mahogany identification and pricing advice please

[hunggaur]

hi folks clearing out my wood store due to ill health and have found a lot of mahogany.

i know some of it is sepele but i also think a lot of it may be African

i know most of it has been season for a least 20 years

would it be possible some one could give me an idea of what i have and how much to ask for it

i have listed the sizes and put a link to the photos below

any advice would be welcomed

Plank No L W Thick
cm cm mm
A 84 15 20
B 230 15 20
C 250 15 20
D 195 15 35
E 195 15 20
F 195 15 20
G 345 15 30

H 245 20 25
I 246 21 30
J 220 19 70
K 192 12 18
L 186 7 30
M 220 10 10
N 340 10 25
O 180 30 30

P 307 9 70
Q 307 7 60

R 78 28 40
S 158 33 26
T 158 36 30
U 69 27 50
V 54 25 60
W 95 26 35
X 137 25 50
Y 120 27 55
Z 156 22 25

A1 95 15 50
B1 115 74 50
C1 68 15 80
D1 105 10 50
E1 140 10 65
F1 158 75 35
G1 70 13 50
H1 70 12 25
I1 97 40 35
J1 72 5 45

K1 106 13 35
L1 113 34 40
M1 138 25 50
N1 120 30 45
O1 130 15 50

P1 40 34 20
Q1 60 9 25
R1 51 31 16
S1 50 16 30
T1 76 36 25
V1 64 25 35
W1 60 9 25
X1 60 8 25



https://flic.kr/s/aHsm2qnewE

 

[custard]

Sorry to hear about your health problems, it can't be easy shutting up your workshop.

Identifying timber from a photo is little more than a guessing game, you sometimes get a better idea about what it is from the details of where it came from and when you acquired it, so are there any useful bits of background information that might help? My first thought on looking through it all was that it's a bit of a curate's egg, in my workshop at least most of those boards would go for jig making or the woodburner. However, you may have a couple of real gems, and if so that's where the majority of the value will be.

Take board "J" for example, as I say a photo doesn't tell you much, but it's a little over one cubic foot and it's possible it's Brazilian Mahogany. Now Brazilian Mahogany is no longer imported, however the key thing is that finding clean, salvaged boards of Brazilian over 50mm thick is really, really hard. That one board might yield the colour matched legs for a reasonably substantial piece of furniture, or it could be the perfect board for a top end yacht restoration, or the missing piece of the jigsaw for a heritage joinery job. In other words it's not impossible that "J" on its own might fetch over £200, but that everything else combined might fetch less. That's what I mean by a curate's egg.

If you know it's all African then fair enough, but if the jury's out then could you find someone locally who's reasonably knowledgeable about timber to help you identify any Brazilian or Honduran Mahogany? Because any wide, long, or thick, boards of those, provided they don't have nail holes or other problems, are worth at least five and possibly ten times per cubic foot what everything else is worth.

Good luck!

 

[hunggaur]

Ok what you have said makes perfect sense

The timber came from my friends farther who was a master carpenter. His said when he was alive the mahogany he had you could not get any more.

And he had, had it for many years. I have had it for at least 10 years and I know he had at least 20 before that.

Having done some more research on the properties of both I think planks

B C P Q

Are African as they have a shimmer when moved almost like they are 2 different colours from different angles

The rest of try timber in photo one came out of a 1960 house and they were used as stair hand rails when cleaned up the have a tight grain with no shimmer

The rest of the boards photograhped all came from my friends dad and all have a close tight grain With no shimmer or no bee winging In the grain. They are also all only what I can describe as much warmer in there colour

Would welcome your views. And comments

 

[RobinBHM]

I can remember back in the late 90's buying Brazilian mahogany -I wish now Id bought a load of it and kept it

Going back to the 80s and 90s Brazilian was quite cheap and was often made into windowboards -seems sacrilage nowadays.

The range of timber species available now is very small compared to back then.

Apologies for hijacking the thread! Im sorry to hear you are having to give up wokdworking, I hope your timber and any tools all go to good homes.

 

[hunggaur]

I can remember back in the late 90's buying Brazilian mahogany -I wish now Id bought a load of it and kept it

Going back to the 80s and 90s Brazilian was quite cheap and was often made into windowboards -seems sacrilage nowadays.

The range of timber species available now is very small compared to back then.

Apologies for hijacking the thread! Im sorry to hear you are having to give up wokdworking, I hope your timber and any tools all go to good homes.

no problems and this makes more sense as one of the bits has been milled into part of a sash window header by the looks of it

 

[custard]

If you PM me Hunggaur I can post you some small samples of genuine Brazilian Mahogany. You won't be able to make a definitive judgement based on this, but it might help you.

Incidentally, I've seen some ludicrous timber descriptions on Ebay, Rio Rosewood that looks more like Pau Ferro, Burmese Teak that's obviously Iroko, Claro Walnut that's almost certainly Ovangkol, etc, etc. So, if after taking this precaution, you decide to filter out your best boards and list them as Brazilian Mahogany, then you'll have already cleared Ebay's astonishingly low timber accuracy bar by a substantial margin!

 

[custard]

PM received, I'll drop 3mm thick slices of both quarter sawn and flat sawn Brazil Mahogany and Sapele in the post.

Sapele versus Brazilian Mahogany comes up all the time on this forum, so maybe some photos might help other people.

Here's an off-cut of Brazilian Mahogany where I've sliced off your quarter sawn sample and a flat sawn sample. All three of these pieces are from the same piece of wood. Look at how pale the freshly cut surfaces are compared to the older, oxidised surfaces. Don't rush to judge any timber species by the colour of the surface, if it's been finished it'll be even more varied, but even unfinished wood changes significantly after only a few months. On an antique look inside or underneath to find cleaner surfaces, in a timber yard pare back a tiny patch of the surface with a block plane or penknife, and look at the freshly exposed timber.

On the left are two samples of Brazilian Mahogany, on the right are two samples of Sapele. The two inside pieces are quarter sawn. A quarter sawn Sapele surface will generally have straighter and more uniform bands of roey or ribbon grain. Mahogany is also famous for ribbon grain, but it's generally a bit wilder and more random.

Flip these four samples end for end to look at the freshly sawn surfaces and this is what you see. Sapele is darker and has a more purple/cooler tone. If you sniff these surfaces you'll find Sapele has a very slightly spicy note, Mahogany doesn't.

Here's a sample of Brazilian Mahogany laid on top of a larger quarter sawn Sapele Board, these are both machine planed surfaces. If you stroked these boards with your finger you'd feel the difference, if you gently rubbed some cotton wool on the surface it would snag on the Sapele, but it would likely glide right across the Mahogany.

Here's a close up, Brazilian Mahogany on the left, Sapele on the right. If you look very, very closely in the darker streaks of the Sapele's ribbon grain you can just detect the micro tear out. It's not 1mm deep divots (but it will be if your hand planing technique isn't pretty accomplished!), however it is there and furthermore it's widely scattered across the surface.

Personally I'd know Mahogany from Sapele by the weight alone as soon as I picked up a decent sized board. But that only works once you've handled a fair amount of timber. If you're less familiar these are the clues that will help.

Good luck!