Fellow Breaktimers,
I have a customer who wants a mahogany paneled room (Library). I decided to use 1/4″ mahogany paneling, mounted to the drywall, with solid mahogany 1 x’s for stiles, to give a raised panel type look. My customer wants to know if there is a lower cost alternative to mahogany that has the same type grain that can be substituted. Any ideas?
StevieG
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Replies
Luan.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
If when you say "mahogany" you're thinking "Honduras mahogany", you're right that's gotten very expensive. In my neck of the woods, I can no longer buy hondo-veneered plywood at all. African mahogany is still available at reasonable prices, both in lumber and plywood. It looks a lot like Honduras.
Stevie, if you haven't already, try posting this over at Knots. Those guys are really into wood!
Mike
Mike,Don't want to sound ignorant - but what is "knots" and what is their website?Thanks,Steve
Knots.. the one listed in the header to the left of FHB...
Knots is the forum for woodworking, from the fine woodworking mag, breaktime is the carpentry/GC forum from fine homebuilding mag
The cooks talk is some cooking magazine, House chat is "inspired house", I think.
Lyptus wood is cheaper than mahogany and looks almost identical.
Coming to you from beautiful Richmond, Va.
I was about to suggest the same thing: Lyptus is grown specially to rival mahogany. Although the grain is extrememly similar in appearance, the color is more of a pinkish (at least in the pieces I've used).Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
I just got a piece of Lyptus sample and researched it. It is beautiful, but the colour is more uneven than mahogany by a long shot. Price is good though. Plantation grown hybrid of Gum tree and a certain kind of eucalyptus. Grown in Brazil
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I have used lyptus only once, as face frames on mahagony bookshelves. The shop where I rent space from uses it all the time with great success.Coming to you from beautiful Richmond, Va.
Do you see colour variation or even colouring?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
The coloring is even. Biggest problem with the lyptus is that it splinters much more than mahoganyComing to you from beautiful Richmond, Va.
Lyptus wood is cheaper than mahogany and looks almost identical...
If you can get it it is a really nice wood.. Hard to tell the difference unless you worked with REAL mahogany... real mahogany has a nicer grain structure .. Just me though...
I use my hand held edge banding tool to edge plywood in the field. My projects wherever possible are designed with no pieces over 8' I can do a pretty large built in with only a few sticks of hardwood and sometimes no hardwood at all besides the mouldings. This keeps prices down. I call our vendor and order Mahogany ply. I don't make any distictions like African or Honduran, and have had much success with this approach.
I used to work for a company that did a lot of mahogany paneled libraries...most of the trim pieces were something we called banack(SP/)...can't find anything on the web about it...this was right after the 60's<G> Don't worry, we can fix that later!
ash?
had a roommate back in trade school. He wanted to build a mahogany front door as his final project. He checked prices and bought ash instead. I never saw it finished ...
but his parents were happy with their substitute.
Anyone know if Ash would stain up and look close?
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Being as ASh is a ring porous species and MAhog is a diffuse porous specie, it would take a LOT of trouble to get close..walnut or butter nut..even cherry is easier. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
" out of kindness, i suppose"
Towns, the original.
If the HO hasn't asked for the ribbon grain typical in mahogany, with a modicum of finishing skill, alder can be finished to come close to the look of mahogany for a home owner who wants to achieve a "look" but isn't particularly knowledgeable or picky about the way it's achieved.
-Jazzdogg-
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
Edited 6/19/2005 11:44 am ET by jazzdogg
good call...I made thousand of guitar body cores from alder..just never entered my mind. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
" out of kindness, i suppose"
Towns, the original.
I worked Ash once and at first when I saw your post I thought no way, but my wife in the last couple years has started working with wood dyes. That made me think maybe you could dye the Ash to look like some boring Mahogany. Wether it would be worth it or not I don't know, but you sparked a cool memory mentioning the ash. The guy we were working for milled the lumber off his own land, and we, two men, ran our tools all day off of a solar panel and battery bank without any noticable drag. It was incredible. The guy was an old hippie who bought a meadow on a mountain in Lucketts Va.
Edited 6/17/2005 7:47 pm ET by quicksilver
Jeff,
I have a piece of ash furniture sitting in a room of oak furniture ---it works well.
But----I think it would be quite a stretch to get ash to pass for mahogany
stephen
Must be old age making my mind get stiff. it won't seem to stretch that far
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Common poplar.
Try it. Stain a piece of mahogany and a piece of poplar with the same moisture content. Poplar is often used as a filler between two panels of thin mahogany veneer and the exposed ends are stain to match.
Gabe
Edited 6/19/2005 2:39 pm ET by GABE_MARTEL
Use 3/4" mahogany P/W for the styles and rails, and hide the edges with the panel mold. It will be the same wood but cheaper, and won't shrink and crack, less sanding too. If it cost a little more, you will make up the savings in finishing.