Restoration 101 - (Holy Smokes!)

[TonyW]

Here's a pic of the new tip overlay and the underlays on the 1957 Kodiak Specials
 

Anyone have a bow with these splinters up near the recurve???

 

[TonyW]

 

Lots of different ideas of what they are or even what caused them. I've seen those on about 1- 2% of the bows I've worked on all makes. The latest model I believe I've seen with them is 1973-74 KH. So they were not any certain years only. Maybe there was no protective wrap on the fiberglass like wax paper or masking tape. Little bits of glue get stuck to the back of the fiberglass and then were kind of chipped off pulling tiny little splinters of glass off with the hardened glue. Someone mentioned maybe the glass got crunched in the form type fractures. But I think if it were from the forms you would see it on lots more bows. I have never seen any problems with them causing the bow to break there or even lifting the fiberglass right there. I've glued dozens of them and they do not absorb any glue at all so they are only on the surface but too deep to sand out

[TonyW]

Here's a pic of Frank’s 1956 Kodiak Special that had the back glass along the string grooves cracked and raised a bit. 90% of those bows damaged there are repairable and 90% that got damaged right there were caused by sliding the bow along the ground or leaning the bow against your truck or a tree something along those lines and it slides down which dug into the glass along the edges of the limb tips and pulled them loose. We've all been there.

 
If you’re wondering if your bows tips are a loss and in need of repair then slide your bow tips along your carpet and you'll find out. They will snag the carpet real fast. So it’s best to use a cotton towel and slide it from the limb tips towards the riser with a little edge to edge pressure and if it leaves fuzz along the limb edges it’s in need of some glue. You will want to be super careful to avoid getting fiberglass splinters yourself. Those hurt real bad and are a SOB to get out believe me. What I do on those type repairs is reglue with super glue the original fiberglass and let it dry overnight. Once it’s cured overnight, then I sand it clean and smooth with 100 grit. Then add the canvas tip underlays to make sure to hold the original fiberglass down. That red canvas underlay material is the same used in the middle lamination of Black Widow bows. Its works out real good and is stronger than it was originally. You can add some new life to that old bow you thought was a goner.
How thick is that canvas? 030 and I used to buy it from Black Widow. OK Trad Gangers I got to wait for the temp to get around 65-70 in my shop before I can spray.

[TonyW]

R101 continues ...
So we may as well work on some leather grips. If anyone has any better ways of doing these I would love to hear or even see pics of your work. Here are a few basic tools for leather grips.
 

[TonyW]

 

 


 

 

 

Leather is cut to a 6” X 3 1/2" rectangle.

One thing I need to mention is this grip is for a 1956 Kodiak Special. You will be able to use the straight cut pattern on anything made until 1959. 1959 they went to a pattern kind of shaped like bat wings. I'll cut one of those tomorrow.

 

 

[TonyW]

 

Question for Don Ward from TradGang member: What thickness of leather do you use? Is 3 oz. a good choice?

Sorry I missed that one; yes 2-3 oz. veggie or veggie-tanned leather. I buy maybe 2-3 hides at a time and get the thinnest ones I can find in the stack. I also scrap as much or more leather then I use. I only use the cleanest parts with no cuts or scrapes in the leather. A little discolored leather won't matter to much as I'll dye the leather if the color is not somewhat correct.


   

I showed some of the tools that could be used. The rotary cutter is the best. Yes the cutter is the only way to go, Fast and sharp. The rotary cutter and skiving knife both came from MacPherson Leather Company in Seattle. You can also purchase them from Tandy and can get on line and find a store location near you.

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

 

Dampen the leather before skiving and dyeing.
Then you got to let that dry completely.

[TonyW]

[TonyW]

All nice and dry from overnight and the color matches much better if you let it dry naturally at room temp rather than around heat. Another thing worth mentioning is not all grips are the same size. They range from around 4" wide on some early Kodiaks to 3 1/4”, which was the size of the original grip on the Special I am working on. I left the new grip 3 1/2" rather then to trim it down. One reason I do that is I am only replacing the leather grip on the 1956 KS and wanted to leave the new leather a little larger so it will just overlap the old lines left behind from the original grip.

 

[TonyW]

And then
 

Please note I’m only showing you how I do these and am I in no way a pro leather worker. This is just how I do them. You can see I kind of try and avoid getting the barge cement onto the stained side of the leather because it will discolor the leather and a pain in the butt to get off. Now you got to let that barge dry and I mean so dry it will not hardly stick to your fingers maybe 1/2-1 hr.

 

And through the magic of the Internet my glue is dry already. OK I used the burner on the
stove to get the glue warm enough to dry only to speed up the process, now back into the warm water for about 10 minutes or so. Remember the glue was almost dry but not quite. Just a bit tacky.

[TonyW]

Soak out a little excess water.

 

[TonyW]

Line up the front edge.