Refinishing an old Bear - FINISHED

[tomsm44]

I posted some questions about these a while back.  I have two Bear Rangers, one right handed and one left handed, and a Bear Black Bear that I've been wanting to refinish for my kids.  I was looking them over today and the left handed one has a vertical crack they runs from front to back along where the shelf and side plate meet and goes about an inch or so deep.  Not sure if there is a way to fix it, but none of my kids are left handed so I'm not worried about it for now.  I just figured I'd refinish it since I had it.  I got started on the right handed Ranger today though.  I sanded down the sides of the riser with 150 grit sand paper to remove the old finish and some of the lighter scuffs and scratches.  There are a few dents and scratches that I would have to remove a lot of material to get out, but they don't look too bad.  The limbs looked pretty good other than a few slight scuffs and a few paint spots where it looks to have been bumped against some painted furniture or something, so I just cleaned them up with a 320 grit sanding pad without removing all of the finish.  There was a sight rail inletted into the riser that I didn't want, so I found a scrap piece of wenge and fit it into the hole.  I still have to epoxy the wenge in place, do a little more finish sanding, spray a finish on, and get the Bear medallion cleaned up and reinstalled.  Here are a few pictures from before I started and a couple showing where I inletted the wenge.  

   
   
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[Petrichor]

Looks awesome

[tomsm44]

Well, I guess it's what I get for starting a project at the start of bow season, but this one got shelved for a while.  I finally got around to it the week of Thanksgiving.  I epoxied the wenge inlay in and sanded it smooth.  That's where I ran into a little issue.  Originally, I removed the old finish, but didn't sand deep enough to go through where the finish had soaked in and darkened the riser wood.  In trying to get the inlay and side plate all sanded smooth, I managed to sand all the way through the old finish in a few spots.  That left several spots that were a lot lighter than the original.  The only way I could really make it look good was to sand the rest of the riser down enough to expose the light wood on the whole thing.  I actually think it looks better with the lighter riser, but man was that a lot of sanding.  I got it all sanded to 320 grit and finished with several coats of satin spray on poly.  Then I put on a Velcro rest and leather strike plate.  Haven't gotten around to posting finished pics because I wanted to get it strung up first.  I finally ordered a string and it came in today.  I got a blue/black/silver with blue serving Flemish string since blue is my son's favorite color.  I put some matching blue/silver/black yarn silencers on it for him as well.  I'll get the silencers trimmed down a little smaller as we got them shot in.  I'm hoping to build him some matching arrows early next year.

 
 
 
 

[Petrichor]

   

[tomsm44]

One other thing, by having to sand it all the way down, I had to remove the serial# and length so it would all match.  I have the picture of it from before above, so I may go back and rewrite it all then put another coat or two of poly.  Not sure if I'm worried about it or not.  Strange that it doesn't have the weight listed.  Anybody know if this model was only available in one draw weight or something?

[M60gunner]

You did a first rate job. Congrats looks like you have a couple nice bows there.
I noticed a big"4" on one of the limbs. Could these bows have been used as "school bows". May explain no markers for weight.

[tomsm44]

They were school bows.  My father in law works at the school were they were being thrown out.  He salvaged a few of the ones that weren't broken or too twisted.  I didn't realize they didn't mark weight on school bows.

[T-Bowhunter]

Great Job!        

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great Job on the refinish.

They were offered in a variety of weights generally from 20 lbs to 40 lbs.  I have/had one that is 40 lbs and marked.  They may have even made them heavier but I haven't seen them.  Its actually a good shooting bow!

Post up pics when your son gets his paws on it!

[tomsm44]

It shoots very well.  I'm thinking this one is either 25# or 30# just by feeling it.  Looks to be a very similar design to the Black Bear I already had, just 2" longer.  The Black Bear is the next one to refinish.

[woodyt]

Nice job, I have a couple of bows I'm going to refinish also but I'm going to wait until spring.

Good work!

Bisch

[ron w]