Identifying reddish brown is a little firmly than it might seem at first glance . If you ’ve ever wondered if you have veridical mahogany , this article at the Wood Database is eye - opening :
“ So you ’ve just stumbled across some sort of “ mahogany ” woodwind , and you ’re wondering if you have the real deal . After all , there are presently over a half dozen types of mahogany listed onThe Wood Database . Much like cedarwood , the “ mahogany ” recording label gets tossed around with comparative liberality — and not always with regard to the botanic appointment of the wood in dubiousness . Ultimately , the equivocal term mahogany stay somewhat immanent . But regardless of where anyone find to draw and quarter the line on what is and is not reliable mahogany , certain fact and scientific classifications of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree stay incessant , and a general consensus can at least be made on the documentary facts surrounding these woods .
But before we sort everything out , it would be helpful to ask a needed question : why ? Why bother trying to screen out things out ? If it looks like Venetian red , what ’s the divergence anyhow ? A caboodle , it turns out . Beyond simply being deserving more in terms of dollar sign per plug-in - understructure , there are practical implications to using reliable mahogany . ”
When I was a kid in Fort Lauderdale , my grandpa had a beautiful reddish brown tree growing next to his car port / wood workshop . So far as I get laid , it ’s still there . My bet is that it was the true “ Cuban Mahogany ” of legend , as the tree was in all probability planted in the 1950s .
There are old mahogany trees scatter here and there around South Florida . This one is originate a few blocks from my parents ’ home in Fort Lauderdale :
Where I live now there are still quite a few mahogany trees , but international limitation keep them from being harvested and sent to the US . I search into sending some lumber to my brother and it seems that get a Trachinotus falcatus is beyond me .
I can , however , use the plug-in myself . Here ’s a little three - string guitar I ’m establish from a calabash gourd and some local sepia .
The neck and top are mahogany . Note how short the wood is compared to the dark red - chocolate-brown we normally relate with mahogany . The wood is more variable than one might think . It ’s also a joyousness to work . Light , stiff , easy to carve . I love it .
Here ’s a close - up of the top so you could see the grain :
As you’re able to see , I have n’t end up the wood yet . There is more sanding to do , but I ’ll get there soon .
actual mahogany is a pleasure to shape . I save some humbled bit of mahogany furniture from the sometime house on the spate where we garden and I ’ve been using those pieces for trivial projects as well . The older forest is dour and wry and very easy to form .
When we get res publica , I ’ll have to plant a mahogany tree diagram in computer storage of Grandpa .
