CATGUT
MEEN3344
By Mark Benavides
What is Catgut?
Catgut is not from cats!
 Catgut is a material made
primarily from the
intestinal fibers of sheep
and goat.
 The name is a
portmanteau derived
from Cattle Gut
 It is made by taking the
entrails of a recently
killed sheep and applying
a cleaning and soaking
process
Catgut wire
Uses for Catgut
 Catgut was once the primary
material for bowed and
stringed instruments such as
violins and guitars. It can
also used for tennis rackets
 Its was used for these
applications due to the
nature of the intestine
itself. The intestine has to
withstand contraction and
expansion constantly which
makes for a material that
can withstand a lot of
tension. This is ideal as
stringed instruments operate
under high tension for
extended period of time
Creation/Manufacture
 Catgut is created by cleaning
excess fats from the
intestines and soaking for an
extended period of time
 Once the soaking process is
done, the instestine is then
stretched and twisted to form
elongated strings
 The final process entails
bleaching, drying then
coating with olive oil
Catgut 2012
 Today catgut can mostly be
found in medical
applications such as for
stitching sutures because
of its dissolvability into
wounds.
 Catgut is still used in some
high end tennis rackets
 Some violin players still
prefer catgut to steel
strings due to tone, but
guitarists have mostly
moved on due to the
intonation problems
associated with catgut.
Modern Day Alternatives
 Stringed instruments primarily use
steel strings wound with nickel
nowadays as they alleviate the
intonation problems associated with
Catgut
 Classical guitars today primarily use
nylon strings as they the tuning is
more stable due to the material being
less affect by changes in temperature
 In medical applications, catgut is also
being slowly phased out in favor of
synthetics due to studies being shown
that wounds treated with catgut can
sustain an infection
Sources and References
 http://www.professorstring.com/cat_gut.php#.UL4suk9XPBM
 http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/lc/naturalgut.html
 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0K70sLCgQbE/SYB0_rwq3CI/AAAAAAAAAtI/bs
_xy21nP0Y/s400/oakie02.jpg
 http://www.maestros-of-the-guitar.com/classicalguitarstrings.html
 http://healthcert.com.au/_blog/Product_of_the_Month/post/Catgut_Su
tures-_A_Timeless_Classic_or_A_Thing_Of_The_Past/
 http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17fin62tx7wdtjpg/original.jpg
 http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/002/647/689
/cat-gut-john-channing_display_image.jpg?1349361630
 http://healthcert.com.au/Images/Sutures-In-Use-01.jpg