John wanted a pair of Ellis 1801's. Since he figured they would be with him for a long time, he wanted something really special.
He selected mappa burl for a fine furniture look. He also wanted them hand-rubbed to a high gloss.
As anyone who has worked with this wood knows, the dark spots are knots in the veneer and many of them are simply holes. So I knew it would be work filling them all in. It turned out to be far more work than I even imagined. We started with a dark filler and then did three sessions of sealer (normally only one is required). Even then, the deep pits were not completely filled and this would obviously be required if we were to do a high-gloss, hand-rubbed finish.
So we had to employ and old trick - CA glue (also known as superglue). We filled each knot (scores of them on each panel) and sanded the surface flat. Since CA glue can bubble a little and leave white marks, we had to come back and hand color each of the knots to conceal the white marks.
It all worked out great, although the amount of labor that went into them far exceeded what should have been allocated on a speaker at this price. But it was the right thing to do, so we did it.
You can't really see the high-gloss finish very well in these photos. So they really don't adequately convey the beauty of the finished product. But you can get an idea of what they might look like in person.
Here they are...
And a close-up...
Happy listening Jon!
- Jim
