Santa came late this year, with a HMV 163

[nostalgia]

Marco, yes I found this under some cabbages:;)
Actually, I drove to Sweden, 700 km in total to get it. It was auctioned, and no one really seem to want it, so well..even if the driving was long, and diesel expensive, I
took pity on it.
Thanks for the advice on the veneer, since I have some veneer from an old Victrola, with the same texture, I will, maybe, try some transplantational surgery on the lid.

[Marco Gilardetti]

That was very well done! Whichever the price, which seemed particularly cheap judging by your words, these machines are *awesome* and are worth much more that what is usually asked for them.

Back to the veneer thing, of course you have to accurately trim the "old part", and at the same time accurately cut the new part so that the direction and angle of the veneer is matched. If well made, the repair is virtually invisible in most cases.

When I've had this type of repair made by professional cabinetmakers, I've seen that they tend to retouch the whole area with plaster and carefully matched wood colour. They can imitate the veneer over the plaster, it's amazing how good they are in mixing colours and getting the perfect hue. That's definitely beyond my current abilities, so I usually just stick to veneer and plain shellac.

As a side note, I still have to upload a picture or two of the handle that I rehauled, taking inspiration from the pictures of yours.

[HMVDevotee]

Marco, yes I found this under some cabbages:;)
Actually, I drove to Sweden, 700 km in total to get it. It was auctioned, and no one really seem to want it, so well..even if the driving was long, and diesel expensive, I
took pity on it.
Thanks for the advice on the veneer, since I have some veneer from an old Victrola, with the same texture, I will, maybe, try some transplantational surgery on the lid.

Nostalgia!

As a fan of the HMV reentrants, I am always delighted to learn of another being resurrected and given new use. I tried splicing some oak veneer into a tabletop once and had a duced of a time matching the color. A woodworking friend of mine identified the problem; I should have used a dye to penetrate the wood and darken the grain. After I got the grain color right and let it dry for some time, I was able to touch-up the surface color with a stain. I was then given the advice (after the fact) to do all of the dying and staining before I cut the piece to fit... finishing a number of sections of the veneer to get the best match. You might know all of this, but it was a lesson learned for me. Good luck with it. Robert

[nostalgia]

Marco and Robert, thanks for very valuable input on the restoration process of the lid of this HMV 163.

Robert, I very much appreciated your detailed input here, since this is exactly the thing youmention that is most important to succeed in this kind of work. I need try to understand the difference between dye and stain though. When looking it up online, I am not really able to understand the difference as a non English native speaker. I am sharing this youtube video, that is showing an excellent repair of a veneer lid, but unfortinately..the name of the products used are not shared in the video, and that is frustrating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPO2ChfxJmU

There are truckloads of different stain/dye products available online, and i have imported some from the UK in the past, but until now, not with any luck finding products that are good to use for this work.

[HMVDevotee]

Nostalgia,

My woodworking friend who frequently uses dyes is out of town for a couple of weeks. When he returns, I will learn his recommendations for brands/types of dyes he uses for different woods and will relay the information.

I do recall his remark that dyes penetrate wood and stains stay on the surface. The molecularity of each is like comparing bird shot to marbles. More later. R.

[nostalgia]

Much appreciated, Robert. I am sure many can benefit from such recommendations.

[Hoodoo]

I have had good results using dye I purchased at Tandy Leather, though any leather crafting store should have it. It is alcohol-based and so works well with a shellac finish. They have many colours and many shades of those colours, more than what is available in wood stain.
I try to get as close to a colour match by staining/dyeing the wood, but to get the final colour, I will add a drop or two of dye to my applicator when I am applying the shellac by the French polishing method.
You don’t want to add too much to the shellac coat though, as each coat will add a bit more opacity to the finish.

[nostalgia]

Hi Hoodoo, thanks for your input. Brand names, if any are highly appreciated. I keep looking at youtube videos etc, but brand names are rarely mentioned. Living in Scandinavia the brands are different and often very limited compared to what is easy to find in the UK. Leather crafting stores are also hard to find here. We are only around 5 million people in Norway, and niche products more often have to be ordered online from continental Europe where shipping and Norwegian VAT are added.