My father in law works for the school board and a few years back, they cleaned out a couple of old storage buildings. One had some old archery equipment that hadn't been used in years. Unfortunately, they didn't feel that they had a use for it anymore and they threw it all in a dumpster. My father in law dug two right handed bows and one left handed bow out and brought them home. I wish he had gotten them all, but by the time I found out and asked him to, they had been hauled off. He said there were probably 2 dozen bows total, so around 20 perfectly good recurves were thrown away. I would have loved to have refinished them all and either offered them up as pass around bows or put them on the St Jude's auction. Anyway, that brings me to the present. I have a Bear Black Bear, 60", 35#@28", that my son has shot a little with me. Recently, he has grown a lot and his draw length, and consequently his draw weight, has gone up and he's struggling with it a little. The old school bows are Bear Rangers, 62", 25#@28", so they'll be about perfect. I've been wanting to refinish the little black bear for a while, and I think I might go ahead and do one of the right hand Rangers at the same time. I might do the lefty as well just in case my youngest son or one of my nieces/nephews ends up needing it. Here's where I want some input. Do the Rangers have any collector value? I haven't seen many before so I'm not sure, but I'm thinking not since it's an old club bow. If not, I'm not terribly worried about replacing the decals. I may just sand all the old finish off and refinish with no markings other than the specs. The Black Bear has some sentimental value, so I'm going to try to retain the markings, or get replacement decals for it. I want to keep it as close to original as possible. As you can see in the picture, the rangers have an old rusted sight rail inset in the riser. I'm thinking about inlaying a piece of wood or smooth brass/copper in its place. Im also not crazy about the light maple risers, so I may put darker stain on it before refinishing. Let me hear your thoughts on making the modifications mentioned vs keeping them close to original or any other thoughts/ideas/advice any of you may have. Here's the two Rangers and below them, the BlackBear. By the way, all have yellow glass.
Topic: Got a couple of bows to work on. Looking for some opinions. (Read 299 times)
