Good fix-- Have you scratched the wood on your Cornwall IVs?

In the spring, I noticed that I had somehow lightly scratched the lovely walnut wood on one of my Cornwall IVs.  I was incredulous as I baby these things and excellent take care of my stuff.  Then, this summer, I noticed a few other scratches on the other speaker.  UGH!!!

When examining the wood, it looks like the finish is very minimal in application. The grain is pretty high up and open.  To figure out what was going on I had to do a test scratch with something soft to see what it is I'm dealing with.  Wouldn't you know it?  I could scratch the finish with a fingernail or a record cleaner handle, and so on.  Yikes.  These things are way sensitive. 

So, I tried a product line that I've used before and got very lucky that it worked perfectly.  I used Howard's Restore a Finish in Dark Walnut (my CWIVs are just Walnut and do not appear dark), and after it was dry (they recommend only 30 minutes; I waited an hour) I applied Howard's Feed & Wax. 

Both of these products go on easily with no staining, no brushes, etc.  I took a bit of a gamble in trying them, as you really never know with wood until you experiment.  I didn't even have to use 0000 very fine steel wool when applying the restorer, as recommended for scratches by the manufacturer.  

This was an easy job.  Total time was 20 minutes for the restorer and a good 10 minutes for the Feed & Wax.  The finish looks no different than brand new in tone, all scratches are completely gone, and the finish has a bit more protection now.  

I've seen folks on the Klipsch forums talking about putting poly urethane on them, which would not be a bad idea yet I didn't want to commit to changing the finish right now.

At any rate, if you have this wonderful speaker this process should work wonders for you as it did me.