Is this guy crazy? 68 a bd ft mahogany

[Robert gree]

is it worth that much?

tampa.craigslist.org 1755908058

[Matt Meiser]

Well, he/she didn't find a buyer when it was for sale a couple years ago.

[Cody Colston]

Probably, if it is as advertised.

Cuban Mahogany is virtually non-existant as a commercial species. I imagine that someone doing an antique reproduction would pay that much for it.

If I had a spare $80,000 or so laying around, I'd buy it.

[Robert gree]

very true, Im fairly new to the hardwood aspect of woodworking just hard to imagine 68 dollars a board foot

[scott vroom]

He's not crazy; he's hoping to find a buyer crazy enough to pay 68/bf:cool:.

[george wilson]

I have looked at the pictures,and I just do not think it is actually Cuban mahogany. The pores are too big. This would surely get me a good tongue lashing from the owner,but I have Cuban mahogany,and have been using it for nearly 39 years.

During a severe hurricane several years ago(Andrew?) in Florida,decorative Cuban mahogany trees were blown down. There was someone selling wood cut from them for about $30.00 a bd.ft.. It wasn't as dark as Cuban usually is,possibly being cut from smaller than usual trees. However,it was extremely hard and very heavy,as it should have been. The furniture conservation shop in Williamsburg bought some.

The stock I have is also about 100 years old. It is quite dark,with much smaller pores than regular mahogany.

From the looks of the tear out next to the knot in one picture,the wood shown is much softer than Cuban. It looks like regular Honduras around which a legend has grown in the family. It looks soft and punky from the way it tore. Cuban would have cracked out in sharp,clearly defined chunks,not making fuzz like that. I think grandfather didn't correctly identify his wood.

One last thing,violins have no mahogany in them.

[Will Overton]

Probably, if it is as advertised.

Cuban Mahogany is virtually non-existant as a commercial species. I imagine that someone doing an antique reproduction would pay that much for it.

If I had a spare $80,000 or so laying around, I'd buy it.

When I went to the link it said;

"Antique First Growth Jamaican Mahogany"

Is that the same as Cuban Mahogany?

[Van Huskey]

I have looked at the pictures,and I just do not think it is actually Cuban mahogany. The pores are too big. This would surely get me a good tongue lashing from the owner,but I have Cuban mahogany,and have been using it for nearly 39 years.

During a severe hurricane several years ago(Andrew?) in Florida,decorative Cuban mahogany trees were blown down. There was someone selling wood cut from them for about $30.00 a bd.ft.. It wasn't as dark as Cuban usually is,possibly being cut from smaller than usual trees. However,it was extremely hard and very heavy,as it should have been. The furniture conservation shop in Williamsburg bought some.

The stock I have is also about 100 years old. It is quite dark,with much smaller pores than regular mahogany.

From the looks of the tear out next to the knot in one picture,the wood shown is much softer than Cuban. It looks like regular Honduras around which a legend has grown in the family. It looks soft and punky from the way it tore. Cuban would have cracked out in sharp,clearly defined chunks,not making fuzz like that. I think grandfather didn't correctly identify his wood.

One last thing,violins have no mahogany in them.

I think you are right George. But, even if the wood is correctly IDed the problem is that is doen't have the characteristics that is should. There may be some market in restoration that is more concerned with the origin of the wood than the look, but for most it matters. For example what good is the "best" lineage of Ebony in the world if it is brown and punky. This reminds me of Pawn Stars where someone comes in with something over 100 years old and has been in the family for say 80+ years, turns out is a copy from the 1970's or something like that. Grandfathers are well known for "puffery".

[Rick Markham]

Seems pretty typical for the Craigslist around here, surprised it wasn't a "bombed out and depleted" craftsman contractor table saw that looked like it was stored in a car wash for 15 years for $49000. :rolleyes:

[Cody Colston]

When I went to the link it said;

"Antique First Growth Jamaican Mahogany"

Is that the same as Cuban Mahogany?

