Restoring Wood Finish on Speakers

Pledge, English Oil, French Oil, Coron, etc. are common oil for wood you can find in DIY shops and supermarket. Before you decide which oil to choose, you ought to check the quality of veneer of your vintage speakers. THIS IS FOR REAL WOOD VENEER ONLY, and not those silk-screened laminates of thin plastic skin, which cannot be re-fnished!

Secondly, you ought to know if you like to maintain the natural tone of the wood veneer. This would have effect in deciding the type of oil used; natural clear oil should be used if you want to keep the natural wood tones of the veneer. Teak oil tends to give you slightly darker colour after drying.

Thirdly, you cannot apply the aforesaid oil directly onto the veneer of your speakers because speakers always come with lacquer which would not allow oil to seep and absorb into the wood grain. If you try to apply oil over it directly, you will have blistering effect, and excessive level would cause tearing effects.

Fourthly, sand paper type used is important, you ought to choose aluminium oxide for initial medium grit and finish with fine garnet paper in above 360 grit. The way how you sand down the veneer is utterly critical, always along the grain and never criss-crossing it. AVOID excessive strength in sanding at all times, as if the grain of the veneer is damaged as a result, you are doomed.

Application of oil should always use a lean free paper/cloth and NEVER over soak it with excessive oil. Ensure you have it lightly moist level and gently rub it on along the grain for best and professional job.

Leave the layers sufficient drying time before second layer is applied. Common recommendation is 6 hrs which is grossly insufficient for tropical country like Malaysia IMO. You need more than 24hrs for best result. Right after 1st layer, all subsequent layers should be applied only once and avoid more than 3x as it would rub-out the earlier layer causing it to have uneven oil distribution.

Personally, I never like lacquer finish as it kills the 'feel' of the grain effect on wood. In order to avoid using lacquer for outer protective layer, you should apply the outer layer a week later.

Jo Ki

I use Coron (superfine grade) because I like the way how this oil dried and left with a layer of lightly hardened outer skin without loosing the feel on the grain. Coron oil looks rather similar to other oil superficially, but only upon application, you would notice the difference.

I must mention here that Coron, being slightly thicker oil, tends to darken the wood but only slightly. I don't mind this because the colour actually makes the wood looks richer! It leaves a very pale golden hue when dried.

You should know that my LS3/5A comes with many types of wood veneer, and I use only the same can of Coron for different pairs of my LS3/5A that needing to be restored. I have done more than 15 pairs, and it becomes easy after a while.

Let me give you a good tips, after 3rd layer, you should leave it in an airy room for a week for it to completely dry up! And you should use a garnet paper in 360 grit, mount them around a sponge, and lightly rub it down; this is to removing those uneven residue from oiling. Because the oil are hardened, the residue from light sanding leaves behind white powder in the process. Control of pressure evenly throughout, especially around the edges and corner are essential to achieve a good 90 degree corners with sharp edges. You should never over sand this, so when you rub your hand over it and feel smooth and flat, it is enough to completely dust off cleanly before the next layer of oiling process. From hereon, the layer of oil should be lighter than earlier.

The best lean free cloth you can find tends to be too rough and hard to control the level of oil retention; I find a good kitchen tower folded into 1" x 2" rectangular shape being the best.

Jo Ki