Weight of Mahogany Wood? Good Deal on Reclaimed?

[Patrick Irish]

I'm looking to drive an hour away for some reclaimed mahogany boards. Each board is about 76" x 3" x 2.25".

What's the weight of this board approximately? My math says under 10 pounds which seems light. They come out to 3.5' board feet multiplied by 3.5lb per board feet and thats under 10lbs.

Does that sounds about right? I used online board feet calulators.

Also, I'm planning to plan them and make cutting boards and table tops. Figure a light plane job and I should be able to have a 76" x 2.5" x 1.75" in planed wood.

Seller wants $7 a board too, what do you all think?

[Dave Kelley]

I think it's a good deal. Looks like 3.56BF per board and it actually weighs roughly 2.58LBs per BF. So it should be 9.1848LBs per board. Of course, wet/dry will change everything.

Mahogany isn't very heavy and it's not a tight dense grain like walnut would be so it sounds about right to me.

I would take the lot for $7 each. In Arizona wood is pretty spendy as it is.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Patrick, if the wood in question is South American Mahogany, $7 bd/ft is a steal, I usually pay anywhere from $15-$20 a bf/ft for SA Mahogany. SA Mahogany is quite dense (at least the good stuff is) I have some Mahogany that is like concrete, also the color is quite dark and like Cherry, Mahogany is photo sensitive.

It's a tie between Walnut and SA Mahogany as my favorite wood.

[Patrick Irish]

Patrick, if the wood in question is South American Mahogany, $7 bd/ft is a steal, I usually pay anywhere from $15-$20 a bf/ft for SA Mahogany. SA Mahogany is quite dense (at least the good stuff is) I have some Mahogany that is like concrete, also the color is quite dark and like Cherry, Mahogany is photo sensitive.

It's a tie between Walnut and SA Mahogany as my favorite wood.

Actually I'm not wondering thanks to my dad if it's Mahogany. Here are some pictures.

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[John K Jordan]

There are a number of different species sold as mahogany. There are more species people think or claim are mahogany.

JKJ

[Robby Tacheny]

Good deal. You got it for about the price of a builder grade lumber at borg. Maybe even cheaper.

Don't forget to use a magnet and check for metal, clean the surface well with a brush or you'll add planer knives to the cost of your wood.

Robby

[rudy de haas]

1) there are many different Mahoganies - "African Mahogany" weighs about 33 pds per cubic foot, Santos runs about 57 pounds per cubic foot - that's kiln dried in both cases and you can find tables of this info all over the internet. eg. http://www.bellforestproducts.com/info/popups/average-dry-weight/?s=6

2) so.. 76 x 3 x 2.25 = 513 cubic inches. 513/12 x 12 x 12 = 0.3 cubic feet or about 10 pounds for light mahogany like Honduran or Sapele up to about 17 pounds for Santos.

[Stan Calow]

I measured a couple of boards of Honduran mahogany I have in the basement. Average around 3.3 lbs per BF, or 37 lbs/cuft. Although I have had some before that seemed much heavier. The photos look like mahogany to me.

[Mike Henderson]

If it's real mahogany (sold around here as "genuine mahogany"), I'd grab that in a heartbeat. It's getting tough to find genuine mahogany anywhere.

Mike

[Robert LaPlaca]

Just for reference I measured a piece of 4/4 SA Mahogany I bought from Irion Lumber, the piece weights 3.67 lbs bd/ft or 44 lbs cu/ft.

Here is what a typical board looks like in the rough..
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The lumber from the same source milled
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[Patrick Irish]

Picked up 45 boards. Didnt think my little Doge ram 50 could have held anymore. Thost 6 ft boards were heavy. Seller showed me some cut in his shop, tight grain.
It comes from Japan and is used under temporary train tracks, no nails either.
I’ve never taken a rough sawn board and milled it down before to use it, gonna be fun and a learning experience. Hope to get several cutting boards, frames and table tops out of them.

