Which Mahogany is this?

[Benjimin Young]

I was given a bunch of offcuts 6/4 and 8/4 mahogany, agreat xmas present;-) They came from a commercial shop (doors I think) so I am guessing they should be a popular commercially available type mahogany for Ontario Canada area, maybe African Mahogany, but... I am not very good at identifying wood and would value your opinions. The weight of a 357.19 cu/inch board (kiln dried) is 9.9208 lbs or 47.995 lb/ft3 if I did the math correctly.

What would do you think this is?

By the way, Happy New Year!

[Doug Dawson]

I was given a bunch of offcuts 6/4 and 8/4 mahogany, agreat xmas present;-) They came from a commercial shop (doors I think) so I am guessing they should be a popular commercially available type mahogany for Ontario Canada area, maybe African Mahogany, but... I am not very good at identifying wood and would value your opinions. The weight of a 357.19 cu/inch board (kiln dried) is 9.9208 lbs or 47.995 lb/ft3 if I did the math correctly.

What would do you think this is?


Here's a good starting point: https://www.woodworkerssource.com/blog/wood-conversations/mahogany/

Also https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/mahogany-mixups-the-lowdown/
You can follow the links there in the "Wood Finder" for the various species to get the technical numbers (which are always just _averages_). Wood is an organic product.

[Mel Fulks]

The pic shows a little twist in one of those small pieces, that makes me think it's African. It moves a lot more than
Honduras. So much that I consider it a bad buy in commercial shops. But a good deal when free!

[Zachary Hoyt]

My only mahogany experience is with African, which includes several species in the Khaya family. Your 4th picture looks very characteristic to me, and they all are plausibly African, but since I don't know the other possibilities I am not sure. I use it to build banjos occasionally, it's a pretty soft wood but has a nice color when finished. I got my first batch at a woodworker's retirement sale, it was offcuts from his former job at a casket factory, since then I have bought some at my local hardwood supplier that was a a little paler, some on eBay that was much paler and some from Bell Forest Products that just came that is a nice darker color like the first lot I had. I wasn't sure about the first boards so I sent a couple of samples to the US Forest Service lab and they did their free ID on it and said it was African, but I didn't hear back for a couple of months or so. If you want to be dead sure what it is and you have time to wait I would see if there is a similar program in Canada.
Zach

[Andrew Hughes]

One sign genuine Honduras mah has is little white specks in the pores. If you like mahogany and want good reading I suggest this book.

[J.R. Rutter]

If it smells good, slightly spicy, then it is sapele.

[Erik Loza]

My first reaction was African.

Erik