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Which finish on my unfinished La Scalas?


JohnW

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On 2/1/2022 at 11:35 PM, JohnW said:

(I only get one shot at this)

Probably should stain or dye them before the finish coat. Birch reacts to stain differently than other woods, so I would gather an assortment of tints, turn one speaker over bottom up, pencil mark a grid, stir and dab a bunch of samples and clearly label the grid. Let that dry and then apply some Boiled Linseed Oil. Then ask your wife to help you pick one.

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4 minutes ago, Khornukopia said:

Probably should stain or dye them before the finish coat. Birch reacts to stain differently than other woods, so I would gather an assortment of tints, turn one speaker over bottom up, pencil mark a grid, stir and dab a bunch of samples and clearly label the grid. Let that dry and then apply some Boiled Linseed Oil. Then ask your wife to help you pick one.

Way ahead of you. bought a nice 2'x4' piece of birch plywood and a few different finishes last weekend. I'll start tomorrow. Currently leaning toward amber shellac, or possibly multiple coats of Danish Oil.  Staining isn't out of the question, but doing it well on baltic birch is a multi-step process, and I'm not entirely partial to a nice stain job with exposed plywood edges. 

There's some figuring in the speaker wood...and I'm tempted to dye it to bring that out and then seal with poly or acrylic. But that's a bit risky...I don't have any real wood finishing experience.


I keep going back to this video:


 

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IMHO those don't need to be darkened by very much. All I did to my LaScala was put what was then called Swedish Oil. I assume similar to what can be purchased now as Danish Oil. Over the tears they have darkened a little and got much more "golden". I think once or twice, hey it's been over 40 years, I have re applied the Danish oil in natural with no stain. They still be purdy IMHO.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I know it's not the traditional way, but I had mine professionally painted piano black! But love the natural wood look! Did my Cornwalls natural!
20200528_175547.thumb.jpg.5f548de050fd4f78cd1243bb71fd6a1a.jpg
IMG_20121104_135737.thumb.jpg.60d70116f3aa0133670893bdb02d9128.jpg
Looks cool but they almost look invisible LOL.

I'm a sucker for piano black.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

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Just now, SWL said:

Looks cool but they almost look invisible LOL.

I'm a sucker for piano black.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk
 

Yea I love piano black and I really have never seen a pair in piano black so I had to do it! After having them redone I also had a guy ceramic coat them for protection! At that point why not lol! Here is a picture of a reflection of my recliner. Hard to tell what part is reflection and what's speaker lol

20200528_175503.jpg

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2 hours ago, biggriff7420 said:

I know it's not the traditional way, but I had mine professionally painted piano black! But love the natural wood look! Did my Cornwalls natural!

 

That piano black is stunning! Black is a tough color to pull off because it shows every flaw.

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8 hours ago, Griffen said:

These are my 1976 models stained in cherry with a cherry strip covering the raw ply edges. They have a coat of satin poly for protection and turned out nice, I think. I’ve had them quite some time now and I can’t remember where I picked up the grilles.

E9715560-2190-496D-8712-73A4DD9BBEE8.jpeg

They look beautiful brother!! 

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On 2/22/2022 at 1:13 PM, biggriff7420 said:

I know it's not the traditional way, but I had mine professionally painted piano black! But love the natural wood look! Did my Cornwalls natural!

20200528_175547.jpg

IMG_20121104_135737.jpg

 

How many steps were involved in getting the piano black finish?  It must have been a big job!  And then there’s the ceramic finish.  Isn’t it kind of brittle, especially when applied to a wooden surface?  I hadn’t realized that it was even possible to get a finish like that on plywood speakers.  Is there any maintenance required once the finish is completed, other than dusting it?

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5 minutes ago, Islander said:

 

How many steps were involved in getting the piano black finish?  It must have been a big job!  And then there’s the ceramic finish.  Isn’t it kind of brittle, especially when applied to a wooden surface?  I hadn’t realized that it was even possible to get a finish like that on plywood speakers.  Is there any maintenance required once the finish is completed, other than dusting it?

Hey, so these were done at a professional auto body shop. Several layers of paint and then several layers of clear are applied. Auto body clear dries extremely hard and the speakers are as strong as the paint on your vehicle. Then They are wet sanded and buffed to the high shine. The ceramic coating was applied as an extra layer of protection. The only maintenance I have is to dust and occasionally spray on some spray wax to keep up on it. They are as protected as ever. Was not a cheap option too say the least though. But in my opinion they are like no other la Scala I have ever seen.

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