painted bow

[tomhargrove]

o.k. this is my problem  a few years back i bought my son a beautiful longbow made from bamboo with a hickory back. he and his friend painted there bows with green paint and with a magic marker copied elven script on the m at the time they were into the lord of the rings  now  he no longer wants it this way so how would i clean off this mess with out any damage to the bamboo or the hickory I'm afraid stripper would affect the glue  or the wood any help would be welcomed.-tom

[JeffG]

I think your best bet is going to be a conventional stripper; methylene chloride..."zip strip" type product.  It won't add moisture to the wood.  But you cannot get it on any of the glue so use sparingly.  steel wool, the finer the better is going to be a good way to take it off, and lots of terry cloth toweling to wipe it constantly. Once you have it where you want it let it dry and monitor it. Remember if you can't get it off,  Fiebing's leather dye can be used to color the wood without a problem, and it comes in dozens of colors.

[a45gunslinger]

I had a bear recurve that had a camo job done to it ...I used "goof off or oops " it worked very well with no damage to the bows original finish - Kevin