I looked here for this trick, but didn't see anything about stag removal. I decided to replace the stag covering on a TO-600 that’s in bad shape and has been sitting here for a while. I went through all the recovering documents I could fine.
They just say to pull it off with your fingers, putty knife, or credit card and then sand all the black specs off with a sander. So I started pulling some of the stag off, but some of it wanted to tear or wouldn’t come off at all. I found that using a sponge soaked in warm to hot water loosened the glue and I could lift it up easier. Let it soak for 10 to 15 minutes. I also noticed that a soaked face cloth worked better because I could cover more area. Re-soaking the cloth half way through seems to speed things up.


I now had the wood with glue and stag pieces on it. Instead of waiting for it to dry so I could sand it smooth, I found that I could remove the black specs with a putty knife if it was damp. One of those cheep putty knives that has a beveled edge. In about an hour, I had whole cabinet cleaned and only minimal sanding needed. They must have used better glue when gluing the wood pieces together, because it’s been over a week now and the frame is still holding together.


Now some light sanding and I'm ready for new Tolex.


Hope this helps someone in the future.
Freeman.