Wood Sources

[Gary Groves]

Hi! First Post.

I'm a novice woodworker, and I've been lurking for a couple weeks now and have read (or at least scanned) most of the threads. Great information.

My current project is to design my office. I'ts basically a 10' x 10' room. My desk will be 67" x 23" and I plan on putting floor to ceiling bookshelves on the opposite wall.

I'd like to do this in Mahogany, but am new to Charleston, SC so I haven't found any good sources for wood. When I lived in South Bend, IN we had a great source www.theworkbench.com (http://www.theworkbench.com/). I know they'll ship here, but, I kinda want to be able to pick it out. Does anyone know of a source in SC?

Plus, I've been noticing multiple varieties of Mahogany. If I end up using Mahogany plywood, will every solid Mohagany hardwood finish the same? I'm planning on just using Tung Oil as a finish. This is just an Idea sinc LOML is worried about finishing and having stain not match. (So other sugguestions are welcome).

Plus, do you know if they even make 1/4" ply for the back?

Sorry for the length, and thanks for reading.

Gary

[Ed Breen]

Gary,

If you don't have much luck, you might try Steve Wall Lumber in Mayodan, N.C.
I've ordered from them several times and never been disappointed yet. The only thing I can say is that along with shipping, i have not found a cheaper source for where I live.
good luck
Ed :cool:

[Ted Shrader]

Hi Gary -

Welcome to the Creek! A nice, friendly place to hang out.

I lived in Charleston for a few years until 1991. I have two recommendations that are a short drive away up in Summerville. Custom Woodcrafter (http://www.customwoodcrafter.com) http://www.customwoodcrafter.com. Tom Timm has some real nice stuff and will do some custom shop work for you for a reasonable fee depending on your needs– wide belt sanding, surfacing, etc.
Berlin G. Meyers Lumber (http://www.berlinmyerslumber.com/) on Main Street in Summerville. They carry a full line of lumber products or can get what you need. Web site: http://www.berlinmyerslumber.com/

Good luck in your search and welcome,

Ted

[Steve Cox]

As I'm on the other side of the country I can't speak to supply but I'll try to answer your questions on the mahogany. When people refer to mahogany they ususally mean Cuban (older) or Honduras (more modern) mahogany. When the supply in Cuba was exhausted harvesting started in Honduras. These days the price and availability of Honduras mahogany has gone through the roof. Marketing people have thus given the name mahogany to just about anything. You'll see African mahogany, Phillipine mahogany and several others. While most of these are mahogany or at least have some of its' characteristics they are not all the same wood, not even close. Trying to get sheet mahogany to match solid mahogany will be almost impossible without some stain. 1/4" sheets are available. You might want to rethink the idea of floor to ceiling bookshelves. Being able to tilt them up in the room will be difficult and fitting them to both the floor and ceiling will be much harder than if you make the top 10-12" from the ceiling. It's doable but much more difficult, especially for a beginner. Besides, if you build them outside the room, how will you get a 12"d x 30"w x 94"t bookshelf into the room anyway?:) Good luck and welcome!

[Gary Groves]

Thanks, I've actually driven by his shop (I live in Summerville). He's now moved and I haven't been over that way. I've fired off an e-mail to him for information. His prices were great, but I don't think he's updated the prices in a while.


Hi Gary -

Welcome to the Creek! A nice, friendly place to hang out.

I lived in Charleston for a few years until 1991. I have two recommendations that are a short drive away up in Summerville.

Custom Woodcrafter (http://www.customwoodcrafter.com/) http://www.customwoodcrafter.com (http://www.customwoodcrafter.com/). Tom Timm has some real nice stuff and will do some custom shop work for you for a reasonable fee depending on your needs– wide belt sanding, surfacing, etc.
Berlin G. Meyers Lumber (http://www.berlinmyerslumber.com/) on Main Street in Summerville. They carry a full line of lumber products or can get what you need. Web site: http://www.berlinmyerslumber.com/

Good luck in your search and welcome,

Ted

[Gary Groves]

Thanks for the info Steve.

