Rosin - What You Don't Know.... But Should

by TC
(Florida)

First, I should say that I belong to a family of musicians who are also rosin makers. I wont offer any further details because I wish this to be about information sharing and not a sales pitch for our family rosin.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Rosin - What You Don't Know, But Should!

A violin can do very little without the bow and the bow does nothing without the rosin. Based on that assessment I think it's fair to say that the rosin is an important, even crucial component of the violin, wouldn't you agree?

It is due to this importance that I wish to share some well guarded information with my fellow musicians.

Much of today's production rosins are actually made from a byproduct of the paper industry instead of the sap from living trees. This byproduct is a distillate of the tree pulp used to produce paper and it's called Sylvaros.

Sylvaros is obtained by way of a combination of chemical and steam distillation, whereas the ground pulp of harvested trees is distilled to separate the volatile components, such as turpentine.

The hard resinous substance that remains has been given the trade name, "Sylvaros".

Sylvaros is sold to a multitude of industrial markets (including the rosin industry) as a component additive to everything from soaps to adhesives.

Sylvaros aided greatly in the birth of large-scale rosin production because it replaced the need for vast acres of living trees and the man power required to maintain and tap those trees for sap.

Sylvaros also shortened production times for rosin makers. Because it's already been distilled, all one really needs to do to call it rosin is melt it and pour it into molds.
Fresh colophony on the other hand can take us 12-14 hours per batch just for the distillation process alone.

Sylvaros is inexpensive, abundantly available and is available all year round.

With Sylvaros, things like weather, seasons and sap availability are no longer an issue for the rosin industry.

The problem is that Sylvaros rosins don't perform the same as rosins made fresh from the sap of living trees!

In fact, frankly we regard Sylvaros as little more than poorly refined varnish.

Rosin is an organic substance and like food it deteriorates continuously.

The well known company, Pirastro recognizes this fact and states a suggested one year maximum usage on their rosins. Bravo Pirastro!

This is an important truth to recognize because the very nature of rosin mass production works completely against this proven fact.

Think about it. Any product that is mass produced is of course made in large numbers so that it can be distributed to various locations for retail sale. But what happens until it's sold?

Our research has shown us that production rosins can sit on store shelves for months, even years before finally purchased for use and this doesn't take into account any pre-retail storage or shipping times that might accrue before hand.

So, not only are many rosins being made from an already stale, paper industry waste product, but the race against the useful one year period is further hampered by the fact that retailed rosins must be stored in some capacity until they are finally purchased by the consumer. Unless rosin is packaged in airtight containers, it is surely aging wherever it is!

We believe that all rosins should carry an expiratory date so that the user knows when the beneficial life of the rosin has passed. This seems only fair.

It will probably never happen because the rosin industry has in many ways become more motivated by profit than by the art it was meant to serve.

It's both interesting and bothersome to me that much of today's production rosins aren't even made by musicians.

Let me ask you, how does one know if they make a great rosin if they aren't first intimate with the instrument for which it's made?

If you think that great rosin is something that can be made consistently by following a set recipe and procedure think again.

I can tell you from experience that there are several variables which effect how a rosin must be processed in order to achieve positive and consistent results.

The ambient temperature, current humidity, moisture content of the sap and even which group of trees a particular batch of colophony comes from can and does effect the process. Anyway, you wouldn't buy a violin built by someone who doesn't play the violin, so why would you buy a rosin made by someone who doesn't play the violin?

Have you ever noticed that many violinists spend entire careers searching for that "holy grail" rosin?

They try everything new that comes along. Rosins suggested by fellow musicians, abstract rosins with precious metals or even ingredients from outer space, etc, etc, yet the search always seems to resume and is never resolved.

We believe this is because production rosins are all basically the same thing. They've got different labels and different hype, but they're all Sylvaros based.

Even many who claim to make their rosin from fresh sap give the truth away in the very description of their process..."First we melt select resins...".

Fresh sap is already a liquid and doesn't require melting. If something's being melted it sure isn't fresh sap, but it probably is Sylvaros.

They've been shoving this Sylvaros down our throats for about a hundred years now and sadly most violinists alive have never even had the opportunity to play on freshly made rosin! They literally don't know what they're missing and they never will if something doesn't change.

Look about 1/3rd down this rosin maker's web page to see for yourself what today's production rosins are being made from -
http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings98/rosin.html

The reason our family rosin is only available directly from us is because we believe that every bit of the useful one year period a rosin has to offer should be spent in the hands of a musician and none of it wasted sitting on a store shelf.

During our interview with The Strad magazine they quoted me saying, "When someone receives a tin of our rosin they can be sure it was 'tree juice' no more than two weeks prior".

This is the only way to guarantee freshly made rosin and we believe that freshly made rosin is the only rosin that can perform as rosin was meant to perform. Anything less is a slap in the face to the art.

We are asked frequently why it matters to us what the rosin industry does? I'll take this opportunity to answer that.

Music has been very good to my family. For us it's a long-standing passion.

Over the years we've noticed the decline of quality in rosins and we believe with all our hearts that this decline has reached a point where it is actually causing damage to the art.

Instead of enhancing the art, we believe that substandard rosins are doing just the opposite and that seems criminal or at the very least negligent to us.

The damage now goes unnoticed because so few ever get the chance to use freshly made rosin, so there's nothing for them to compare modern rosins to except other modern rosins.

The complex strokes such as sautille' and spicatto aren't just for the Paganini's of the world. They are for us all, but they require a great rosin to facilitate the required control and consistency.

My family's goal is to bring world-class rosins back to the art we love and I wish to thank, Ding Neng and this website for the opportunity to further our goal through public awareness.

To the rest of you, I just thank you for being musicians. That's all you would ever need to be to gain my utmost respect.

-TC