How to Clear a Disc Golf Disc and Maintain Your Game

In the world of disc golf, it’s hard to find the perfect disc that works very well for you. It’s hard to get a disc that will fly right, has the correct versatility, durability, flexibility, flight ratings, grip, and more. If you happen to find the perfect disc, you have to maintain it. You have to learn how to clear a disc golf disc.

What Do You Mean: Clearing a Disc Golf Disc?

There are many parts to clearing a disc golf disc. One part is clearing out its stamp; another aspect is repairing the disc. There’s also cleaning and maintaining the disc. In this in-depth guide on how to clear a disc golf disc, I will discuss all of those aspects of clearing a disc.

Let’s dive right into it.

How to Clear a Disc Golf Disc

Removing the Stamp

There are a few reasons why you might want to clear out the stamp from your disc. One reason is that you may be tired of the stamp design; it may be unattractive to you. Another reason is you want a new design, and you need to remove the old stamp before putting on a new one.
Whatever the reason is, clearing a disc golf disc involves removing its stamp. Here’s the best tried and tested way to do it.

Materials Needed:

Procedure:

The primary problem you may have when removing a disc golf stamp is that you may damage the disc and alter its flight characteristics. But with 100% acetone, your disc is safe. Don’t go for nail polish with around 30% acetone; that will not work. It has to be 100% acetone, which is readily available. Acetone is an effective chemical substance against paint or ink.

Pro tips: acetone is a strong chemical substance. Be careful that you don’t spill in on anything other than the cotton ball or Q-tip. Acetone may also be too strong for putter discs; the surface of a putter may become slick.

Repairing Minor Damages to discs

Discs can take a lot of damage, especially if you throw them wrong and hit a tree. They get warped. And when they are out of their original shape, they would not fly as intended to fly. Fortunately, there is a way to repair minor damages, such as warping or small scratches.

Materials Needed:

Procedure:

If your problem is that your disc has many scratches, there are a few ways to remedy that. Holding the disc over a small flame of a lighter takes care of very small scratches. Make sure to protect yourself from the flame; wear a protective glove. Also, make sure you don’t overheat the disc that it gets damaged beyond repair.

If that does not work, either a nail file or a medium grit sandpaper (around 220 grit) works well. It should be fine as long as you don’t sand down the disc significantly that its flight characteristics change.

If your problem is that your disc is warped, here’s how you repair it. One method is just putting your disc on a flat surface, like a table, and stacking books or discs on top of it. The weight on the disc should just be enough to flatten the disc.

In severe cases, the disc may be too warped or firm that putting weight on it will not work. In this case, set the disc in near-boiling water. Make sure each side of the disc is on the water for no more than 30 seconds.

After that, place the disc on a table again and stack weight on it. This process should do the trick of un-warping your disc.

Cleaning the Disc

I see a lot of rumors going around the net that say disc golf discs are dishwasher safe. That is not true. The heat from a dishwasher can warp your disc (and the dirt from the discs may damage your dishwasher). If you want to clean your disc, you have to do it the not-lazy way.

Materials Needed:

Procedure:

Fill your bucket, or a sink, with warm water and a bit of dishwashing soap. Dishwashing soap is not so strong, so it will not damage your disc. It’s crucial that you use warm water, not steaming or scalding water. Too hot water will warp the disc.

Dunk the disc in the water and use a scrub brush or a sponge with an abrasive side to scrub the disc. Don’t hesitate to scrub liberally to get all the dirt and gunk out of the disc.

Once you remove all the dirt with the scrub, let the disc dry. Don’t let it sit in direct sunlight, though; that might also warp the disc. Just let it air dry.

Lastly, you may want to sand the disc after it dries out to smoothen scratches.

Conclusion

There are three significant aspects of how to clear a disc golf disc. These aspects are removing the stamp, repairing minor damages, and cleaning the disc. In my experience, the processes I discussed work the best. Plus, they don’t damage the discs and make them fly differently.