I recently completed assembly and glue up of a wooden surround for a vintage Marantz receiver I own. The piece is double dovetail construction made mostly of zebrawood with walnut trim. It was my first time working with zebrawood. I need to finish sand the piece yet, but I think it turned out alright. Here’s a picture:
Marantz Surround.jpg
It’s a little hard to see in the picture but the panels are laminated with walnut trim on the front and back edges as well (the edges at top and bottom of the picture). On the front edge (top of the picture), there is 1/2” zebrawood nose attached to the walnut lamination to finish off the opening where the receiver slides in.
Anyway, I am looking for recommendations on finishing this piece. I have been finishing some pieces lately with BLO and rattle can lacquer topcoat, but the BLO samples I made on the zebrawood scraps in this case diminish the contrast with the walnut. I am working right now on two other samples one with gloss and one with semi-gloss Arm-R-Seal applied directly to the raw wood. I have never used that product but it seems to be maintaining the contrast better. My goal for the finish is twofold. I’d like to (1) pop the zebrawood grain and (2) maintain/enhance the contrast between the zebrawood and walnut. I am looking for suggestions on products and techniques to do that. For what it’s worth, a piece of brown painted perforated steel slides into the groove in that U-shaped opening on top of the piece.
Also, if it matters, I do not use the amplifier section of the receiver. It operates only as a pre-amp, so there shouldn’t be too much of a heat issue to worry about when recommending finishes and I also don’t plan on finishing the interior.
I appreciate the help.