Staining a rough piece of wood will give you a less than desirable result. Consider sanding smooth and painting ... Or wrapping.

I guess I missed your earlier post when you tried to sell... not that I'm interested in buying, but would like to know the sizes.

Also, I agree with RogerSling that these might be too rough to simply refinish; however IF these were as they appear and were originally a laquered finish of some type, rewrapping may not be an option. Slingerland shells, at least through the clear interior era of the 60s actually had larger diameter shells on their natural finishes; add wrap of any kind and you'll run into problems with heads fitting. I've run into that even with thin PSA wood veneers on Slingerland drums that were originally a wood finish...

Just a thought... and good luck!

Bill

This was one of the POP kit bass drums. With no front head. I already removed the inside silver wrap stuff. It was in horrible condition. This drum is a 22" and from the 70's.

Take a soft rubber sanding block and sand with the grain starting with 120, then 220 and up a few more grades. Anything gouged/scratched well below the surface might stay there depending how deep it is. Be mindful your sanding on thin wood plys. So don't be too aggressive in one spot, nice light even strokes with the grain. After the 220 you should have a good idea how well the scratches will come out. And then decide what the next best thing is. Paint is a pretty low cost option compared to buying some wrap. I think you'll get them nice enough for stain though. You can clear them after with a nice gloss or satin. Should be a very doable project. Clean up the hardware, install and play~! There's a ton of good resto threads here you can search for. I remember seeing a few with nicely stained shells. Cool1

Start with 80 grit !! To be able to spin the drum and hold the paper to it (with the grain) would be ideal !!

I actually did start with 80 and hit it about 5 times. I did not put the pics of that up yet. Talked to my neighbor this evening. He is an old retired carpenter. He gave me the low down on it. We will see how it turns out. Ill get more pics up in a few days.

Thanks everyone.

Curtis

Just to show something new. Here are the 8" & 10" concert toms I unwrapped yesterday. Still need to go over them with the stripper to get glue off and then sand. These will turn out quite nice I think.

The 8" is just a bit out of round. Any ways to fix that?

Curtis