Calling Mahogany experts....

[Stewart Crick]

Bought some FSC certified mahogany today, and was milling a piece to do a sample finish board. It has these white specks throughout the board. Any ideas what this is, is it normal (i've never seen mahogany with white specks before), is it a sign of some disease?

Stu

[Ian Barley]

I'm not a mahogany expert but specks like that in Iroko are minerals (calcium??). When the growing tree gets an excess it secretes it as pockets in the timber, effectively growing stones in the middle of the wood. Don't know if mahogany has the same habit but it seems possible. Nothing to worry about but you might want to experiment with finsih before you build to ensure that your chosen regime deals with the specks.

[Terry Quiram]

Stewart

I have a lot of salvaged foundry tooling that is made of Mahogany and a lot of it has the same white in the pores. Sorry, I don't know what it is.

Terry

[Bob Smalser]

It's....salt.

Minerals in the sap just like Ian said.

Some woods dull sawmill blades faster than others...cedar, for example, has a bit of silica in it around here, and although much softer than other local woods, requires twice as much blade sharpening....and some logs are worse than others in the same species.

Different minerals make for color variations in the same species, too, which is neat.

All part of the fun....I suspect they'll disappear by the time the finish goes on...just make sure you raise the grain with a damp towel between each grit.

[Carole Valentine]

Don't know if this is the case with your wood, but some of the mahogany's and other tropical wood have a fairly high silica content, depending on where they are grown.

[Roger Kirkpatrick]

I have seen this often in African mahogany, don't remmember seeing it in Honduras mahogany.

[Stewart Crick]

Thanks for all the feedback guys...and gals! An update, after one coat of Waterlox Original Marine Sealer I can't see the white specks. I'll post another picture once I'm done finishing.

Stu

[Stewart Crick]

As Bob suggested, they went away with finishing....