Refinishing my first bow

[K. Mogensen]

Hey, I just started refinishing my fishing bow and was wondering if you guys could help me out a bit. I just started sanding the limbs with 150 grit but think I may be doing something wrong.

First, I'm going through a LOT of sandpaper. It clogs really fast. Also, It's taking quite a bit of time to get down to what I assume is the fiber glass. I'm hoping that I haven't gone too far.

Here are some pics of what I've got so far. Does this look right?

 

 

Here's what the part I've not sanded looks like...

 

All help is appreciated!

[jess stuart]

It does take longer than you would think to get through the factory finish.  I have always started off with 220, and yeah it does clog the paper real quick.  Looks about right to me, kind of hard to tell from the picture.  You should be able to tell when you have gone through the finish and into the glass.  I wouldn't go any father than necessary, maybe even leave some of the finish.

[Sixby]

Don't sand the edges until last and here is why. Sand the glass with wet and dry sandpaper and use water to sand it. wipe it off with a towell or rag as you sand. I keep a little bowl of water and dip and clean my sand paper. .320 will take it right down and you will get it done about 10 times as fast and will not hurt the bow one bit.
I have refinished hundreds of bow and finished hundreds more . That is lots of sanding.

God bless and its looking good,. Steve thedull is the glass,. Go no deeper.the other is finish. On the production bows the finish is really heavy.

[K. Mogensen]

Thanks for the help! Did a bit more today, I'll try the wet/dry sanding.

[K. Mogensen]

Did some more today and almost have all of the belly side of the limb in the picture sanded. I thought I had some wet/dry sand paper but couldn't find any, so I had to keep going with the regular. So far I haven't twisted the limb yet and when I checked my draw weight, it's still 45#'s. Just slow going.

[K. Mogensen]

Here's the limb now...

 

 

[T Folts]

Looks good.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Your closer, those darker spots are left over finish. Keep chipping away and you should be there shortly. I can tell you from experience that the smallest left over factory finish will gleam when you spray it down again. Be sure to get your string grooves to, they will have string wax and finish in them. I use my palm sander and 400 grit, most will tell you Im crazy and probably wrong, but I have some sweet refinished bows that will argue that. Have fun!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

a palm sander in the hands of someone experienced using them is fine. i use mine a lot myself.

but .....i sure wouldn't recommend it for someone that doesn't have good experience for sanding glass.
much safer going slower by hand, than screwing things up faster using a sander.IMO

[Ironfist_Canada]

Is that a Martin bow?  I refinished a Martin Ventura once and had similar results along the way. I eventually got it done and it turned out perfect.

[K. Mogensen]

Yep. It's a Martin X-150 bow. I bought an X-150 as my fist bow and had the limb delaminate on it. Martin sent me a new one but it looked like they rushed through it. The riser had a lot of tool marks on it. I've used it as a fishing bow for a couple years now and decided to try refinishing it. Figure I can't make it any worse.

If this works out, I may start collecting older bows and refinishing them. Gotta start somewhere though.

Thanks for the help guys!