[Ron Kellison]

It's use in Japan for train tracks, even temporary ones, would cause me some concern. Why would they freight lumber from South America or Africa for a load-bearing wood when there is so much suitable material available from South East Asia? I wouldn't regard mahogany as being the kind of timber that would be put into that sort of environment, especially in 3" x 3" sizes. But you're not using it to hold up train rails so I suppose it doesn't really matter. Enjoy!

[Stan Calow]

Maybe its luan aka Philippine mahogany.

[Robby Tacheny]

He got hardwood for the price of domestic pine. I can't even get poplar for that price and it is a VERY abundant wood here on the east coast of USA.

No matter what, I'd say he got a pretty good deal.

Patrick, would you post a picture once you get a few boards milled down?

-Robby

[Tom M King]

I've seen Mahogany, or rather wood called Mahogany, from lighter than Balsa wood to specific gravity of .98 like Cuban Mahogany. If my memory is close, Honduran Mahogany is around a specific gravity of .76. I would stay away from the lightweight stuff. It moves a LOT.

[Patrick Irish]

I cut a stick down into 24" pieces to run through my Bosch 4100 table saw. Yeah, I think I need a more powerful saw. Tried to push the 3 3/8" piece through and it was cutting but making noise I havent heard from the saw before and bogging down a little. If I went really slow it was fine. I tried to then cut half the height, then flip and do the other half. That works but didnt get a good line.

If I want to nice glue ready strips for cutting boards and table tops I'm going to have to find a different way. A jointer would be nice. My dad proposed I take them to a cabinet shop friend and have him true and square them up and cut a few into the sizes I need. Might cost me $50-$100 but the boards would be in manageable pieces.

Either that if hunt down a Sawstop or Unisaw. Several 3hp Unisaw's for sale in the $700-$1000 range. A 1.75hp sawstop for $2,200. Figure I could offer $1700 and upgrade to a 3hp for another $500. Be cheaper than new .

[Phillip Mitchell]

Bigger table saw is always nice and welcome, but that won't really help you to get the wood square and flat.

The normal process for milling wood (aka before you try and rip your close-to-final dimensions pieces) is to joint 2 adjacent faces so that you have 2 sides that are square to each other, then you can plane the opposite of one of your originally jointed sides to thickness. Then, the last step would be to run your other originally jointed side against your table saw fence when ripping the last face. It can be frustrating, wasteful, and counter productive to try and rip thick material like this if it's out of square.

Before you drop $1-2k on a table saw, get a jointer and a planer first. You will thank us later for that when you are trying to glue up cutting boards and table tops. If you haven't already you could buy a good quality, 24 tooth, thin kerf rip blade. Freud makes some decent ones for around $40 and that will help a bit with your underpowered saw in thick wood like that. You will have to slow the feed speed down from what you might be used to for that operation. Once you get stuff square, ripping half the height and flipping the board over should produce good results with minimal clean up and material waste.

I love mahogany, btw.

[Robby Tacheny]

A 14" bandsaw and a 1/2" blade wouldn't be a bad investment either. You can definitely find one second hand for $300 - $400 or less. However, I'd recommend a planer too. A lunchbox style planer could be had for $200.

It would be less than a new table saw and would let you cut curves for some different types of cutting board shapes.

Robby

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I use mahogany a lot in my woodworking. I like to use thin kerf blades by Freud. The thin kerf bogs down less and cuts like butter. Also I will use a 7 1/4" blade in my 10" table saw to get an even thinner kerf and less friction if cutting wood at depths where a 10" blade is not needed. Try that before you invest in a new saw.

Your wood looks quite varied- some boards appear very light, others more of a reddish hue. If it is mahogany, it is likely the outer cuts with more of the sapwood. I agree with the person who suggested it may be lauan. Anyway, it's still a great price- cheaper than pine. I've seen pallets made from mahogany before, so it's not impossible that it's African mahogany. It is certainly not Honduran, Cuban, or any of the darker species, which would turn a very dark reddish-brown in UV, and left exposed and untreated the outside would turn gray, but inside still would be dark reddish-brown.