Hi all-

I feel like I need to apologize for the somewhat commercial nature of this post, but I am looking at this as something of a service to the diddley bow community at large.

I have always held that the best string for traditional diddley bows is broom wire--that is, the wire that holds the broom straws onto a broom handle. Broom wire has the important quality that it does not stretch when you put it under tension, unlike most other wire you can buy at the hardware store.

Straw brooms are getting harder to come by these days, and other members of your household may not appreciate it if you destroy an otherwise useful straw broom just to satisfy your musical needs. Also, used broom wire tends to be slightly corroded and requires some cleanup with Nevr-Dul metal polish.

I have obtained a quantity of unused, standard tin-coated broom wire, 18-1/2 gauge (0.0445" +/- 0.001"), with a tensile strength of 135,000 psi. I am offering coils of this wire for sale through my store in etsy.com. Each coil is 23-25 feet long, enough to make seven or so medium-sized diddley bows.

To get to the broom wire page on the etsy website, you can copy and paste the link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31652236 or go to my website, http://www.onestringwillie.com and follow the links from there.

I hope you find this useful!

Best regards, Willie