Some of the best things in life can result from less-than-ideal circumstances.
A customer recently ordered a pair of WOW1's to match his furniture. He sent some pictures and it was to be an easy match - burled maple with an orange/brown dye.
About two weeks after we took the order, I noticed a pair of WOW1's in quilted maple getting ready to proceed to the finishing line. I didn't recall taking an order for that combination recently, so I asked the guys what that pair was. It turned out to be the pair that was supposed to be veneered in burled maple. Since they were already veneered and it was impractical to re-veneer them, I told them to go ahead and build a new pair with the correct veneer.
But since we had this pair, I told the guys to finish them in our double-dye process which involves spraying them completely in black dye and then sanding off the black. Where the wood is hard, the black sands off easily. Where it is soft, some of the black remains. Later, when you spray color, the contrast is much greater than if you had not sprayed the black initially. It is a really nice effect.
About a week and half later Robert, our sander, came to me and asked if the cabinet he was working on was right. It was burled maple, but it had a lot of grays and blacks in it. I asked him what it was. He said he had sprayed it black just like the other pair.
Well, realizing it would be impossible to sand all of the black out, I told them to go ahead a build a third pair...this time with the right veneer and no black (which they did). But as I looked at that particular pair, it seemed as if they might look pretty nice if finished. So I told them to go ahead and finish those anyway.
The results were some of the nicest looking speakers we have ever done. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I fell in love with that finish and immediately ordered another batch of maple burl to do a set of floor-standing speakers in that finish. I just have to decide which model to build.
Here are some pictures...
And a shot showing the side panel...
I like these so much, I haven't decided if I will sell them or keep them. If I do decide to sell them, they will be listed in the Available for Immediate Delivery board in the next week or so.
- Jim
