Sanding a 1972 SK and still have areas of different shades no matter how much I sand. Is this as good as it gets or need to do something else?

Whet the riser with some rubbing alcohol and see if it disappears.

I did clean the dust off with denatured alcohol. It disappeared almost completely except for some minor shading differences. Looked pretty good. Planning on True Oil finish.

Those could be some oily patches. If you are getting sawdust everywhere, you are done. If you are getting a whitish/yellow powder then you are still sanding old finish. Use strong alcohol or acetone to strip the oil and see if the appearance improves.

Quit sanding and take something (like maybe a pocket knife blade) and scrape it. That way you can tell what is going on with the wood. It looks to me like you don't have all the finish off to be real honest.

I agree, scraping will clearly indicate if you are peeling finish or wood. Finishes can be pretty deep.

Agree, wood can and will absorb finishes differently. Depends also how porous the wood is. When you finish sanding/scraping rub in 0000 pumice powder to fill the grain in.

As mentioned above, wipe it down and see what you have. Sometimes a light stain will even it out. Just looking at the pattern of light/dark it seems to me you sanded deeper on the flat areas than on the darker spots. Scraping will confirm that.

The problem with filling the grain is that not all the grain may be open and those areas will not absorb any filler and will look different under finish.

I get that a lot when refinishing Bear bows. It seems to almost always be in the grip area. I believe it is more of a stain from oils that were in the shooter’s hand. I haven’t tried staining. I just leave it that way. The lighter wood will get darker when you put a finish on it.

Scraping is the ticket! I tried sanding with heavier grit pushing real hard in those areas with no results. I never wanted to scrape a bow for fear of ruining it but I am get the hang of it here. Thanks and will update with new pictures.

The cut in area at the throat will have a higher percentage of exposed end grain. End grain sucks in more finish than the surface. Could be really hard to sand out. Like Nrthnrebel said I expect the lighter areas will darken to match when you apply finish. Assuming an oil based finish. You could test a small adjacent area Chuck S

Much better scraping with the knife. The sanding of those spots was futile. Thanks all for the help! Here's the update picture.

Don't forget that those bows were Futurewood which used a pressurized vacuum to fill the pores in the wood. Some spots were denser and show up a "birthmarks". Where you are now looks pretty good. The light spot under the coin wouldn't bother me but if you have time and an inclination you could play around matching the color. I think it would look fine under finish.

Thanks Phil. Nemophilist has schooled me a bit on the Futurewood properties. My guess is the darker areas are the differences were the maple took the original stain. Most importantly those areas no longer have a sheen after the scraping.

Your right Phil. When I wipe it down with alcohol it really tones down and blends nice. I am not going to mess with the original look. Thanks much for the advise.

Just an update. I received the new coin for it and started with the Tru Oil coats. Not looking too bad I think.

Good job. The differences in color just give the finished product a individualized look. If we wanted a perfect single color we'd switch to plastic.

Well finally got her done and ready to hunt again!

Bought it from a widow who's husband stripped and sanded it but died before he could do the work. It was camo and all the numbers, coin and labels were long gone.

Had to put a period correct quiver on it along with about 8 coats of true oil and brass coin.

Feather rest not correct but looks and works good

Labels look like there in the right place

Couldn't put just any arrows in her...had to be from 70's too.

Had to make up serial number. It's K-1972 now

Thanks all for the advise, parts and inspiration!

Looks great! Nice work!

great job. thanks for sharing.

Looks great Tom. Well done.

Great job

Nice job. Looks great. FYI, Perhaps it was just put on for pics, but the quiver is not mounted correct.

Help me Stagetec! My first SK and double spring arm. Guess I blew it! :)

It mounts the exact opposite of the way you have it. The very top of the top arm goes on the front of the bow (facing you). And, the very bottom of the lower arm does the same thing. The part of the arm that ends up on the back of the bow, should be where the fades are about 1/2" thick. Perhaps someone will post a pic.

Yep I see now. I was so exited about posting the finish project I missed it. Dahh! So now I embarrassed myself in front of the whole wide world...again! Lol!

Thanks!

No worries. You're not the first one to do that. But, if you were to shoot it that way, it would make a hell of a racket, and probably pop off.

Fixed it soon as I got home :)

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