Cane Grills - New Question

[Kriton]

Hey all -

The original cane grills on the heritage speakers, is that stuff natural cane, or a synthetic?

If natural, do they need oiling so as not to dry out and crack? If not oil then what - anybody have any suggestions?

B

[ace168516]

I have been looking everywhere and through old post actually trying to figure out the history of the cane grills. I am by no means an expert, but here is what my head is telling me after counless hours of reading. There is a pic around of some original cane material from back in the day...it was from a pair of I think '59 short horns. The pic is not a real close up, but as far as my research tells me, this is probably the original cane from Klipsch and I would assume it is natural cane. Somewhere along the road, it stopped being made, but Klipsch found a different but similar looking cane material. This was an all natural fiber and was available until the early 90's. There may have been other variants in between, I can not say for sure, but there is a good picture on Amy's blog that I think is from the Hope Museum, as well as a couple others floating around the net.

If you look at later samples, they appear to not actually be cane, which would be a single solid fiber. What I am seeing is actually a broad "Paper Rattan" weave along with a single thin cane weave vertically. This is probably what most people are looking for as it is still natural and pliable for easy mounting, although as far as I can tell, no one is able to find a stable source of it. The paper rattan is what you find in the non-synthetic direction of the Wendell 4134.

Back to your original question...again, not being an expert, if is an actual cane, meaning both directions being cane and a single solid fiber weave, I would look around the internet, probably from a cane chair site and see what they recommend. If it is one of the latter variants with the folded paper rattan weave, I would NOT oil anything, as paper and oil = FAIL. I would recommend an occasional dusting and humidity and temperature control for longevity.

ACE