Rosewood Klipschorns

Early Restoration Note

This is an early restoration. For more up to date veneering info, please reference the “M” Khorn webpage.

From Birch to Rosewood

These originally came in birch veneer, unfinished from the factory. Someone put a very ugly greenish brown stain and a quick coat of polyurethane on them. The top of one had damage from a potted plant. They had a few dings here and there, but nothing too serious. All in all a very nice old set, but in need of some care.

I love refinishing speakers, and re-veneering is my favorite. For this project I chose a beautiful rosewood veneer. Rosewood has very nice grain patterns and a deep red/brown/black color that is very distinctive. Definitely exotic.

Klipsch used to offer rosewood as an option, it was quite expensive but very beautiful. So I’m proud to be upgrading this set to a very rare status.

Planning the Rosewood Veneer

Careful planning for cutting the expensive veneer.

Rosewood veneer in 4 x 8 sheets.

Disassembly shows the K-55-V midrange drivers with soldered connections and the K-400 metal horn.

Veneering and Cabinet Repairs

Putting the first piece of veneer on one of the tops of the top horn sections.

Before re-veneering, I always check out every square inch of the surface to make sure there are no problems. I found a loose spot in the veneer on the front of one of the Khorns, and some digging turned up this huge void in the plywood. I’ll be filling this with resin and sanding it smooth.

Here’s another repair to a loose veneer edge. There are often a lot of little chips, loose pieces of veneer or scratches that need repair.

Watco Danish Teak Oil Finish

I used Watco Danish Teak oil as a finish. This is just one coat in this picture. This stuff works great. I’ll be adding a couple more coats to add sheen to the finish.

Here they are with the tops assembled.

There’s at least 4 coats of oil on them at this stage.

Drivers, Trim, and Logos

These have the Alnico drivers and type AA crossover.

All I have left now is to put the trim on the bottom and the logos on the horn sections. I found some real nice rosewood to make the trim for the front-bottom of the bass bins.

I was missing a logo when I got these speakers, but a friend sent me a pair of replicas. I used a gold-leaf pen made by Krylon to put the gold color on. They came out o.k., but not as nice as the originals.

I had to get creative in glueing the front trim pieces on.

Finished Rosewood Klipschorns

Here are the finished speakers.