Stain Suggestions

[juniper]

If you want to keep the original BB look. Look up the ultimate guide to Baltic birch plywood, the guy seems to know what he is talking about. Get some scrap pieces to test your options.

[J M O N]

Very much appreciate all the suggestions and I am looking into all of them.  I'm 99% sure the veneer is birch but I've got an inquiry in to Klipsch to verify at 100% -- awaiting response.  I'll look into a re-veneer if I can't get the stain to work out, but I do want to see if staining is a viable possibility before moving to the re-veneer.

[J M O N]

Here is an update on my stain job.  I have finished the staining and am pleased with the results.  I first tried about a dozen different colors on a sample birch panel from Lowes and settled on the Cognac color from Varathane which is oil-based.  The color came out very close to Klipsch oiled walnut which was the goal, it was just a matter of getting the darkness level right.  First I sanded the font panels nice and smooth and then after dust removal via vacuum and tack cloth, applied Minwax pre-stain conditioner.  Then came the stain which took several coats to get the darkness level you see.  After about five coats, it wasn’t getting any darker so I stopped at that point.  it's not as dark as I wanted but it was good enough.  I had planned on putting on a couple coats of Polyurethane as was recommended to me by Cornman, but I really like the way the wood surface and grain looked that I didn’t want to cover that up.  I did put a couple coats of Watco Danish oil to finish it off.  The WAF passed with flying colors – I was told that it looked like a professional job.  There are some flaws in my work but they may be of the type that only I can tell or someone that knows staining (and was looking for them).

 

Here is one thing I learned about birch – the wood can actually come out looking extremely nice.  Once sanded and with an oil finish applied, I was getting light reflections similar to how finished mahogany wood looks – very light reflective which changes as you move around it.  A very attractive look came with just applying Watco Danish oil finish without any stain.  That was probably the best looking finish overall I saw of the thirteen I sampled.  The Danish oil does add a bit of tint, but at least on birch it is barely noticeable.  It was essentially the same color as unfinished wood (Schu – you would probably love it).  Heck, I liked it enough that I briefly considered doing that.  But in the end, I really needed something darker for what I was trying to achieve.  I would definitely consider that kind of finish for other cases though.

 

So the end result was better than I thought I’d be able to get.  The picture below does not show how nice the finish is.  Where it may look like I got an uneven stain, those are actually the light reflections that I mentioned above. If I moved the camera, and took another photo, the lighter areas would be in different positions.  Fortunately I did not get any uneven stain. The photo was taken in a dark garage so I shined a light on the speakers which probably contributed to the photo not looking quite as nice as they do in person as well as those lighter areas.  When I get some time, I’ll attempt to take a better photo of how they look without applying harsh lighting directly to them.

 

Thanks to everyone for all the tips.  I read every one and did my best with them.  I learned that birch can be finished very nicely if its limitations are considered and you don’t try to do something it just can’t do.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

[dirtmudd]

I wish that my LA Scala's where unstained.

http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains-color-guide/

I like the express color