Virola ?

[Tom Jones III]

The built in shelving that I am doing for a friend needs to be done pretty cheap, looking over my lumber price list virola plywood and virola lumber is quite cheap. It appears as if it will be easy to stain and finish to give it a "cherry" type look. When I did a search on this forum, almost nothing came up. A google search did not turn up anything that jumped out at me.

I've heard of people using virola as a secondary wood in cabinets but I've never worked with it. Are there any gotchas that I should know about?

[Jim Becker]

http://www.columbiaforestproducts.com/products/prodimp.aspx?p=374

And a very interesting "read" about a court case on that name...

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/fed/041459p.pdf#search=%22virola%20%2B%20hardwood%22

[Jim King]

Virola is one of the few woods on the market that use the scientific name as the common name. It is also called Banak and Cumala. It is normally sent to Mexico where it is made into moldings and furnitue and as a miracle is renamed Mahogany for shipment to the States and Canada.

It is a wood that will infect with whatever wood craving insect and will rot when in humid air. Basically a junk wood that 90% falls over and rots in the swamps where it is grown. A great mojority of the new homes in North America have cupboards and molding of this wood and they call it Mahogany. In the midwest and other areas where the majority of mobile and motor homes are built they are made of no.3 cumala. Yes NO:3

Its number one use here is for sale to Mexico and other people who transform it into a new name and no. 2 is cement forms.

[Frank Pellow]

Tom, I used Virola plywood on both the ceiling and walls of my shop and I am very happy with it. You can see pictures in the thread: http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=7769

The plywood I used was 5.2 mm thick. I found it to be light, strong, and inexpensive I paid $13.47 (Canadian) a sheet. I painted it and it takes paint very well.

[Tom Jones III]

Turns out my price list from the lumber yard was old, they no longer sell virola plywood. They still sell solid virola and it looks a lot like african mahogany but it cheaper. I could not find anyone in Houston that still sells virola plywood.

I ended up with some decent looking D-3 maple ply that was fairly cheap. I tested out some pre-stain conditioner then gel stain and it should work just fine.