Mahogany - does quality depend on source location?

[Anh-Dao Vlachos]

Hi, hope I have the right forum.

I'm looking at buying a bedroom suite made of "mahogany". All I know at this stage is that the wood is probably sourced from Asia. Is the mahogany that DOESN'T come from Honduras, Africa, or Cuba, much poorer quality? I've read that these three produce the "best" mahogany and that some other woods marketed as "mahogany" aren't really the same thing. Should I not bother considering anything that doesn't originate in one of these three areas?

There are a lot of stores that seem to sell mahogany and teak "village-produced" rustic furniture. Are they all in a completely different class to "genuine" mahogany?

All advice much appreciated as I don't want to fork out heaps of money for this if it's not going to last and wear well!

Thanks in advance,
Anh-Dao

[Shane Watson]

One thing to be careful of with this style of furniture is that it was most likly made with wet or only partially dry timber. I have seen many pieces ruined after being installed in someones home and the timber has had time to aclimatise. I ain't saying it will happen, just somthing to keep in mind. Obviously some people like the big cracks that open up as it kinda adds to that rustic look. But then others don't expect it to happen and get mighty mad when it does...
Cheers!

[Anh-Dao Vlachos]

Lords above! Talk about a prompt response Shane! Many thanks. You (like myself) must be an email night-owl.

No I don't want cracks. I can only take so much "rusticity". And I certainly don't want the bed falling apart! I suppose there is no test you can do in-store to check for this? The mob seem decent and sincere but I suppose they all do!

Actually, my ideal bedroom suite would be made of jarrah - but I don't earn the kind of money to be able to buy one of those, and we certainly don't have the skills to make it ourselves. *sigh*

Do you have any thoughts on whether it matters where the mahogany comes from, as well as how dry it is? (or isn't?)

One thing I will definitely check is that it isn't "Phillipine mahogany" or lauan, which isn't the same species at all from what I can tell. Just as Malaysian oak is actually rubberwood...

Anyway for anyone who is interested, they are wanting $2750 for QS bed, two bedside tables, 6-dwr chest, and 7-dwr (I think) lingerie chest.

Cheers,
Anh-Dao

[ubeaut]

Mahogany is mahogany weather it is from old growth rainforest or the plantation grown swetinia mahogany from the Philappines. The major differance is the width of the boards. Plantation grown doesn't come in much wider than 6" whereas I have had rainforest Honduras and African mahogany up to 32" wide. The plantation grown stuff is also inclined to have a lot of little knots due to the fact that it is only minute in size compared to the old growth stuff.

The plantation timber does tend to warp very easily in the board. However, if it is in the furniture and there is no apparant distortion of shape then I would suspect that it will remain that way and should be fine.

A lot of what is called mahogany, is actually rubber tree, masquerading as mahogany. Most bedroom suites called mahogany are only pine, even though the sales person will tell you otherwise.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers - Neil http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

[Robert WA]

I inherited a very old mahogany dining table from my mothers family, probably 150 years old now and came to SA from Europe originally. I saw, and bought 6 dining chair frames 4 years ago. They were newly imported from India, made of "mahogany" and the front legs were an exact match for the table legs. I oiled them with a light oil every day for a month before getting them upholstered. While the workmanship and jointing are not as good as the table, the chairs look great and have shown no sign of splitting or twisting.
Robert

[Anh-Dao Vlachos]

I just contacted the store and got a bit more info. The mahogany comes from Central Java (Indonesia), from plantations where the trees are between 20-40 years old. The guy said the best mahogany comes from Kalimantan (also Indonesia) but that it basically all goes to Europe anyway.

All the wood they now source is kiln-dried (so the only way I could go wrong there is if they don't do this properly). I don't know what % moisture they set the kiln to. What is acceptable for mahogany in Oz - 8%? 15%?

There are a couple of older items that were not kiln-dried, but none of the bedroom furniture is in this category (apparently). But if cracks do appear, I suppose you could use a filler and try to match the stain? (not ideal but better than cracks in my view!) What they did say, though, is that if it cracks they will fix it or replace it. They also said it would be obvious in a few months if this were to happen. Does the forum agree?

I didn't see any obvious warping, but then I didn't have a spirit level with me either! No way of fixing this easily either I suppose?

Neil is "rubber tree" the same thing as rubberwood? I know they definitely aren't using that - it has a fairly distinctive "feel" about it.

Also one last one - that U-Beaut Traditional Wax stuff, or similar, would that be the goer for helping seal this oiled wax finish so it doesn't rub off?

Sorry that my questions are more end-user focussed than craftsman (actually craftswoman) - but at the end of the day I'm interested in the same thing everybody else on this forum is interested in (I hope): quality!

Cheers again everyone,
Anh-Dao

[Dion]

African Mahogany seems to be everywhere in Darwin. Problem is, the root system is fairly shallow, so it's not too flash come cyclone season. End result? Loads of mahogany slabs for sale. I have used a kiln dried 25 x 700 x 1250mm slab to construct a coffee table and finished with linseed oil. The slab included natural edges and some cracks. No evidence of the cracks enlarging to date (over a year).

I have also picked up a few bits of tree trunks from the local chainsaw merchant. These were offcuts from his slab mill and not kiln-dried. They were well seasoned (very weathered!) but milled up well on the circular saw. No major cracking thus far. Colour varies from honey yellows in the sapwood through to pinks and even deep reds in the heartwood. I find it a very attractive timber (probably due to its cheapness and availability!) that's fairly easy to work. http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif

[Anh-Dao Vlachos]

YAY!!!
In one of my earlier posts, I said:
"Actually, my ideal bedroom suite would be made of jarrah - but I don't earn the kind of money to be able to buy one of those, and we certainly don't have the skills to make it ourselves."

Guess what? All that running around has paid off. Even though I'm not making it myself, I have found a lovely 4-piece jarrah bedroom suite for just under $3500. Delivery next week!! I can hardly wait!

It's a clearance from one of the bigger furniture chains "because nobody wants to buy jarrah"!! (I can't figure this out - it's such a beautiful wood and I would have thought there's plenty of us out here who can't make stuff out of it to save our lives, but who'd love to buy it). And because I've visited probably half the furniture shops in Melbourne http://ubb.ubeaut.com.au/ubb/smile.gif I know this is a good retail price for four pieces!

It is finished with a sprayed timber lacquer so no rubbing off of colour. And it's Aussie wood so no chance of cracking/warping (or at least, much less chance than Indonesian mahogany...)The bits that are not jarrah are the drawer bottoms, the backs on the bedsides and dresser, and the slats on the bed (these are all pine, though funnily enough one of the bedsides is different and does actually have jarrah in the bottom of the drawers).

And the bed is GREAT, I normally don't like Federation-style but when the posts are fine and closely spaced like on this one, the whole thing takes on a much better look in my eyes. And talk about solid, we couldn't move the thing no matter how much we pushed...

Thanks to youse all for the replies and advice, it certainly did help, and I'm feeling much more comfortable in my mind about this suite than the mahogany one. Sorry to be a bit off-topic with "finished goods" rather than woodmaking.

PS not that this is a plug, but has anyone visited Heartwood in Eltham, Vic? I went there today and came out a True Believer. BEAUTIFUL stuff...and some timbers that nobody else in the business seems to use (eg needlewood, fiddle-back shining gum - it was love at first sight). My dining table is gonna hafta come from there!!

Cheers all and I'll stop bothering everyone now,
Anh-Dao