KING LOUIE-- A putting blade and decent heat gun will be needed to properly remove wrap that's been glued on.. Butter knife and hairdryer ?? LOL ! You'll be there for ages..

Heat gun and putting blade, hr and half, maybe less.. Good luck ;)

Based on past experiences, it sounds like the most effective way to remove cortex wrap is with a heat gun, putty knife and patience. Thats a 20x18 drum and it's going to take some time. I've removed wrap from one 14x10 drum with a heat gun and I didn't want to save the wrap. The wrap was brittle and it ripped in multiple place, took part of the shell in some spots and the wrap caught fire a couple of times.

It's your drum and you ultimately need to decide what to do, but there is a very good chance the wrap will crack, catch fire or turn brown in 1 or more spots, if you try to remove it from the shell. At that point you have nothing neither a shell or wrap.

You have said this drum and the rest of the kit are in immaculate condition. Personally, I'd live with the imperfection. Too risky to remove the wrap, in my opinion. Like I said in my first response, I can't imagine the flat edge on the resonant bearing edge will really be noticeable when tuned so low.

Please don't take my comments the wrong way, I'd rather see you keep the drum as it is than end up with nothing.

I promise I'll stop hounding you now. ;)

-Tim

Tim and Human71, just need to give you both a big thank you for our advice. Went and bought a heat gun from Harbor Freight and found my putty knife and made very short work of that wrap. No more slicing my finger but I did skin my knuckle on the rough underside of that wrap.

Given how bad that wrap was after I removed it from the drum I really don't think it is a realistic expectation to salvage old wrap that has been properly applied.