American Archery Cheetah Special Hunter / restoration

[Larry m]

My friend Michael Goodman approached me at the Gene Foster Traditional Shoot to see if I wanted a challenge and take on his bow for a restoration project! I always view these as an education on bow repair and strive for learning improvement. This one proved to be more difficult then others I have done in the past. BD's restoration is frequently referred to and always appreciated. That and trial and error!
The finish was thick and heavily stressed with cracking over the entire bow and at one time had sight holes drilled in the back of the riser. I have never seen a Cheetah Special Hunter and am guessing it was made in the early 60's and was the American Archery version of the Kodiak Special. Beautiful wood riser, guessing rosewood ibeam and tulipwood! The coloration on the wood really came out the more I worked on it. My only regret was that I tried to keep the original lettering and you can see the dark underlying finish where I stopped sanding.                                      

[Larry m]

     

[Air Cleaver]

Very nice job!

[warpedarrow]

Very nice job!  That light colored wood under the lettering made it tough to blend in and hide the old finish.  I am going to try an experiment some day in regards to saving the lettering when the finish is cracked from the surface to the wood.  My thought is, and I may be totally wrong about this, that it may be possible to use something like acetone or Formby's refinishing solution in minute amounts to very carefully melt the cracks and force the varnish to rebond crack free.  No rubbing as the letters would smear, just very carefully applying a little bit at a time with a syringe and fine needle to the cracks.

What did you use for your finish?  I have a custom take down bow with a similar appearing finish that needs some touch up.

[Bernie B.]

Beautiful job of refinishing!  Great looking old bow!

Bernie

[Larry m]

If I had it over to do again I would have taken a pic and just sanded the specs off and then duplicate with an India Ink pen! I thought I could feather it in and didn't pay attention until it was done.
I used Minwax wipe on poly applied with a foam brush for the final finish. Nine coats with light sanding in between.
Gotta love how they glued the wood up on this riser!                

[Tyler C. Moore]

I have a 1960 kodiak in very similar shape. Can you give me a quick rundown on the steps you took regarding the limbs. Did you sand and coat? What grit? Same min wax finish? You did a fantastic job

[Larry m]

Hi Tyler
I took the finish off the entire bow. 100, 220, 400 to remove and clean up and then 1000 between coats of wipe on poly. Final sanding was 2000 wet and dry. Polished it out with Minwax Finishing Wax.
In the past I have used Birchwood Casey True Oil but find the finish soft. Very good for touchup on older Bear's though....  

Post it at this site as you go along and ask for assistance on replacement stickers.

[4runr]

Nice job Larry, I use the wipe on too. Won't ever go back to TO.

Because of the fact you used wipe on, you could go back and sand off the lettering and then just touch up that area. I've had bows finished with wipe on and found imperfections after several coats. Sanded it out and blended in the area. Looks lots better than the imperfections.

[Larry m]

Thanks Kenny!
Yep, I'm thinking just along those lines. Appreciate you sharing your past experience with rework. Makes it a bit easier knowing it will blend in just fine.

[Beav]

Very nice!

[Larry m]

         
Five coats over new lettering, polish it out and done!