WD-40 is good at dissolving old adhesive... really about the only thing I use the stuff for besides cleaning rust off old tools. You might try some of the new products for cleaning off adhesives that are on the shelves. I think one is called "Oops", or something like that. I haven't used any of them myself and don't know how well they work.

I do know WD-40 though. With a bow that old, it's possible that the original finish is cracked, so you can't just spray it on and let it soak. WD-40 will soak trhough any bad spots in the finish, get into the wood and discolor it, if not ruin it outright. So, you'll need to spray it on your rag and work small areas at a time. Work slowly and be very patient with it and have faith the gunk will come off.

That stuff has been on the bow for 50 years, so don't expect it to just wipe off. Make it a labor of love, not a chore to fly through.

You can carefully remove the old grip and use the same technique. Try to keep the leather in one piece if at all possible and use it as a template to cut your replacement leather to size. Test fit the leather to make sure it's the right size and do any trimming you need to do. Dampen the new leather just enough to make it pliable, not dripping wet. Then coat the leather and grip area with Barge cement (they got it at Wally World or Lowes/Home Depot) according to the directions on the bottle. Then just wrap the new leather on and do any finish trimming it need to make it look nice. Once that's done, it'd help to wrap the new handle with an Ace bandage until the glue sets up.

Or you can get a strip of leather about 1" wide and make a wrapped handle instead. Won't look original, but it'll be functional. Check out The Ferret's webpage for some good instruction.

http://groups.msn.com/ferretsarcherywebpage