Try denatured alcohol on a course sponge...If that don`t work nail polish remover.

Make sure sponges are new or very cleaned out and wont bleed. Yellow sponge don`t bleed. The alcohol first.

Hey thanks,

Unfortunately niether really worked Oddball, but I have put in some more sanding which is making improvements but I'm still wondering if it will ever be good enough for a stain. I'm pretty sure staining will enhance any blemishes rather than hide them? What do the expert eyes think? How would a lighter teak type of stain come up judging from the pics?

I'm thinking of going ahead with a stain, I've probably put in about 4 or 5 hours of careful sanding over the past week, and it feel like its geting to the point of diminishing returns re time and effort vs. improvement. It doesn't have to be perfect, after all it is an old drum and it will be nice for it to have some character.

I have been here before, very hard to get all of the paint out of the grain sometimes. You could try some liquid stripper and a stiff toothbrush, it might work but I have done it and it did not work. Personally I think the shell will be nice if you have to stain it the way it is. The lighter the color the more that blue will show through so I would use a darker stain if it was me. You have done a very good job on it so far, the wild grain pattern should take your eyes away from noticing the blue that is left over. Good luck and keep the progress pics coming please.

Hey thanks Jeff C. Agreed with the dark concept. I am a little nervous with this project as I have not taken a resto to the stage of sanding a shell before, especially given the shell is eighty years old. So encouragement appreciated.

I won't fuss too much over the areas that will be covered by hoops but will still try and get them nice. The underside as it will b a bass drum has been a good testing area and has turned out nicer than the top mainly because it had less damage I think. But I've learnt I can take the sanding quite far without risk of going through so alot of the little spots that have been made by overenthuseastic paint scraping I think, can eventually be removed- I don't want to push that too far though.

Well, the drum is complete component wise...and now it's together I'm not sure I would want to do anything further on it for now as far as refinishing etc.

It has 30's single tension Ludwig & Ludwig hardware that looks like Ludwigold, and the spurs are 30's Leedy but Ludwig had exactly the same ones, so it's fairly period correct re the components albeit 12x18 bebop size bass drums were pretty much unheard of then as far as I know.

The drum sounds fantastic too, one of the nicest if not the nicest I've played, I cant wait to hear it everytime it's coming up in a phrase or whatever.

That is one super awesome drum! SO the hoops look like raw wood but the shell does not, did you varnish it or something? Excellent job!

Hi Jeff,

No that is just the natural aged maple on the shell and I've had new maple hoops made until, if ever I find period correct ones. All the wood is raw at the moment so, well 'yes' it might be a good idea to protect it with something, but for now I just want to enjoy it for a while as is. thanks for the compliments, yeah isn't it a great drum? :)

Highly temping to complete it as a kit somehow, as matching as possible.

Looks great. Really like the look of the natural shell color too. Very classy.

I thought that is what you said, maybe some oil to protect the wood, it would look great I think. And ya dude, building a kit from that drum would be fun and very rewarding. Again nice job!