This may sound like a dumb question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. I took my rug rest off the shelf of my recurve bow because the ends were always curling up. There is s sticky glue residue left on the bow shelf. How do I safely and easily remove the old sticky glue without harming or damaging the finish and wood of the shelf?

acid tone or lightly sand the shelf or you can just rub the heck out of it with your thumb.

I use contact cement remover that you can buy at most hardware stores.
It only works for certain types of glue though but it's worth a try.
It does not harm finish at all.

Don't use acetone!  It will melt your finish.  Mineral Spirits will remove the glue without any effect on the other stuff.

Mike

Goo-gone works great for that stuff.  I use it on literally everything.

Try a little WD-40 and rubbing with your thumb.  If the adhesive is sticky right now it will come right off.  Wash the oil off with some alcohol before you try to put on a new rug.  No acetone!

John

I gave wrong info on the acetone....sorry.

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I'll be going to the store to get some mineral spirits.

I would try goo be gone at walmart it takes all the old glue or sticky stuff off just about anything.

Goo-Gone is great and another good one believe it or not is a bit of peanut butter the oils in it disolve the glues. Try it, I know it will work. Shawn

Shawn,

Have you personally tried the peanut butter method?

MY mom used peanut butter to get gum out of my hair once believe it or not            

Oil is oil, regardless of where it comes from.  Peanut butter just has less per volume than, for instance, the WD-40 I suggested.  There are two approaches to removing adhesive residue and which one works best will depend on the type of glue involved.  Oil will work well on any glue that doesn't harden, such as the contact cement used to attach shelf rugs to bows but is less effective on hard glues such as Barge cement.  Hard glue residues are best removed with a solvent such as mineral spirit, etc.  As noted, don't use strong solvents such as acetone on bows because the stuff can melt the glue holding the bow together and will surely damage bow finishes.  One other example worth noting is natural glues such as hide glue.  These can be removed with plain old water.  A good rule is that if the glue can be thinned with water it can be removed with water.  I've removed snake skins from bows by soaking them with water, giving it a few minutes to work and gently pulling the skins off.

Hope this helps.
John