Identifying Brazilian Cherry vs Mahogany

[Mark Brubaker]

Ok, this seems like a stupid question but I am having a difficult time differentiating between a bunch of Brazillian Cherry and Mahogany given to me for free.

I have a good inclination which is which but I hate to find out late into the dressing process.

Any helpful hints?

While I am at it, popular vs maple?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Jamie Buxton]

"Brazilian cherry" is not even slightly related to American cherry.

The most-obvious difference between jatoba (aka brazilian cherry) and mahogany is that jatoba is almost twice as dense. Mahogany's density is similar to many North American hardwoods. If you're accustomed to handling them, jatoba feels weirdly heavy.

[Anchor Sarslow]

Poplar/Aspen vs. Maple... I look at endgrain. The maple (the 2 I am familiar with for woodworking) will inevitably be denser than poplar, Hard mapel/Sugar Maple in particular.. with the possible exception of cottonwood which can at time seem dense.. but is a very fast grower in its early life so it has wide rings in the center and narrower towards the bark depending upon the age.

A test might be to jam a thumbnail into the face grain. It should be much easier with poplar. This should work for your cherry vs. Mahogony as well.

[Tim Sproul]

Ok, this seems like a stupid question but I am having a difficult time differentiating between a bunch of Brazillian Cherry and Mahogany given to me for free.

I have a good inclination which is which but I hate to find out late into the dressing process.

Any helpful hints?

While I am at it, popular vs maple?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Scratch and sniff.

Jatoba has a more sweet smell (it isn't exactly sweet but compared to mahogany it is).

Maple (hard maple anyways) has a sweet smell to it and poplar has a distinct 'dirty dog' smell to it.

Density.

Agree with Jamie. Jatoba is much more dense than mahogany. Maple is much more dense than poplar.

Visual.

Jatoba has very dark latewood...the earlywood is a deep reddish brown and latewood is very dark - almost black. Mahogany has very little latewood. The latewood is darker than the earlywood and the latewood is seen as paper thin...jatoba latewood is more like chalkline thick.

Poplar has a greenish tint when freshly milled...that turns brown/olive after exposure to air for several days. Heartwood and sapwood are very obviously different colored.

Maple is much more white and the latewood is a brown color. There is only a small amount of difference in coloration between sapwood and heartwood..often unnoticeable under casual observation.

[Russ Filtz]

Okay, never heard the terms latewood or earlywood before! Are they just relative terms to heartwood/sapwood, or is there some technical reason?

[Tim Lynch]

I am a newbie to braz. cherry, but my supplier got some in and had it stacked near some mahogany that I was purchasing and the difference in weight and general feel of the boards was quite noticeable. Using say red oak as a reference, it seemed to me that the mahogany was lighter and the brazilian cherry just weighed a ton.

[Ralph Lindberg]

One of my favorite sites for help with identifying wood is Hobbit House Inc (http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/). He has lots of photo's of wood and discusses vendors that modify their photos to improve the appearance of their goods

Jatoba (http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/jatoba.htm) photo's (and fact sheet)

He has several photo's and info on several types of mahogany here (http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/#letterM)

[Josh LaFrance]

I've got some of the BC and Mahogany in my garage right now. If they are still rough run them through the planner. After that the differences are a bit more obvious. Unplanned the coloring it the same. The Mahogany has a straiter grain pattern than the BC. The weight difference is an easy way to tell if the boards are similar in size. The BC will weigh a lot more.

[Stan Terrell]

Latewood and earlywood have no relationship to sapwood and heartwood.
Latewood was once called summer wood and earlywood was springwood. Implying that the wood was formed during those seasons. Current thoughts of tree physiologist are that "that ain't necessarily so". A ring of earlywood and a ring of latewood make up an annual ring. The latewood is usually more dense than earlywood.

Stan