Mahogany alternative?

[Adam Potack]

My wife wants me to make a sideboard cabinet for the dinning room. She would like a mahogany finish. I don't really want to spend for mahogany. Is there something less expensive that can be stained to look "close enough"? Or should I just bite the bullet and go for the real thing?

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Adam

[Sam Murdoch]

I think you could get red alder to look really close to mahogany and it would be beautiful - not exact but very nice. See the kitchen in my SMC portfolio for a look at oil finished alder - no stain. Otherwise any other choices (that I can think of) are just as expensive and so why do the work of camouflage?

[Victor Robinson]

If by "mahogany finish" you are wanting a dark color, going cheaper on the wood is going to give you all sorts of staining headaches, unless you are very comfortable achieving a dark color on blotch-prone woods. It CAN be done but will take a LOT of trial and error and testing. The cost savings might not be worth the headache.

African mahogany is one of the cheapest dark woods. If your design uses any ply, African mahogany plywood can be found at reasonable prices as well (I paid about $75 for 3/4" sheet recently).

[Paul Symchych]

I too would suggest African mahogany. Around here I can get it for as little as $5/BF for 4/4 lumber. I recently built a tall chest with it and the ribbon grain is gorgeous -without staining. Honduras is at least 50% more.
Another option is sepele which is sometimes under $6/BF.
But be choosy. Be prepared to pass on some batches. Like anything, there is garbage and there is good.

The other consideration is the balance between material cost and the amount of labor you put into building it. No point in putting a lot of hours and careful work into some wood that looks like an IKEA fugitive. When all is said and done you will look at this for a long time and don't want to be playing coulda' shoulda' while looking at good workmanship and crap lumber with a stain on it. Spend a few extra bucks up front and look at it with satisfaction.

[Barry Richardson]

Im with Sam, alder works great for faux mahogany. It takes stain very well and is NOT prone to blotching. I make lots of shadow boxes and flag cases for the Air Force Base here and always offer stained alder as a cheaper alternative to mahogany, and people are very happy with it. Of course the grain will look different on close inspection, but in my experience, women care much more about color that the grain of the wood. Just play around with stain mixes on scraps to get what you like.

[Jamie Buxton]

Alder like mahogany? Not in my view. But my opinion doesn't count for much in this case. Your wife's opinion is the key one. I strongly suggest you nail down the finishing issue before you buy material to make the sideboard. Get sample woods, try out finishes, and see what she likes. Only after you resolve the finish, then move on to the cabinet. It'd be a shame to build it from, say, mahogany, when she really prefers alder. Or vice versa.

[Adam Potack]

Thanks guys. I think it makes more sense to go with the mahogany and stop being a cheap a**. Anyone have good source?

Adam

[Richard Shaefer]

I don't know where you are in NY, but right over the border in NJ is this guy: http://www.woodboardsandbeams.com/
and don't discount Sapelle as a mahogony alternative, too.

[Adam Potack]

Thanks, I'm close to the ny/nj border. I will check them out was also considering ml condon in white plains.

[Jamie Buxton]

In my neck of the woods, the plywood is african mahogany, not genuine mahogany. Both african and genuine mahogany lumber are available. The two do not look the same, especially under clear finish.

[Troy Turner]

Adam -

Woodsmith mag (No. 197) did a write up on mahogany. They listed African Mahogany, Philippine mahogany, and lyptus as good substitutes.

[Ole Anderson]

Man, you are going to build your wife a cabinet and you want to go cheap? I see trouble brewing here. Give Shelby Stanga from Axmen a call, he just pulled up a HUGE hundred year old log out of a Louisiana bayou, actually lake Pontchartrain, that his buyer said was real Cuban mahogany. The real deal. Pretty much extinct now. Might be a bit pricey though.

http://www.history.com/images/shows/bios/ax-men/shelby_stanga_season_5_480x250.jpg

[Prashun Patel]

The two alternatives I've used are Lyptus and African Mahogany. Both are reasonable substitutes.

[Sam Murdoch]

The two alternatives I've used are Lyptus and African Mahogany. Both are reasonable substitutes.


Yeah, Eucalyptus is a good alternative too - better colorwise than Alder and nice straight grain. Honduras mahogany is king though - African is a poor substitute.