refinishing old bear kodiak

[tippit]

A third way is I just take it to my knife grinder with a worn out 400 grit belt and finished in 15 minutes...tippit

Drake Hunter Flight...

Before refinish...

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After...  

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[MCNSC]

I haven't actually refinished a bow, but have bought a few that the finish looked pretty bad. I just used some auto finish cleaner to remove the dirt and grime. Then go over that with several coats of paste wax. Makes them look much better. Doesn't take much time. If you then aren't pleased you can go for a real refinish.

[bucknut]

Also something you can do to clean up those vintage bows is wipe the bow really well with 90% Isopropyl Alcohol. Take a scotch brite pad and go over the whole bow working out imperfections and scratches. Then take Nu Finish scratch remover and polish it out. You can get really good results with this method and not remove the factory stickers.

[MCNSC]

The Nu Finish is the same product I have used, just couldn't remember the name. Does a great job of cleaning them up if that is all they need. But leaves most of the character markets.

[mangonboat]

I'm about to refinish a bow that the previous owner "refinished" by brushing a thick coat of tinted polyurethane on the riser, obliterating the SN, etc. The limbs are yellowed but otherwise in good shape and the silk screens are in good shape, so i am going o try to preserve the silk screens by leaving them in place with VERY light sanding over and around them. I've always sanded by hand in the past but find myself wondering if I would make better progress on the riser , initially, using an orbital sander with a well-worn disc. Anybody every try that?
The riser is Brazilian rosewood so I'm planning on wiping it down with 91 % denatured alcohol  and letting that dry before spraying on clear finish.

[Ray Lyon]

Mangonboat,

This is a 1959 Kodiak I refinished with hand wiped poly(some of those exotic woods soak up a lot of finish, so start on the handle with a few coats before doing the whole bow in unison).  I used a strait razorblade with the spine and bent it to a slight curve to give it a focal point area in the middle of the blade for scraping control. This is a very quick way to remove the old finish from the riser (hold the blade at almost 90 degrees to the bow surface and use short, light strokes)and just follow up with some hand sanding using progressively finer grades fo paper. While original decals are OK to keep for historical value, since you're refinishing the bow anyway, if it's one that Al has decals for, you may like results better applying new decals. This 59 Kodiak has replacement decals on it and I think they look much better than clouded over effect when leaving them in place, but that's just my opinion of course.

Ray  

After a couple of coats:

 

Original bow (had to replace a tip too):
 

Close to finishing up with finish. New decals in place and just a couple more coats at this point:
 

[Ray Lyon]

By the way, these bows are way fun to hunt with after you've taken the time to refinish them and bring them 'back to life'. There are many incredible shooters from day's gone by and if you can get one on the cheap at a garage sale or flea market you're going to be a happy camper when it's done and you bag that first animal with a 50 plus year old traditional bow. Lot's of great kids bows being made out there right now too, but if you're on a budget, some of these old bows are cheap in the 30#-40# draw weight and when measured at 24" draws, that's right in the range for a young archer.