Comments on: Mahogany Mixups: the Lowdown

By: R T

R T — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 23:04:47 +0000

In reply to Jeff Carver. Those boards pictured appear to be ipe wood.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 19:59:47 +0000

In reply to Leon.

The link has been changed from gaskell to lefthanded, but the heading is still Gaskell Guitars.
There is a lot of information there, so the site is worth a look.
There are 3 pages.
https://www.lefthandguitars.net/what-is-mahogany
https://www.lefthandguitars.net/what-is-mahogany-part-2
https://www.lefthandguitars.net/what-is-mahogany-part-3

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 02:11:57 +0000

I am having my house painted and therefore my front door restained . I believe it’s the original stain from 2001, when the house was built. The builder recently told me my door was sapele mahogany. I was lucky to have a nearby woodworker give me a sample of sapele. After sanding my door and trim in a few areas, I suspect it is not sapele and the door and frame are the same but different then the trim wood. Can anyone help me identify these two types of wood and how to stain it so it looks the same when done? Green 1= sapele sample; blue 2= door and frame sanded (look to be the same wood) red 3= trim and much lighter and taking stains differently than #2. Please help. TIA

By: Lee chastain

Lee chastain — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 15:57:40 +0000

What is “lite” mahogany listed on various exterior doors?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:37:05 +0000

In reply to Bryan Chitwood, guitar nerd/wood nerd. Yeah, Epiphone, Squire, and Ibanez for sure. The sales reps for these companies are very clear on tonal training. The wood looks great. It is extremely lifeless and dead in its musical integrity (despite what Google says). It is very cheap to source. You can tap the wood with your finger. Its easier to tap next to a premium wood- to understand the difference. My Gibson SG is by far more resonant and full sounding than Epiphone SG. I'm sure you've come across scenarios like this. I have a Meranti Ibanez S series I love to pick up a lot. It doesn't sound as good with recording though, haha. I think all the Meranti guitars look totally beautiful at least.

By: bev

bev — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:52:08 +0000

HI, would anyone know if this is mahogany ribbon stripe or sapele?

By: Brooklyn11219

Brooklyn11219 — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 16:00:07 +0000

What type of mahogany May this be

By: Edd

Edd — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 22:18:05 +0000

Hi Eric. I have a house built in the 70’s in Nova Scotia. It seems to have some kind of hardwood trim throughout. It’s very basic, slightly bevelled, flat-stock trim. I was told today it maybe a type of mahogany. Would you have any idea which type? Cheers.

By: Cynthia Dades

Cynthia Dades — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 23:28:08 +0000

Hi, our house here in Central Florida was built in the late 50’s. The fireplace mantle and bookcases are original. I’m trying to decide whether to paint or refinish. Someone told me they thought it was white mahogany. Wondered what your thoughts were on the type of wood and preferred finish?

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 21:35:20 +0000

Hey, don’t worry about posting this. I just wanted to say. When I first started I thought distinguishing the different mahoganies was going to be impossible. I used this article every time I wanted to try. Sapele seemed especially hard. The thing is though, that in practice, the two things that set Sapele apart are the smell and the fact that Sapele is pretty much smooth and closed grained. Mahogany has these big wide open pores. So as soon as you see a nice smooth board with no pores that smells like cedar its a dead give away. But the smell and the pores aren’t mentioned in your article. Those two things would have really helped me when I started.

Also, the weight and hardness is another thing that helps but isn’t mentioned. If you compare Sapele and Sugar Maple they have almost identical stats! I realize finding time is hard. But if you ever do, those things would really help.

By: Angela

Angela — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 08:40:06 +0000

Thanks for this articule. I just recently bought an Indonesian mahogany bookcase and interested in painting it (it has a light white wash paint already). Any special tips required for this lighter mahogany type?

By: Ian Openshaw

Ian Openshaw — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:05:48 +0000

Greetings Eric,
Simply wanted to say thank you for some of the best wood writing I have found on the web or in those weird oblong things some people remember as books.
Cheers,
Ian.

By: Leon

Leon — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 23:57:53 +0000

Very good information. There are a few more Mahogany family species with timber uses that are used domestically in some countries. See here: https://www.gaskellguitars.com.au/what-is-mahogany-part2

By: john

john — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 10:29:30 +0000

In reply to Joe. the best pre sealer is shellac mixed 1 part shellac ( usually a 3lb. cut) to 6 or 7 part denatured Al, ( AKA a pisscoat) totally controls blotchyness and radical light -dark spots.

By: Amy Kennair

Amy Kennair — Wed, 31 May 2023 14:44:40 +0000

I am trying to identify a solid wood door I am refinishing. Any help would be great

By: David L Martin

David L Martin — Mon, 01 May 2023 08:13:30 +0000

I live in Vero Beach, Florida, where one of the local attractions is a 35 foot long 4" inch thick banquet table that's a single slab of wood. According to a story from the loal newspaper, "It entered the United States from the Philippines for display at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. At the close of the fair, the table was purchased by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where it was displayed for 30 years as California redwood, said Connie Cotherman, marketing and events manager at McKee." Even if Cuban mahogany seeds had crossed the Pacific on the first Manila Galleon, I don't think a Swietenia could have grown so enormously large. Regrettably, I don't imagine a sample will ever be taken for wood anatomy examination. I'm guessing one of the Luans.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 03:36:55 +0000

In reply to Mark. Pre-sealing will help even color. Water base pre eaters are inferior. Varathane makes a good oil base one but wear a respirator...very high voc.

By: Dino

Dino — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:40:27 +0000

Hi all,

just found this great page?
Are there anyone here that could help me identify this mahogany ?

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 10:05:33 +0000

In reply to Robby.

Keep in mind, despite the name, that swamp mahogany is really just a species of Eucalyptus. One distinct characteristic of eucalypts is that of pores that are exclusively solitary. That is to say, many other woods may have a combination of single (solitary) pores, along with pore multiples of two or three pores paired together. When looking at the endgrain, think of solitary pores as the letter “O” while multiples might look a little bit like the number “8”. You’d probably have a better look at the endgrain than what I can see from your picture, but it does look like there are radial multiples on your sample, which to me, would rule out Eucalyptus. Again, this is based on a limited view from a single picture, so I may not be seeing the details clearly enough to distinguish radial multiples.

Unfortunately, pallet woods can be really tough to ID. Looks like a diffuse porous hardwood with interlocked grain, but nothing sticks out as a possible ID at the moment.

By: Robby

Robby — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 13:19:39 +0000

I’d like to make my submission to the “what wood is this?” series. I got a few of chunks of this from a pallet wood pile, so no idea where it came from beyond that.

The 1st picture is an oxidized face
The 2nd is other face surfaced a bit
The 3rd picture is different piece, book-matched and oiled/waxed for a drawer front
And 4th the endgrain is sanded up to 2000

My camera didn’t do a great job of catching just how pale orange the surfaced piece is, or the range of oranges to brown, but the chatoyancy is pretty evident. It is also quite a bit more dense and heavy than I would otherwise thought from most mahoganys. My best guess is swamp mahogany. According to https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.22843 pallets are a common use for swamp mahogany, so it would seem to fit.

Thanks for looking!