Bow Refinishing

[Whino83]

I have two bows I want to refinish.

Bow #1 has a satin finish and it’s worn off around the handle/grip area. It’s not very noticeable but it’s driving me crazy. The limbs nor the fiberglass on them had never been clear coated. Could I just take like some 0000 steel wool and rough up the surface and use like tru oil or Minwax spar and rub them on and be good after a few coats  or would I need to take it all the way to the bare wood? I don’t wish to do anything but apply a gloss finish to the entire bow. In my thinking I could just rough up the surface and apply a new one and be good but if I’d need to remove all of the old finish I will. I even thought about roughing up the riser and using linseed oil but I’d kinda like to do the limbs and all and I don’t know how that would do and I’m not familiar with linseed oil I just recently read a little something about it.

Bow #2 again isn’t in horrible shape. It has a high gloss finish all over the entire bow. The riser only having a few light scratches. The limbs over the fiberglass have some very very light scratches and a few places of minor orange peel. Again could I just rough the excising clear coat on the bow with some 0000 steel wool and use tru oil or some spar over the old finish? Or would I need to take it down to the bare wood and fiberglass and apply a whole new finish? Or could I just lightly buff the bow with a rubbing compound and possibly wax it? The orange peel areas are right on the surface and not deep into the clear at all. Just out in the sun I can see it more and it bugs me.

Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.

[Trenton G.]

I've refinished a few older bows. I generally completely strip off all of the old finish with some sandpaper, usually 220. It doesn't take very much to get it all off. Make sure to take pictures of all marks and labels on the bow. I always just put a piece of tape over then so that they don't get sanded off. Then I just spray the whole thing with a couple coats of polyurethane. I don't know if this is the recommended way of doing it, but the bows that I've done have turned out really well and shoot great.

[Pointer]

I've done many over the years. You don't have to remove all the finish...many times I just did that on those spots that had crazing or orange peel going on. Over the rest of the bow I might just lightly sand with 220 grit and then apply several coats of Minwax Spar. They all look great and the finish hold up.

[Cavscout9753]

I’ve re-done a few. The first one I did I ended up wishing I had spent a little more time evening everything out before applying the finish. I had patch-sanded a few spots on the riser and had ended up taking some spots down further than others. When I put the finish on it looked molted or some such thing, like you could see the spots where I went down to the wood. In your case, you’re just working the finish I’d say just so long as you level down the scratches a new coat (or two, or three) will make everything disappear. For whatever it’s worth, I use Tung Oil. It isn’t cheap by any means, but it makes a very strong, glossy finish. Everything else mentioned may work as well or better, thats just what I use. Good luck! I’m shooting an early 70’s Bear Kodiak Hunter that came to me with a couple of dings. After deer and pig runs are over I plan to take my time and refinish it. It’ll probably outlast me.