All Hodge silk swabs are made from 100% silk. Silk is very absorbent, soaking up water in instruments better than any other natural material on the market, including both cotton and chamois.  Most uniquely, silk is also very compressible, making it possible to pull through instruments with large variations in bore size.  In addition, silk is lint free.

The Hodge oboe swabs clean the entire instrument fully assembled. This long version is the length of the fully assembled instrument so one can pull the swab back and forth. They have a safety cord on the back end, so that if there were a knot in one and it got stuck, it could be pulled back out the way it went in. All oboe swabs now use a straight weight rather than a ball chain