I was curious about the different species. No, I'm not going to build to the ceiling. Well, I am, but between the toe kick and the crown I'm going to add, I'll have about 10 - 12 inches to play with. I will have to make sure the walls are somewhat square <grin>.

So to ensure a more 'uniform' finish, you'd suggest staining?

[Steve Cox]

This can get tricky and most of my experience with mahogany has been on boats so it may not directly apply here since you want a tung oil finish instead of a varnish. Mahogany is a photo-reactive wood like cherry. What I mean by that is that it will darken considerably with age. There is also quite a bit of variation in color between planks of the same species. Sheet goods usually have a different color cast than solid lumber. If what you want is a uniform appearance of all the wood from the beginning you will almost have to stain. If the shelves are exposed to sunlight and you can wait awhile, the wood will have a tendency to blend some as it darkens but will never fully match. Staining may not provide consistency over the life of the piece because the underlying wood may still change color as it ages. If you do stain, I'd go dark. I have a tendency to like the variation (within reason) so I usually finish natural. I use stain when I'm trying to match something like replacing a plank in a runabout.

[Ted Shrader]

. . . Well, I am, but between the toe kick and the crown I'm going to add, I'll have about 10 - 12 inches to play with. . . .

Gary -

Here is a technique I used for a wall of floor to ceiling mahogany book shelves in the library of the church we attend.

Build the entire toe kick section in place as one unit. I.E. it will be 4" high by however deep (minus 3") by the width of your unit (wall to wall ?). You can then shim and level the whole base unit. Then place the boxes that will be the bookcases right on the base and they will be plumb. This technique allows the bookcaes to go almost all the way to the ceiling since the bottom 4" is not installed on the case box. Not having that four inches means you will be able to maneuver the boxes around and get them into place. All that is left is to install a face frame which will make them appear as one big unit. Then add some crown moulding to finish it off.

Finish the face of the base unit before you bring in the carcasses. I painted the face of the kick in the library black and put stain and varnish on the bookcases.

Regards,
Ted

[Gary Groves]

Steve:

I'm not too worried about natural variations of wood color from the finish. I think what SWMBO is worried about is the wood variation color being extreme. When we lived in Tulsa, we re-modeled the kitchen and chose a hickory wood from the big orange box. What was delivered, was not representative of what we saw in the store. Plus, this is will be my first attempt at staining/finishing(on a large scale).

When I built the LOML's sewing room built in's, we just painted the wood. Paint hides a multitude of sins <grin>. But with this she's worried about this unknown aspect. Plus, when I built her sewing table, I used Minwax's all-in-one stain/poly product, and the finish seems a bit plastic. So we aren't wanting to repeat that on what will be a show piece for the house.

I chose Tung oil simply because it seemed relativley idot proof :o.

[Gary Groves]

Ted:

That's exactly how I built the toe kick for her sewing room. We were toying with the idea of actually finishing the project prior to assembly and gluing up after the the stain or oil was dry. Rather than try and finish once it was assembled. Thinking that not having stuff glob in the corners and not worring about glue and the stain not mixing.

How difficult is it to varnish? I won't be able to spray, so I figured that that ruled out varnish and lacquer.

Thanks.

[Steve Cox]

Varnish is not that difficult to apply with a brush but you will have to go through 7-9 coats of apply, level by sanding, apply again, etc in order to build up a proper finish. Of course this is a boat builder writing so think abut the finish on a mahogany yacht to get an idea of what I'm talking about. Instead of tung oil, you might give Waterlox a try. I haven't used it much but I really like the finish I've seen on oters projects. It is a wiping varnish and I think has a nice feel and soft sheen to it.

[Gary Groves]

I went to Woodcraft yesterday and picked up som Waterlox. I'm going to be building a router table (before starting the office), so I'll experiment with the Waterlox on it.

Also, I sent an e-mail off to Tom at Custom woodworkers. His son replied for him since he was on vacation. I'm going to try and go over to his shop Saturday.