Hi AndrewH (and others).  No problem with the tip plate, but if you remove the frog screw from the bow that was worked on and lift the hair away from the tip, I think that you will be able to see that the extants of the wedge is outlined in the tip plate (or maybe not if the luthier was correct on your example).

My growing list of string instruments explore the opposite economic stratus than yours, and that allows me the opportunity to experiment on them at will.  I recall that a famous California inventor (he invented the plastic used in the Barbie doll, among other things) was married to one of the Gabor sisters.  She had obtained a Rolls Royse from the settlement of one of her previous marriages.  One day the inventor wanted to see if the prestige of the Rolls was justified mechanically, so he proceeded to take it apart.  His wife was not amused.  

I have read a book that I think that you would enjoy.  It is called the Deadly Fuse, and it is about the development of the proximity fuse in World War II.  The American device was based on a tiny vacuum tube created in the 1930's for hearing aids.

We all have our "Peter Principle" area.  I just placed a photo in one of the threads on this forum and it felt that I had gone to mars.

I have spent a large portion of today looking at violin bow rehairing videos.  I think that I can do this.  I don't understand why people are spending time tying a complicated knot in the hair ends when the same thing can be done in a few seconds with about 1/8" length of electronic shrink tubing.  They even make it with a heat activated adhesive.

I wanted to give an update on the metal violin bow.

The original black paint is mostly missing toward the frog end of the bow.  I called local plating companies and no one is interested in applying a nickel finish to the bow.  I then called a couple of gun smiths.  They said that their tanks were too small to handle the bow.  So I looked on the web to see if I could do it.  I think that I can and I purchased the chemicals to give it a go.

I am going to use a length of pvc tube for the plating tank and 99% nickel welding rod for the anode.  The chemicals that I need are on the way.  The tank will be heated to 140 F and I will use a 4 volt dc "wall wart" power supply.  The hardest thing to find was sodium saccharin (used for a brighter finish).  

I am not going to artificially weight the bow to bring it into normal limits.  I am going to rehair it with black horse hair to give added rosin grip and will use a lead core fishing line wrap near the frog for balance.  I am still concerned over moisture and have purchased black latex rubber surgical tubing for the thumb grip.

Nothing about this bow is going to be orthodox, which is OK with me.

I just received a second metal bow, this time a 4/4 size.  It has an extremely thin shiny metal tip plate that was very attractively done.  The black paint on the stick was worn away on the hair side of the stick and it appears to have a copper plating under the paint.  It has a small leather thumb pad. The lacing is gone but it is evident where the start and end points were.

The end of the stick where the bow hair is fastened is not magnetic on this one.  It has the same design features of the 3/4 size one I previously received.

Hi AndrewH (and others).  Using the new data (copper plating), I went on the internet and found that the bows were manufactured by Heddon of Michigan (patent US2252929 August 19, 1941).  The metal thickness at the frog end was 0.013" and the metal thickness at the tip end was less than 0.009".  The tip was constructed of bronze and soldered to the steel shaft.

It would be very difficult for me to fabricate a metal tip plate to match the existing.  I think that it would be best to silver solder the underlying bronze and polish for a pleasing appearance.