High Gloss Wood Finish - High-End or Low Class?


Looking at my leftover components and the furniture in my bedroom, I got the brainstorm to put together a 2d system that would be very retro 40sish. The speakers would be DIY, finished to match the 1940s waterfall Art Decofurniture. I would dress up the electronics to match. I got a tube integrated, and a couple dressers and a bed dirt cheap. The finish on the bed was destroyed, so I stripped it, stained, filled, varnished, wetsanded (several times) and polished to a very high gloss. It has a dipped in glass look I've only seen on expensive guitars, and maybe pianos. The ribbon stripe mahogany and other woods have a spectacular tiger-eye effect. My concern is that I don't recall ever seeing furniture or speakers with this type of finish. While I think it looks kind of cool, I have a funny feeling that sophisticated people with good taste may think it too glitzy or tacky, or perhaps "wonderful" (which, as far as I can tell, is rich-lady speak for "That's really messed up, but I admire your chutzpah for flaunting it"). I was hoping to put something together with huge WAF (in case I ever get a wife). What do people think? Should I keep putting together my system / furniture with the same finish? Or if there are any woodworkers out there, what did I do wrong? Does anyone remember what this furniture looked like when it was new 60 years ago?
honest1

Showing 2 responses by tobias

I can't see how a finish would "seal in" vibrations.

If I understand, I would guess that, in a sense, "sealing in" is what you want in most box speaker designs--that is, you don't really want the box itself to vibrate at all.

I can see that any finish would help damp panel vibrations ever so slightly, for the same reason that different-density materials bonded together have better damping properties than a single uniform material. But the effect would be minimal.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't think vibration or resonance control has much to do with choice of exterior finish.