He listed it as Swietenia Mahogani which is Cuban Mahogany. It is found in a relatively small area of the Caribbean centered around Cuba and also in extreme South Florida.

[David Keller NC]

is it worth that much?

tampa.craigslist.org 1755908058

In answer to your question, no, it's not worth that much, though he might find someone crazy enough (or stupid enough) to pay it.

The $60/b.f. range is generally reserved for bees-wing or plum-pudding figured Honduras mahogany. The highest price I've seen paid for true Swietenia Mahogani (verified by characteristics of the living tree, not the wood, which is very problematic) recently was around $40/b.f., but this was an exceptional lot - boule sawn, flitch matched, and 40" wide.

[Andrew Nemeth]

His appraisal might have been insurance value.

[george wilson]

Whatever the source of identification,I won't be buying it!!!! Maybe the pile will burn down,and he can get the insurance!!! Short of that,unless he finds some VERY rich person who doesn't know better,I doubt it will sell for that price.

David,your price of $40.00 sounds about right. As I said,Wmsbg. bought some hurricane downed Cuban for about $30-$35 per bd. ft.,and that was some time ago.

If you have worked with the real Cuban mahogany,identification is usually by the extreme hardness,and weight of the wood, and the color,although there are some other mahoganies that are also quite hard and heavy. I have some pieces that are that way,and were sold as Cuban,but somehow,they don't look quite right. There are so many tropical woods out there,it can be hard to sort them out,you are right.

There are also plenty of wood dealers that will try to sell you inauthentic wood. We have one in Norfolk who claimed to have Brazilian Rosewood (which I have used for 50 years). It simply wasn't Brazilian. You couldn't tell those egotistical idiots that,though. The wood was simply markedly different. It WAS some other type of South American rosewood.

[Frank Drew]

If you have worked with the real Cuban mahogany,identification is usually by the extreme hardness... of the wood

The one time I worked with Cuban I was astonished by how hard it was; it was even difficult to plane across the grain, and this was even after I'd saw-kerfed it (I was removing the mahogany from beneath a sheet of ebony veneer for an antique dealer who wanted to use the veneer in some other application).

I have had Honduras Mahogany that was very, very close to the color and density of Cuban, however; a lot depends on the growing conditions of the original tree.

[Frank Drew]

Having now looked at the photographs, I'd agree with George that this doesn't look like an especially impressive lot, with neither the color nor figure nor fineness of grain of the best stuff; also, by my quick count, it seems that only 9 of the 51 boards are 15" or wider (kind of the bare minimum for what used to be called "table boards".)

And, just from a marketing perspective, I think if I was asking that kind of money I'd take at least one of the boards somewhere to be sanded and finished as well as possible, to show prospective buyers the potential of the material.

[Kirk Smith]

It is only $60 bf. Look at this one:
AFRICAN BLACKWOOD - 4/4 ($ cdn 120) , or EBONY, GABOON - 4/4 ($cdn 110) at http://www.blackforestwood.com/.

[Frank Drew]

If, on the other hand, someone actually had a large-ish stash of genuine, really prime Cuban mahogany, sawn decades ago, in interesting widths, and all from one tree... then, yeah, he could ask a lot of money for it. A lot. And he could probably sell most of it with one or two phone calls to high-end cabinet shops in NYC or the like.

[David Keller NC]

It is only $60 bf. Look at this one:
AFRICAN BLACKWOOD - 4/4 ($ cdn 120) , or EBONY, GABOON - 4/4 ($cdn 110) at http://www.blackforestwood.com/.




that's actually not a whacked-out price for african blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon, a rosewood) and gabon ebony (Diospyros crassiflora). Not only are these trees slow-growers, and the wood's sought-after, but many of the stands in Africa where it grows requires human porters to carry it out.

[Craig D Peltier]

Im not buying it, theres no full board pictures.