[Guest]

I am presently restoring a Zenith 5S127. Would anyone know what type of veneer was used for the sides. One of the side is half gone. Its a fairly white, uniform grain structure, similar to pine although thats too soft of a wood.

Regards,
Daniel

[Arran]

The top veneer was very likely walnut or possibly mahogany, some sets used maple or ash and coated over it with a tinted laquer. As for the structural wood it could be tulip poplar, alder, maple, or any number of species, as long as it was dimensionally stable they liked to use it in radio cabinets.
Best Regards
Arran

[Guest]

Thanks Arran, thats great info, I'll go at our local shop here and see if I can find some veneer in the types you mention.
Daniel

[Arran]

What I would do is see if you can find a picture of your set somewhere, I think that radioattic.com has a photo archive, as does antiqueradio.com, then you could find out for certain. When I meant top veneer I should have said the top layer, it's what would have been typically used on the sides of the cabinet, but it depends on the make and model of course. In addition to the walnuts (of which they often used French/European walnut not strictly black walnut) or the mahoganys they often used a species called Australian Walnut, it has almost a horizontal striped look. If there is some of the original veneer left take a look at the website of a outfit called " Albert Constantine's" to compare, they have photos posted to help identify each species.
Best Regards
Arran