I've refinished several bows, relying on the advice from Rich Lopez and posts I've seen on this site from Bowdoc. This Bear turned out real nice. The bow had a wee-bit of visable stress so before I got started I over-drew the bow to around 36" and applied lock-tite 420 while drawn to seal up the tiny cracks. The stress lines are invisable. Then the task of sanding every bit of the old varnish off, 320 grit then 400, then 600, being careful to preserve the original silk-screen markings. Then coat after coat of wipe-on poly. Any-how, she turned out great.
The bow is a real good shooter too. Quiet and more accurate than I am. Here's a few pics.....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1418.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1417.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1415.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1416.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1414.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1419.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1420.jpg)
You did a great job, the feather rest makes a very nice touch. I have always liked those longer recurves too. Congratulations!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1421.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/myshootinstinks/000_1422.jpg)
Wow! Outstanding work!!
Whew shur looks purty... too purty to carry out in the woods maybe even.... :bigsmyl:
That is awesome, Great Job!!!!!!!!!
That was definately worth the work. I'll bet it took forever to sand off the old finish with that grit paper. That zebrawood is great. Chad
beautiful bow, I think it a 59. :help:
Very nice work...Looks great....bowdoc
Outstanding!
Beautiful bow and great job. What did it look like before, got any pict's?
I never thought to take pics before the work was done but it was in about typical condition for a bow that's pushing 50 years old except for the less-than-normal amount of stress on the limbs. The finish was sort of yellowed with tiny cracks here & there. Dings & scrapes here & there. Sanding took a long time but not as bad as you'd think.
I guess it could be a '59, I'm no expert on these. I think the original feather rests were red but yellow is the only one I had. I've read elsewhere that these clear glass models of Bears should not be shot because they tend to delaminate but I've shot the daylights out of this one and Bowdoc says it's no problem to shoot them. As I said in the original post, I over-drew the bow to about 36" to open up the tiny stress lines so I could ooze the adhesive in. This made me a little nervous but it was of no consequence.
Thanks everybody for the kind words.
Great job! I love that era of Bears.
Dan
Great job!!!!
Those K Special Deluxe models were only made in 1960.
How did you apply the WOP? Did you sand or 0000 steel wool between coats?
Dave
The wipe-on poly was applied with a lintless cloth, actually an old baby diaper cut up into little sguares. I didn't sand between every coat but when I did I used black oxide 600 grit.
I thought they were only made in '60 also but smomeone said the copper coin dated it as a '59. It's a low serial number, could it be a late '59?
Its a 60. The left over copper coins from 59 was used up on the early 60's bows before they used the aluminum coins. Lots of Bear employees also used the coins for parking meters. I doubt that Fred approved.