WTK? How to refinish bow

[Stevo539]

I bought an old wood longbow this weekend at a yard sale.  It has nothing printed on it listing maker or weight.  I'm guessing #35-40 lbs.  No arrow rest.  Limbs are fairly straight with only a very slight twist.  It's a nice bow but unfortunately the previous owner decided to give it a paintjob when he was about ten years old (35 years ago).  He said he painted it and then never put a string on it.  He painted the front of the bow blue very generously and has the subsequent runs down the sides of the bow.  I'd like to maintain the nice amber natural color on the wood.  My question is how to strip the paint and what to refinish with.  I'm sure standard paint stripper would remove the paint as well as the original finish.  Will it attack the glue used to laminate the bow?  Would something like varathane work for the refinish?
Thanks,
Steve

[Ray]

I would ask someone like the bowdoc. He's on the Tradgang.com site sometimes.

[Hornseeker]

Stevo,
I’ve finished and refinished a LOT of bows now… its not near as delicate a process as many think… you do have to pay attention of course!!
Is this bow all wood or is it glass backed?
If you aren’t worried about wiping names and numbers and such off…get some acetone or whatever kind of thinner you want, and scrub the paint off… If you cant get it off to your liking…take some 180-220 grit sandpaper and clean it up as good as you want. With that grit, you will NEVER sand so much off as to ruin anything… unless you sat and sanded for hours and hours in the same spot…
As for refinishing…first off…have some fun and put your name and maybe some other writing on the bow :0) Take it to a shop and get the poundage so you know…and maybe the string length to put on it…
I use a 2 part epoxy to finish my bows, but if you aren’t set up for that and just doing one bow, I’d recommend finding a can of Deft Spar Urethane… Spray it, let it dry, spray it again, spray it again.. then go over it lightly with that 180-220… then spray it again..and again… sand again…spray again… You can do this till you are happy… In the end.. take some paste wax and give it a good coating.. you can do this maybe every year or so…unless you use the bow a bunch… then wax it more often…

Good Luck… Show us a pic or two!!!

[Stevo539]

Thanks Hornseeker,
Not sure if it's glass backed or not.  I'll have to sand (or strip) the thick paint off the front to see.  Do you ever use chemical stripper to remove the finish?  I use that for gunstocks and it works great.  I was concerned about it attacking the glue on the bow though. 

As for bowstrings, I usually make them myself but it's been a while.  Can't remember if it's 4" or 5" shorter than the bow.  I guess I'll have to look it up again.  Good idea about adding the weight, name and what-not.  I usually buy these lighter bows for my Boy Scouts to shoot so I'll probably put the troop number on it too.

Thanks
Steve

[Hornseeker]

Those heavy dute strippers may be too much... take a rag and some thinner and go at it a  bit first..

Strings for LB's usually need to be about 3" shorter than the nock to nock length...

Keep us posted!

[Stevo539]

Got bored with trimming rifle brass last night so I spent a couple minutes checking this bow out.  Paint thinner would barely touch the paint.  Next I tried some acetone.  It would desolve the paint but only after letting a liberally saturated rag sit on it for a while and then scrub on it.  I might try some laquer thinner next but didn't have any around the garage.  That stuff will cut just about anything.  Wish I could get something in between acetone and laquer thinner.  That way it might be possible to salvage the original finish.  It is a glass backed bow alright.  I also noticed some damage at one of the tips.  There is a secondary laminate, to reinforce the bowstring notch, starting to de-laminate from the glass.  Looks like it was dropped on its end.  Got to get a "before" picture befor I get too far.

Steve

[Ray]

Talk to the bow doc. He does this stuff all the time from what I have read on several sites. He would be a good resource for this project and might have other alternatives and tips. From what I understand he is well know all over. I have never met or seen his work but I have read a number of reports about his work. ALL were positive about his abilities. I sent you some leads on where to find him in a personal message.

[Hornseeker]

Show me apic of the overlay... doesn';t sound serious at all... Not trying to take ANYTHING from the bow doc... and he's likely got 10 times the experience I do... But this need not go further than HuntWA... we have the Power!! 

Seriously though... go ahead and use whatever thinner you have to... if you use some elbow grease...you wont have to let the thinner sit too long...

The overlay is most likely something you can fix with some 2 ton epoxy and a clamp... put a pic up!!

If you want... contact the bowdoc... I have also never heard a bad thing about him...

Ernie

[Stevo539]

I haven't made time to go register at the traditional bow hunting site yet.  The registration said to make sure to use your regular e-mail to register but i'm borrowing wi-fi right now.  Need to get over there but until then here's a couple pics.   Acetone would take a bit of soaking to cut the paint but it might save the original finish.  Probably should just use that and have some patience.  Nice paint job huh?

[Hornseeker]

Dang...yuck

Ok...if you cant get the paint to come off with thinner...get some 120 grit sandpaper and go for it... just enough to remove "most" the paint... Then... you can probably use thinner to remove the rest... then...lightly sand everything with 120 then 180ish...up to 220 if you have the time...

Buy some 2 ton epoxy... or ... some "thick" super glue... Open that tip up like you have with the tooth pic... squirt the mixed epoxy or super glue in there....then clamp together....  After its setup... use that 120 grit..or even 80 grit sandpaper to clean up around the edges.... and a chainsaw file to clean up the string groove...finished with sandpaper....

You can do it!

[boneaddict]

NICE PAINT JOB    Interesting what goes through some peoples minds.

[Stevo539]

I've still got the acraglass epoxy out from beding one of my rifles.  Probably use some of that for the repair. The guy felt pretty sheepish about the paintjob but wanted to see the bow get used.  But hey, I did stupid stuff when I was 10 too.  Can't say my decision making skills were any better at that age.  I remember using my Seattle Pilots bat to swat rocks in the street in front of the house, against my Dad's advice of course.  His reply was "you're gonna regret that someday".  I just found the bat at his house the other day.  He was right as usual.

Steve

[Hornseeker]

well...be sure to show us pics as you progress!

E

[jmx369]

I would recommend lacquer thinner. It is definitely stronger than paint thinner and it won't eat through any glue. (it dries too fast to hurt anything)