Looking for project pics - mahogany with contrasting woods?

[Aaron Heck]

Hi gang,

My FIL is building a big conference table for the new office. He's got some big wide pieces of mahogany to be used for the main part of the table. But he's looking for ideas for a contrasting wood for a border. My first thought is curly/tiger maple. I was just at woodcraft and saw some wenge and bloodwood. I thought those might be nice, too.

Does anyone have any project pics of mahogany with another wood that I might be able to show him?

Thanks!
Aaron

[John Hart]

Hi Aaron

I looked around and the only mahogany projects I had were all mahogany...But, I have scraps of mahogany and other exotics and hardwood laying around so I decided to make a "Mahogany and Other Kinds of Wood" thing. I have Mahogany, Black Cherry, Redheart, Ebony, Bahama Cherry, Padauk, Maple, Oak, and Purpleheart.

There are several pieces of mahogany in there so all the other types are touching it...and I framed the whole thing in Maple.

The glue is almost dry enough, so I figure I can get a coat of Polyurethane on it and take a picture in about 3 hours.

....I...uh...had some time to kill

[Roger Myers]

Aaron,
A lot depends on how you finish the mahogany and the other woods...here is a link to a thread I posted on a mahogany table I built, that has curly maple banding on the mahogany drawer fronts. The table was finished in shellac...amber over the mahogany, and blonde on the maple and inlays...

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17109

Roger

[Aaron Heck]

John, wow! Now that's what I call service! ;) Look forward to seeing what you came up with. Much much appreciated!

Roger, thanks for the link. I'm going to check it out now!

Aaron

[Per Swenson]

Mahogany and birdseye maple
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17615&highlight=shameless
Hope this helps.

[John Hart]

Ok...I'm not sure how to do multiple pictures, so I might mess this up...but here we go.

Please ignore the crappy craftsmanship...I wanted to hurry.

Picture #1 is the whole thing...the order from top to bottom is
Mahogany
Black Cherry
Redheart
Mahogany
Ebony
Bahama Cherry
Mahogany
Padauk
Maple
Mahogany
Red Oak
Purpleheart
Mahogany

[John Hart]

Picture #2 is a closeup of Bahama Cherry-Mahogany-Padauk

[John Hart]

Picture #3 is Mahogany-Black Cherry-Redheart-Mahogany

[John Hart]

Picture #4 is Mahogany-Padauk-Maple-Mahogany-Red Oak

[John Hart]

Picture #5 is Redheart-Mahogany-Ebony-Bahama Cherry

[John Hart]

Ok..here's the last picture...I hope they're ok

It is Mahogany-Black Cherry-Redheart-Mahogany-Ebony-Bahama Cherry

Some Repetition I suppose. I was trying to give good views

[Rob Millard]

Being a traditionalist, I like the look of mahogany and ribbon stripe satinwood, but this is only available as veneer. I have attached a photo of a sofa table with a band of satinwood surrounding the top.
Rob Millard

[John Hart]

Mahogany and birdseye maple
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=17615&highlight=shameless
Hope this helps.

Per,

That Bar is absolutely beautiful. I am speechless

[Doug Shepard]

Only other wood that I've used in combination with mahogany is purpleheat. Just because I had a scrap of it laying around at the time. Don't recommend that combination as there's just not enough contrast between the two.

[Mark Singer]

Aaron,

Here is mahagony and Shedua....in a bath cabinet

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=14547&highlight=bath+cabinet

[John Hart]

I agree Doug....I matched up Purpleheart and mahogany in this project today and they really are not a good color match. You can see it in picture #1. I'll never do it in a real project

[John Hart]

Aaron,

Here is mahagony and Shedua....in a bath cabinet

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=14547&highlight=bath+cabinet

Wow Mark...Is that your own design? The woods are very complimentary and bright...A tough thing to do with dark wood.

[Mark Singer]

John,
Yes I designed it with the help of my SMC friends in the Design Forum . Then I did a blow by blow Thread on the construction procedure a few months ago. The doors are coopered with stave construction from solid wood. I will find the link for you. The mahogany is still getting darker from UV....the woods look very nice together.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=14164&highlight=bath+cabinet+design

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=14202&page=1&pp=15&highlight=bath+cabinet

[Alan Turner]

Aaron,
On my website there are several end tables, one of mahogany with a curly maple top, and one with a lacewood top, and both with ebony detailing. You may need to tone the mahogany, depending upon which way you go.

[Earl Kelly]

Aaron, if he has big wide solid mah to make the top from. It will be very difficult to impossible to band the outside edge with solid wood without problems, due to wood movement. A solid top, even of Mah the size of a conference table will move at least a 1/16-1/8 in min.

If he puts an inlay in the top on the edges, that should work without any problems. I would use Satinwood or Wenge.

[John Hart]

Yeah...I'll second that Earl. Aaron should keep in mind that Mahogany is a much different animal than Maple. Mahogany is fibrous and Maple is extremely tight-grained. With the total mass differences and the differences between the wood types, there will be separation over time with a banding.

[Mark Singer]

I found an old Thread on my Jatoba conference table. The details, wedges etc are ebony.....


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5668&highlight=Frank+Lloyd+Wright%29

[Mark Singer]

I also thought of a dining room table I made in Wenge, which was a wood you mentioned in your Thread...it has been stable and very nice to live with....


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=5430&highlight=wenge

[Dan Gill]

I don't have a pic with me, but I recently did a box lid with Mahogany and quartersawn hard maple ( I dug through my scrap box until I found some pieces with quartersawn edges.) It turned out very nice. I'll try to take a picture later.

[Aaron Heck]

Hey guys, just checking in again after being out of town yesterday.

John, a very special thanks to you personally for taking the time to put together that wood sample project.

Everyone, I showed everything to my father in law and he'll be making a decision shortly. I did also mention the wood movement issue, although I don't really understand it myself, so I probably wasn't that much help.

I did find out a little bit more about what exactly he is planning. The wide mahognay he has is only 3/4" thick, so he was going to screw this down onto a piece of plywood to get the overall thickness he wanted. The reason he wanted to do banding around the outside was so that the routed ends of the table would not be endgrain - for looks and finishing ease.

I think he's now in the process of re-thinking exactly what he's going to do. Thanks for hopefully stearing us in the right direction.

Aaron