Bob,
Whisper to it sweetly in Spanish and see if it replies
| Official Luthiers Forum! http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/ |
|
| back to guit.- hond. mahog. http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=15048 |
Page 1 of 1 |
| Author: | bob J [ Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Is there such a thing as true Honduran Mahog. How can you tell the difference. |
|
| Author: | Dave White [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:08 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Bob, Whisper to it sweetly in Spanish and see if it replies
|
|
| Author: | joelThompson [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:46 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
There is another species of mahogany called sweitinia humillis that is listed on cites as honduras mohagany and is now comercialy extinct like cuban. Humislis is a lot denser a bit like true cuban. But in truth any true honduras is either humilis or marophyla (there is no such thing as microphylla acording to my research small leaf mahogany is sweitinaia mahogani) that comes from honduras. And seeing that mahogany is no longer exported from honduras it is umnlikely that you wil ever find any true honduras mahogany (unless you know someone who has some 150 year old stock )
Anyway this is one of the reasons that we name mahogany depending on where it came from here in england as it can cause confusion. What you call honduras in the states we call brazilian or puruvian etc depending on where it came from in england. But i think as a general rule if you see something dscribed as honduras mahogany you safely bet it is sweiteinia macrophylla. This is again a subjet that many people have diferent veiws on but if just class macrophylla as honduras then you cant go wrong. As for tellig the diference, That comes with time and experience cuban has a polished feel to it when planes simmaler to a rosewood or other denser wood and often has white specles in the end grain it also astodd says has a redish color that we often assosiate with quality mahogany. Humillis often black specles in the end grain and again has a polished feel and looks simmalar to cuban. Macrophylla is slightly courser and has laeger pores than both the other types of mahogany and varies alot more in quality as it more widly grown and hardier to extreme growing conditions so is the most widly used plantation mahogany. As for kayha its not a true mahogany and is very course and open grained but like todd i have had some realy good stuff that is hard to tell apart from macrophylla apart from the slightly courser feel. I hope this helps you but like i said you will soon be able to tell the good from the bad the more you use the diferent types. Joel. |
|
| Author: | bob J [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:55 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Great info. all, thanks! For now, until I learn, I'll trust our great vendors. |
|
| Author: | Larry Davis [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:28 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Good stuff from Joel and Todd. I'll add that ther are probably up to six Khaya species that get lumped together in commercial production. Unless a person works with a lot of Khaya and experiences the wide range of physical properties, feather light pink, brittle to dark red or golden and very heavy they can easily conclude false impressions. What puts Khaya into the mahogany family (Meliaceae) is primarily that it and Swietenia both contain oleoresins. "Cuban" mahogany is technically known as West Indian mahogany and if it ain't from Cuba it ain't "Cuban". It is native from Southern Florida thru out the West Indies. |
|
| Author: | Don Williams [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:00 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hey Larry my friend, you can split hairs almost as well as I can! 
|
|
| Author: | Larry Davis [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:03 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Nah...you're still champ |
|
| Author: | Larry Davis [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 6:10 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
That post went up to fast..wasn't done with it...add this
I suppose it's OK to call all jacaranda BRW also? Far as I'm concerned any name can be tagged to any wood by anyone any time. It's always buyer beware, but there is a certain sort of implication when wood sellers trade on a higher valued name. Don, you or anyone are certainly entitled to a way of thinking about marketing wood by trade names or shop made figure names tagged on stuff. I'll do biz my way, thanks. To each his/her own as they say, my friend. |
|
| Author: | joelThompson [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Yes i have some very old stock sweitinia mahogani in my invontary that that was imported from from jamaica in 1908. Whilst this is in theory "cuban" type mahogany it is not true cuban as it came from jamaica origonaly. I do however also have a large amount true cuban that was stockpiled by a cabinet maker over 90 years ago and is over 150 years old. This is slightly finer grained than the stuff from jamaica and has a more golden red coulor where as the jamaican has a more orange red coulor and slightly larger pores. In the same stock there is some true honduras(macrophylla from honduras) and the only way we could tell the honduras appart from the cuban was, A, feel the honduran was slightly courser with larger pores. B, the honduras has a larger center pith than the cuban. apart from that it was quite hard to tell as the whole lot was mixed stock and had been stored for so long that all the boards were black. The honduras had just as rich a colour as the cuban when planed and i had to very carefull when picking out the genuine cuban stock. Once you have seen these woods in the flesh and worked with them there is no mistaking them for the type of mahogany we get these days. They dident call it the king of woods for nothing. Good true mahogany is a joy to behold and one of my favourate woods. Joel. |
|
| Author: | David R White [ Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Todd, thanks for posting that, it clears a lot up for me. |
|
| Page 1 of 1 | All times are UTC - 5 hours |
| Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/ |
|