Newbie to drum restoring yes. Newbie to wood finishing no. Here is my story. Bought this Pearl stencil kit for 300. It had four very nice Sabian AA cymbals like new including a 20" ride, 16 crash, 10" splash and 14" hats. One old Ludwig straight B&O stand, two like new heavy Gibralter stands (one a boom) and a "Rock" hihat stand. I needed cymbals not drums. I had some Mahog veneer left over from a job. Figured it would sit in the shop for years so decided to play around with it.
After removing the wraps and cleaning up the old 9 ply mahogany shells, I cut the mahogany veneer and inch wide and and couple inches long making sure that the end I strat with is nice and square. Then using my tablesaw and a framing square I draw nice crisp line on the shell (a good woodworker always has a sharp pencil). Then I spray the drum shell with a product called CON-BON. It is used for adhearing veneers and comes in a convenient aresol can. Then spray the veneer laying flat on the saw horses.
Next, I place the sprayed shell on my planer rollers then take the nice square edge of the veneer and place it on the pencil line. Then slowly wrapping the shell, rubbing the veneer with the palm of my hand while turning on the rollers.
I will continue the story by replying so I can post more pictures.