps,

Robin