Thread: Miva Mahogany

Its cousin, D. fraserianum or "scented rosewood" is one of the nicest cabinet timbers I've worked with. It would seem that apart from being a little less dense, the woods are not easy to tell apart. If your sample is from around Yungaburra, it could be D. setosum (also known as Miva mahogany), but could equally be D. mollissimum since it occurs there too. D. setosum has an odd, disjunct range (Atherton tableland & Eungella). How you'd tell any of them apart based on the descriptions I've read beats me. Lake implies without explicitly saying it, that they both of the 'mivas' have an 'onion' odour. The woods look so similar I'd take no bets on any of it!

Do you know if either of the 'mivas' have any problems when it comes to finishes? D. fraserianum has a bad reputation of 'bleeding through' or downright rejection of some finishes. An old cabinetmaker told me a story of a scented rosewood dining set, large table, many chairs plus sideboard, that he'd made on commission in the early 50s. It was specified that it be french-polished. Within a month of delivery, he was called back to be shown the finish peeling off all over the pieces. So he took it back to the workshop & re-finished it - same result! Nearly sent him broke, he said, & he never touched the stuff again.

A bit of an over-reaction, perhaps, because it is such a nice wood to work with, & the couple of pieces I've made with D. fraserianum finished very nicely indeed with Danish oil followed by a good rubdown with wax & 0000 steel wool (a lot less work than fp too!). This is not a great pic, I'm afraid (taken in the early digital age), but the oil finish on the base of this little occasional table looks fine after 20-something years of regular use. occ table2.jpg

I had to touch up one of the gum-leaf carvings on one knee about 10 years ago when a new dog decided to have a thoughtful chew or two, & I did apply a couple of light coats of wipe-on poly to the top a 2-3 years ago because I got tired of water-marks from cups & glasses. That has cured the marking problem and so far, the poly has shown no sign of rejection...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

Its cousin, D. fraserianum or "scented rosewood" is one of the nicest cabinet timbers I've worked with. It would seem that apart from being a little less dense, the woods are not easy to tell apart. If your sample is from around Yungaburra, it could be D. setosum (also known as Miva mahogany), but could equally be D. mollissimum since it occurs there too. D. setosum has an odd, disjunct range (Atherton tableland & Eungella). How you'd tell any of them apart based on the descriptions I've read beats me. Lake implies without explicitly saying it, that they both of the 'mivas' have an 'onion' odour. The woods look so similar I'd take no bets on any of it!

Do you know if either of the 'mivas' have any problems when it comes to finishes? D. fraserianum has a bad reputation of 'bleeding through' or downright rejection of some finishes. An old cabinetmaker told me a story of a scented rosewood dining set, large table, many chairs plus sideboard, that he'd made on commission in the early 50s. It was specified that it be french-polished. Within a month of delivery, he was called back to be shown the finish peeling off all over the pieces. So he took it back to the workshop & re-finished it - same result! Nearly sent him broke, he said, & he never touched the stuff again.

A bit of an over-reaction, perhaps, because it is such a nice wood to work with, & the couple of pieces I've made with D. fraserianum finished very nicely indeed with Danish oil followed by a good rubdown with wax & 0000 steel wool (a lot less work than fp too!). This is not a great pic, I'm afraid (taken in the early digital age), but the oil finish on the base of this little occasional table looks fine after 20-something years of regular use. occ table2.jpg

I had to touch up one of the gum-leaf carvings on one knee about 10 years ago when a new dog decided to have a thoughtful chew or two, & I did apply a couple of light coats of wipe-on poly to the top a 2-3 years ago because I got tired of water-marks from cups & glasses. That has cured the marking problem and so far, the poly has shown no sign of rejection...

Cheers,

Yes Scented Rosewood is notorious for 'bleeding'
Also often has an irregular bole making for poor recovery of sawn timber
Really pretty wood though
D setosum is a real possibility Ian
This species occurs at sea level to 750m above
Yungaburra sits at around 710 m
Tree was growing in a paddock next to the 'Curtain Fig' scrub just outside of Yungaburra
Absolutely delightful area with Red Cedar growing in abundance and a good population of Tree Kangaroos
So glad you mentioned this species as I hadn't heard of it before
I have read that it does prefer drier or a more seasonal rainforest too
Again thank you for your response IanW
Very informative
Mr Fiddleback