The only piece that is veneer is the top.

I may indeed not understand the "norm" by which wood for radios was used -
I'm basing my opinion on furniture or other pieces of woodworking. In that
area, the idea is to use matching wood grain, and a finish that brings out
the grain. In this case, not only do I have to darken various pieces of
wood, I have to hide the grain. You'll notice the different grain patterns,
not just different colored wood.

Not a big deal and I'm sure it will come out fine, based on the standards
for radio finishes. But I had hoped to raise those standards a bit and
really show off some nice woodworking in the finished product. Not
possible, apparently.


"HagstAr" wrote in message
...

I think you have a very odd idea about "wildly varying grain and species"
regarding a typical old radio. I've been imagining from the stories on the
other group this would be a bizarre mix of woods. All I see here is an
absolutely typical set from the WW2 era or before- walnut veneer on the
body with whitewood trim. Almost EVERY radio is like this- yours has no
more "wildly varying and mismatched" wood than *any* typical set.

Almost NO ONE matched up the grain and or the species of wood all around
the set except a very few high end (and usually early) sets. Most makers
made wood radios just like yours, I could use it as a textbook example.
The trim just needs to be masked off and given coats of toner until it
matches and then add a couple over the whole thing to match it all in.

John H.