meagain Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 OMG! On my monitor, those look like stainless steel. Very cool. Josh - You must be very good as I know working with high sheen/gloss is tricky. Mine say CD-BR. The previous owner sadly stained them dark (Walnut) which IMO, is a horrible idea with Birch (and Maple). Then they put a frame around the face for a grill and a frame at the top which you slide a piece of tempered glass in. They did a good job with the framing but I prefer grill-less. If I don't sell them, I'm going to strip them down and merely add an orange shellac or a wood conditioner to "attempt" to prevent blotching, then very very light honey stain. Or I may paint them (how about pink?) and post them to upset everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymd Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Josh is correct. If the motor board is unfinished birch and not painted black, they are decorator models and usually don't come with a grill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arky Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Josh that is fine work & unique. JT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joemcten Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Josh, your piano black looks amazing. Must have been a ton of work. Thanks to everyone for the info on my new to me Cornwalls. The plywood on my pair is truly fantastic. The grain is very good, much better than the Birch LaScala's I used to own. I believe I am going to apply my first couple of coats of Tung Oil today.....Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meagain Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Joe, they look nice... as does your room. I too admired Chris's decorators. I remember wondering how they pulled off that stain without getting blotches till I some some other pics. Not blotches from the stain of course, I'm referring to the natural dark spots that comes with this birch ply Klipsch used. Like... I have a pair of Birch LaScala where this really jumps out at you and I know it'll still come through no matter what stain I put on. (I personally think many birch LaScalas would look interesting with paint other than black).... They are sap or mineral runs in the wood. But even if one gets a very clear pair (I think Chris had a fairly clear pair and I've seen this on some raw birch khorns).... it's very tricky to stain birch and maple and get it to absorb evenly. I've cringed more than once seeing pics of dark stain on birch ply.... less so with light tones. This is why when you see a maple floor (or maple drums, bookshelves, etc)... it's usually very light or plain natural. Joe, I'd read up on the woodworking forums/sites about staining Birch (same for maple). About wood conditioners/primers and/or shellac to condition/seal the wood so the stain absorbs evenly, then (if they were mine)... I'd stick to something very natural or a very light stain with a bit of tone to it like honey/light golden. Something to just warm them up a bit. What about the Watco Danish Oil? Even natural might give a bit of a tone, but maybe the golden oak or a mix of natural/golden? Very forgiving. Joe, if you're going to go get tung oil, take a look at Watco Danish oil in natural - maybe they have a small can and you can test both on the bottom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 The decorator cabinets did have some options and revisions. They were intended for use for when the consumer wished to make a custom finish. They generally came unfinished and the cabinet construction is quite different. Imagine a standard CW or H in BR type construction. They have butt joints with the top and bottom extending the full width of the cabinet, with the motor board dropped into the opening, supported and attached to cleats. The Decorator is assembled of different panels The top and bottom still extend fully to the side edges, but the MOTOR board is mounted to the face so that there is no recess for grille panel and the motor board extends fully to the top and bottom edges- so the top and bottom are cut 3/4" narrower. This is visible in the HD-BR shown by BEC above. I think the discussion has been- were there any Decorators made with mitre construction and I'm sure there is some example of this somewhere. There seems to always be an exception, especially with the CW. Grilles were asked for my consumers, so a flat kit that could be velco'd to the motor board was available. Trim boards and grille boards might have been factory options at a later time or added by users. If these are removed so the motor board is again fully shown, the speaker can be refinished to it's original glory. In the case of my Heresy, it started life as a standard HD-BR, and BSbutton veneered it all the way to every edge, giving the 'block o wood' appearance that I find strikingly handsome. Finishing the cabinet by masking the edges and painting all openings (including edge of veneer) satin black completed the look I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colterphoto1 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 correction, BEC's Heresy decorator photo is on another thread. Josh's black CW's are indeed of the decorator variety. Simply having butt jointed cabinetry is not decorator. There were CW-BR which would have been birch, raw but standard cabinet style as detailed above. On the (ok most) decorators you would NOT see the edges of the top or bottom panels when looking head on at the speaker. I think our original poster has this variety, from the sounds of the horn and CW1 designation, if he has the K52 mid driver mated to the K601 horn, this is (probably- I must waffle again for the critics) an example of a CW made in the changeover period with some CWI components and some CWII, lovingly dubbed a CW1.5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Everyone lately is getting steals on the cornwalls. Seems I might need to jump on before tax returns season ruins it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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