Cottoning Assistant
Step 2: Cottoning
Almost any kind of cotton is OK, as long as it has long fibres and does
not have any "knots". If you rub the cotton between your fingers,
it should feel "dry" and have a good grip (friction).
The easist way to find out, which cotton is the right one for your instrument, is to experiment or ask other Hurdy-Gurdy enthusiats. I prefer a car-polishing cotton that is made of 100% viskose.
Pluck a little piece of cotton off your wad and pull it into asize of approx. 1 x 2 cm (1/4 in x 1/2 in.). The cotton fleece should be evenly thin and translucent.
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While slowly turning the wheel, turn the string back and forth between thumb and index finger (approx. one quarter) and simultaneously press it against the wheel.
This way the cotting gets "wound up" around the string.
The resulting noises are absolutely horribly but the reward is a lovely, round and beautiful tone.
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Cottoning the drone strings is done the same way as the melody strings.
For this the amount of cotton has to be relatively bigger.
Do not despair if you don't get it right in one go. Just try again (and again) - a nice sound is your reward.
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