Refinishing an old heritage archery recurve

[WyomingWhitetail]

Hey guys. A few years ago my dad gave me an old Heritage archery take down recurve because it was to heavy for his bad shoulder (75@28) and he was tired of me stealing his Pronghorn. Any way i was shooting it yesterday and noticed that the finish on the sides of the limbs is starting to wear through and i want to reseal it with something. My main goal is to preserve it and keep it shooting as its one of the most comfortable bows i have ever shot. Wondering what some of the better finishes to put on it would be, regular old polyurethane, or maybe a more natural varnish such as made by tried and true? Looking for opinions on how to protect it for the future. Also would it be ok to very lightly steel wool it before the new finish so as to help the new finish go on and stay on? Thanks for any help.

[LittleBen]

I don't know too much about refinishing, so some others may be more help. But, I just did a refinish on a vintage bow.

What I did was sand all the finish off down to bare wood and glass (sand very lightly on the glass ... I did this with 220grit and steel wool).
Then I sanded the wood through the grits up to 320 or 400 or so and sealed all the wood and the sides of the limbs with CA glue.

Then I lightly sanded the CA once it dried, did another quick coat, sanded with 320grit, then sprayed it with rattle can lacquer.

It came out pretty nice. The superglue really brought out the grain.

I think most of those older bows have a catalyzed varnish or catalyzed poly finish on them, so you'd have to find a compatible finish.

If you just wanna put some finish over what you've got you'll almost certainly need to lightly sand the surface so the finish adheres well.

Also, Bow Hospital is supposed to be good, they charge a bit, but it should come out really nice and last a long long time.

[WyomingWhitetail]

Been doing some research and ran across the epoxy type finishes like ThunderBird. Seems these would provide the most protection but i don't really want to mess with spraying a finish, also sounds like these finishes are pretty toxic. Any body have opinions on thinning the Thunderbird slightly more and carefully brushing it on, in hopes of obtaining a smooth finish? Sounds like the second best option would be a high quality poly. Any input welcome.