Oil/wax for speaker veneer

Then oil would be fine. You don’t easily achieve the same soft, lustrous finish you can get with wax, but they can still look good and they are very easy to apply.
You may still find that the old wax needs to be removed first.

If they have been waxed from new then speak to Liberon. I’d guess they will advise cleaning and rewaxing rather than stripping and changing to an oil based finish. Btw way Danish oil is usually formulated as pure tung oil with a thinning agent plus extenders or finishers.

It’s like treating leather. Read about it (including above posts) and you get lots of wrong suggestions and myths.

A couple of rules are you don’t mix oil and waxes finishes and don’t use silicone sprays or those awful pledge type products.

As someone pointed out, just about everything in hifi made from wood is poly coated and adding anything will usually cause problems. If you have an eye for detail, be very careful what you do.

What’s the advice for veneers on Naim speakers like SBL and SL2?

Lemon oil also works really well with teak, I use it on my mid century teak desk & shelves. No residue, totally natural / non toxic, and it smells great :wink:

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My teak Rogers LS3/5a speakers from ca 1980 had a polyurethane clearcoat.

Evaluating different oils/wax. Left is 2 layers of Pure linseed oil. Right is one layer of Tannoy wax which is sent along with the speaker from new. Very different appearance.

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Is that off-cut the same wood and finishing treatment as your speakers?
Best leave a week or more before you try to evaluate.

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It’s not but it’s walnut veneer. The right wax is what is sent along with my speakers and what I have treated them with from new. Will apply linseed oil on top of Liberon next to see how it looks. I believe linseed oil at least looks better.

You might get away with it, but you shouldn’t really put oil on top of wax. Ideally you should remove the wax first.

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Yes would need this if so. Liberon claim one shall use it between waxing too :man_shrugging:(liberon make Tannoy wax)

Yes, that’s the stuff. I would only use it between coats of wax if the surface was dirty, or if multiple coats had built up into a thick layer. Between coats of oil, definitely not!

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What’s the best advice for veneers on Naim speakers like SBL and SL2?

I guess that would depend on what you are trying to achieve. Naim speakers I’ve seen are coated in what I’m fairly sure is a lacquer which would have been sprayed on. (Or possibly a polyurethane varnish.) So you wouldn’t put oil on top of that, as it wouldn’t be absorbed into the wood unless all the lacquer was first stripped off.

If you want to give the wood a waxed finish you can do this on top of any existing finish if that sort of soft shine appeals.

If you need to repair a damaged surface it gets a bit more tricky. You cannot do patch repairs to varnish as the newly finished areas will look different to their surroundings, although with care this is sometimes possible with a lacquer finish. I think you best starting point would be to contact Naim support and see if they can find someone who remembers what finishes were used. I think @Richard.Dane would have been working at Naim when they still made speakers, so he might know?

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The cabinets were mostly made by Hornslet. I’m afraid I don’t exactly know what they used for the final finish .

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+1 for lemon oil. Worked a Treat on my NBL’s for many years. As recommended and used by my Naim dealer when I bought the NBL’s. (Derek Whittington)

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well the light is different left to right so difficult to tell, out of interest what is wrong with existing finish / Tannoy recommended wax?

It leaves more of a top surface rather than going into the wood. It’s good but I’m looking into if it can be better. I’ve seen some coating new Tannoy Arden speakers with boiled linseed oil and they look magic compared to when treated with Tannoy way.

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Wax is designed to sit on top of a surface, bare wood will absorb some. Painted or lacquered surfaces will just let it sit and take a shine.
Oil is designed to soak in to the surface. It can be left mat or can take a shine.
Oil is not suitable for putting on a waxed or lacquered surface. The previous coating needs to be removed before applying oil.

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You can apply as many coats of oil as you like. It’s intended to penetrate the surface, but as you add more coats it will look more glossy. If you keep going you can get to the stage where it looks almost like gloss varnish. If that’s not what you want, just stop once you have reached the look you are happy with. 2 or 3 coats may be enough.

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