Honduran Mahogany

[Dan Gaylin]

Hello. I have turned some African mahogany and did not love the results. I was a beginner at the time (still am but less so) so that may have had a lot to do with it but I found that it was much more prone to tear out and also hard to finish then a lot of the other wood I have worked with. My question is whether Honduran mahogany is easier to work with or generally different? Thanks

[Edward Dyas]

Honduras Mahogany will turn alright but you would still have to have the chisels very sharp since the wood is very soft. It's an open grain wood which you would probably need a grain filler to get the results you want. Then if you were turning long thin spindles the wood would tend to bend away from the chisel causing chatter. American walnut would turn better. It too would need grain filler but the wood is harder.

[Mel Fulks]

I disagree in a couple of fine points. Some mahogany is soft ,mainly the sap wood. But good mahogany is pretty hard ,and
yet , cuts real well. The "mahogany period " followed the "walnut period" . And the mahogany was much more costly.
Like Elvis...mahogany has many impersonators. African mahogany is one of the worst impersonators .

[John Hart]

This is interesting. I've turned a lot of different mahogany and found it kinda pleasurable. It is a bit fibrous so I can understand the tearout problem....but sharpness and blade orientation should minimize that.
Maybe you're right and it was just the early days

[John K Jordan]

I disagree in a couple of fine points. Some mahogany is soft ,mainly the sap wood. But good mahogany is pretty hard ,and
yet , cuts real well. The "mahogany period " followed the "walnut period" . And the mahogany was much more costly.
Like Elvis...mahogany has many impersonators. African mahogany is one of the worst impersonators .

I've got Honduran ("Genuine") Mahogany in various sizes and have turned a number of things. I also found it fairly soft, but cut cleanly with sharp tools. But "soft" is relative. As far as the numbers, I've seen it listed at 800-900 Janka, compare to these:

850 Western Maple
850 Black Ash
891 Lacewood
930 Anigre
950 Cherry
950 Maple (Red Leaf)
960 Peruvian Walnut
1070 African Mahogany
1010 Walnut
1020 Holly

Like any wood, there is undoubtedly a wide variation.

I've also turned African Mahogany. (Someone gave me a large chunk about 8" thick.) It's hardness is often listed as over 1000. It seems coarser than Houduran Mahogany and lacks some of characteristic color. I think the pores are even a little larger than Honduran. I don't like it as much as the Honduran and definitely not as much as Sapele, another Genuine Mahogany substitute but much harder, finer grained, and looks better (to me).

JKJ

[Dan Gaylin]

Interesting replies, thank you. I had thought sapele was essentially the same as African mahogany (have no direct experience with it). I may need to get some and also Honduran and see. I really love trying different woods. It is one of the most fun aspects of learning to turn.

[John K Jordan]

Interesting replies, thank you. I had thought sapele was essentially the same as African mahogany (have no direct experience with it). I may need to get some and also Honduran and see. I really love trying different woods. It is one of the most fun aspects of learning to turn.

If you lived closer I'd say stop by and I'll give you a piece of each to try.

I also love trying different woods! Last time I checked I counted 125 species, a lot of both domestic and exotic. I have a sawmill and like to cut thick slabs on occasion, partially dry, then make turning blanks, then finish drying on racks in the shop.

My favorite woods for small things are those with finer grain, hard and dense like dogwood, osage orange, and sugar maple, but also softer woods like cherry, holly, bradford pear, magnolia, and walnut, especially figured, especially burled. I love turning dense exotics such as ebony, blackwood, cocobolo, bloodwood, and olive. Some of the Australian tropical woods are incredibly dense, close to lignum vitae!

JKJ

[Dan Gaylin]

If you lived closer I'd say stop by and I'll give you a piece of each to try.

I also love trying different woods! Last time I checked I counted 125 species, a lot of both domestic and exotic. I have a sawmill and like to cut thick slabs on occasion, partially dry, then make turning blanks, then finish drying on racks in the shop.

My favorite woods for small things are those with finer grain, hard and dense like dogwood, osage orange, and sugar maple, but also softer woods like cherry, holly, bradford pear, magnolia, and walnut, especially figured, especially burled. I love turning dense exotics such as ebony, blackwood, cocobolo, bloodwood, and olive. Some of the Australian tropical woods are incredibly dense, close to lignum vitae!

JKJ

Hey John, that's kind of you, and be careful -- I have relatives near Knoxville so I may end up taking you up on that next time I visit! That's an amazing number of species to have worked with. I recently did my first osage orange bowl and was very happy with it. I had a terrible experience with sugar maple and mold -- posted about it on this forum. Cherry and walnut are also at the top of my list (and so many other folks'), but I always love the surprise of something new and different. I found catlapa to be really strange but interesting (don't like how it smells and it has a very odd lack of density). I've also enjoyed yellow heart and canary wood. I just did my first birds eye maple bowl and found it had its own challenges and delights.

[John K Jordan]

Hey John, that's kind of you, and be careful -- I have relatives near Knoxville so I may end up taking you up on that next time I visit! That's an amazing number of species to have worked with. I recently did my first osage orange bowl and was very happy with it. I had a terrible experience with sugar maple and mold -- posted about it on this forum. Cherry and walnut are also at the top of my list (and so many other folks'), but I always love the surprise of something new and different. I found catlapa to be really strange but interesting (don't like how it smells and it has a very odd lack of density). I've also enjoyed yellow heart and canary wood. I just did my first birds eye maple bowl and found it had its own challenges and delights.

Excellent! I've had a lot of visitors, local and from some very strange places like Texas, Ohio, Nevada, Virginia, and Australia. :) Everyone goes away with a piece or two of wood. There's a guy from the western end of the US just to visit me (just kidding!) I'm just 30 minutes north of Knoxville off I-75 If you can stay for a bit we can play in the shop.

I can easily fix you up with a goody bag of small pieces to try. (Ever turn Cocobolo? Persimmon? Basswood? You have to try some dogwood. I used to send wood out in the mail but I had to quit since my elderly brain got too feeble to do it promptly or even at all. :(


JKJ

[Dan Gaylin]

Thanks again John. Look forward to it. Oh and my terrible experience was with red maple and mold. Not sugar maple which has worked well for me so far.

[robert baccus]

Like John, H. mahogany is a relatively soft wood especially for a tropical. Maogany's reputation as a cabinet and boat wood was based on Cuban mahogany(different species) which was harder, redder, and more durable . It disapeared with Castro and cutout in 1960. I still have a few pieces but basically unobtainable since then. H. mah. is a good stable wood but is rather bland for some purposes. Also a coarse grained wood (usually defined as big, or ring porous wood) which needs some type of pore filling for nice work. As the above--the highest, hardest and costliest woods are the tropical, subtropical and better domestic hardwoods. Exceptions of course. Old forester.

[Mel Fulks]

The "Cuban" mahogany is denser than the "Honduras". But comparison is a little skewed since the quality of Honduras is
down from what is was in the '60s. Then we were getting boards as wide as 37 inches of good dense stuff. My understanding is the Cuban trees were a lot smaller.