What veneer was under these?

[TJman 5]

First post here! I recently picked up a pair of black lacquer Cornwall II's from 1987. I wasn't thrilled with the factory black and decided to strip the black using Citri strip and then sand down the remaining paint to refinish the veneer underneath the paint using Tung Oil. My question is.... What kind of veneer is this? It currently has one coat of Tung oil on it so far. I will include a few different pics of the process from start to finish. Let me know what you think! I have multiple pics, will need to upload one at a time. 

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by TJman

[dwilawyer 3936]

They normally finish ash with black don't they?

 

@HDBRbuilder is the man who would know.

[TJman 5]

From my understanding, they painted over many different types of veneers, especially on older speakers. Typically they would paint over any veneer that they determined had some sort of imperfection and then sell them as black speakers. 

[TJman 5]

How they originally looked. 

[Skelt 302]

53 minutes ago, TJman said:

First post here! I recently picked up a pair of black lacquer Cornwall II's from 1987. I wasn't thrilled with the factory black and decided to strip the black using Citri strip and then sand down the remaining paint to refinish the veneer underneath the paint using Tung Oil. My question is.... What kind of veneer is this? It currently has one coat of Tung oil on it so far. I will include a few different pics of the process from start to finish. Let me know what you think! I have multiple pics, will need to upload one at a time. 

 

Birch 

[RandyH000 5296]

1 hour ago, TJman said:

What kind of veneer is this?

 

 

second that   ----if the speaker has not been painted , it would  have been titled -RAW BIRCH ----klipsch used plywood with a birch veneer

[moray james 1743]

1 hour ago, TJman said:

First post here! I recently picked up a pair of black lacquer Cornwall II's from 1987. I wasn't thrilled with the factory black and decided to strip the black using Citri strip and then sand down the remaining paint to refinish the veneer underneath the paint using Tung Oil. My question is.... What kind of veneer is this? It currently has one coat of Tung oil on it so far. I will include a few different pics of the process from start to finish. Let me know what you think! I have multiple pics, will need to upload one at a time. 

 

what you have there is Birch and it looks lovely especially as it has only one coat of oil. nice job.

[Peter P. 371]

How did you manage to get the paint out of the wood grain? Usually, after stripping, some paint remains in the grain that even sanding can't reach, without risk of sanding through the veneer.

[RandyH000 5296]

you use steel wool and a bit of stripper with long strokes ------

[TJman 5]

I did not use steel wool. Sounds like I have birch veneer here! The grain on this veneer is not deep at all, so it wasn't difficult to sand it down past the paint. i used a fine sandpaper. I believe 320 grit, then moved to a 400 grit before applying tung oil. You can see in this picture (bottom side of the cabinet up) that i was experimenting with using tung oil as the finish on the bottom. I found that the veneer was reasonably thick on this speaker so sanding it down (gently and gradually) was not an issue and did not lead to any wearing of the veneer around the edges or anywhere else. Again, I was very gentle and used super fine sandpaper to do this. The side of the cabinet in this pic was stripped using citristrip but not yet sanded.

[jcn3 6]

@TJman - that really is fantastic work. Congratulations! Look forward to seeing the finished pair. 

[Pondoro 37]

You got some nice birch, most of the time it has less interesting grain. Birch can be pretty "blah", yours has a bit of curviness.

[jorjen 309]

Birch but no butt joints like a CBR. interesting.

[TJman 5]

Hello all! 

 

I wanted to update this post with the finished product! These were originally black CWII's! 

 

 After stripping all the paint and lightly sanding I applied 5 coats of Watco Tung Oil to the birch veneer. I then built risers for them and replaced the original black grills with Cane grill cloth from Crites and also applied a new Klipsch Cornwall Script logo. 

 

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome, and the wife loves them almost more than the CWIII's next to them! I will try to post a couple of pics but can only post one at a time.

[Fido 446]

that looks great! Beautiful

 

[Toz 7]

Nice work!  I would be interested in your thoughts on how they sound and compare to your other Cornwalls. 

[RandyH000 5296]

On 11/5/2020 at 11:51 PM, jorjen said:

Birch but no butt joints like a CBR. interesting.

MDF  panels with a Birch veneer

[RandyH000 5296]

On 1/10/2021 at 6:29 PM, TJman said:

Hello all! 

 

I wanted to update this post with the finished product! These were originally black CWII's! 

 

 After stripping all the paint and lightly sanding I applied 5 coats of Watco Tung Oil to the birch veneer. I then built risers for them and replaced the original black grills with Cane grill cloth from Crites and also applied a new Klipsch Cornwall Script logo. 

 

Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome, and the wife loves them almost more than the CWIII's next to them! I will try to post a couple of pics but can only post one at a time.

 

how many hours in total  was needed for stripping and sanding ,  did you leave the Front-back and lower panel black

-  grilles are usually the hardest part,,  and  they look perfect -

[jorjen 309]

8 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

MDF  panels with a Birch veneer

MDF in 1987?

 

Ummmm........NO!

[jimjimbo 10181]

and another excellent example.  Good Show!