Cabinet finish

[oldguide]

A quick question for you old hands. I am near the end of the restoration (will post on that later) and am stumped about the finish. I waxed it like I had planned to do and this is what it looks like. It is still not totally done but you will notice the wood has a deep orange tint.

[genek]

A quick question for you old hands. I am near the end of the restoration (will post on that later) and am stumped about the finish. I waxed it like I had planned to do and this is what it looks like. It is still not totally done but you will notice the wood has a deep orange tint.

Looks good to me. How does the color compare to what the cabinets looked like before you started?

AR walnut cabinets pre-1970 tended to have a more reddish walnut. When you shop walnut lumber or veneer today, almost all the stuff you'll see is "American Black Walnut" that finishes to the chocolate-brown color of newer ARs, but once upon a time there used to be a lot more types available. Also, walnut tends to lighten and redden with age. Normally I would expect to see that ground off with sanding, but maybe you didn't sand deep enough to remove all the color-changed material.

You may have to stain using the steps I described earlier if the newly-veneered face is a gross mismatch for the old wood.

[oldguide]

Entirely different. The old cabinets had a dark stain that made them look like traditional dark walnut. I sanded down about as far as I dared. The veneer matched the bare wood, but did not take on the orange tint of the old veneer. The veneer looks like walnut. This looks different. After a frustrating time on the net the two veneers that seem closest in color (hard to tell the grain online) are golden walnut and golden teak.

That's why I wonder if the old hands know where the original wood stocks came from?

[genek]

Entirely different. The old cabinets had a dark stain that made them look like traditional dark walnut. I sanded down about as far as I dared. The veneer matched the bare wood, but did not take on the orange tint of the old veneer. The veneer looks like walnut. This looks different. After a frustrating time on the net the two veneers that seem closest in color (hard to tell the grain online) are golden walnut and golden teak.

That's why I wonder if the old hands know where the original wood stocks came from?

It probably wouldn't help anyway, because even with walnut of the same variety, a 50-year age difference in stock will still produce a big color difference. The only way to get old and new veneer to color match is to stain it again.

[tysontom]

A quick question for you old hands. I am near the end of the restoration (will post on that later) and am stumped about the finish. I waxed it like I had planned to do and this is what it looks like. It is still not totally done but you will notice the wood has a deep orange tint.

Could you post more images of your AR speaker, including images of the cabinet molding and so forth. Different views will be more helpful in identifying it, but from your image the finish appears to be Mahogany. Which speaker model are you actually refinishing?

--Tom Tyson

[tysontom]

Entirely different. The old cabinets had a dark stain that made them look like traditional dark walnut. I sanded down about as far as I dared. The veneer matched the bare wood, but did not take on the orange tint of the old veneer. The veneer looks like walnut. This looks different. After a frustrating time on the net the two veneers that seem closest in color (hard to tell the grain online) are golden walnut and golden teak.

That's why I wonder if the old hands know where the original wood stocks came from?

Oldguide, don't you have some additional images of your speaker? If you have images taken in direct sunlight, the "old hands" will be able to help you identify your mystery wood; on the other hand, nothing whatsoever can be established from the single image you attached. Once again, what speaker model are you refurbishing? Is it even an AR speaker? Do you know the year? Take the speakers outdoors in sunlight and shoot some pictures and attach them here.

--Tom Tyson

[johnieo]

... am stumped about the finish.

... you will notice the wood has a deep orange tint.

oldguide: Two comments (assuming your cabinets are walnut)--

- AR often used linseed oil as a final coat over the oil finish. Linseed oil turns dark orange with age.

- Walnut is not a unique color. The color varies with the growth rings. See for example the unfinished but sanded to 120 grit surface in the attached jpg. The color varies from sapwood in upper right corner to various shades of brown and red-brown within the trunk. Beams from this same tree are dark brown and dark red-brown. Many of the AR-3 and -3a picture frame moldings were sapwood stained with dark walnut. As others have noted, walnut is one of the woods that bleaches ligher from long-term uv exposure.

There is no one uniform color throughout a walnut tree; color depends on many factors. Matching old to new is not trivial. Good luck.

Cheers,

[oldguide]

I finally achieved a match--or close to it. The closest stain I could find for Rockler's veneer was Varathane light walnut applied after sanding a just a light bit of wood bleach. When used with a wax finish, it some pretty close. You have to be careful about applying the stain and wipe it while still moist so it does not darken to wood too much.