Anyone tamed African Mahogany??

Re: does planed wood look better?

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>The shellac is applied to scrap pieces. Thanks for the tip. I'll let you know what happens.

I must be con-fused...

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>...but that shouldn't surprise anyone. The goofy looking bandsawn box below is made from sapele, which I understood to be generally known as African mahogany. Was pinkish red like mahogany when milled (maybe with a bit more orange in it), and looked as pictured with oil and wax. Either I'm talking about some other wood, or I'm (yet again) befuddled - this stuff was pretty red to begin with...

Re: rowed grain

david charlesworth

>I would try a narrow bevel on the flat side of a regular bench plane blade. 1/64 to 1/32" should be plenty.

This fools the wood into thinking we have a steeper pitched plane.

This is equivalent to using, a steeper honing angle on a low angle plane.

In either case we wish to raise the "effective pitch" to somewhere between 60 degrees and in extreme cases" 75 degrees.

I find a 25 degree back bevel on a bench plane blade will deal with almost all difficult, hard, timbers.

The shavings taken must be kept very fine, or the trick will not work and tearout will result.

These methods are based on Bruce Hoadley's type 2 chip production.

David

www.davidcharlesworth.com

I maybe con-fused too...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I was thinking how old maghagony furiniture looks, deep red.

Re: does planed wood look better?

Don Thompson - Cutler Ridge, Florida

>Frank,

Is the shellac to limit penetration of the tinted poly?

Re: does planed wood look better?

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>Yes. It does too good a job, I'm afraid. I just grabbed a bunch of cut-offs and tried various things. So far, red mahogany stain seems to give the best results. I can finish that with shellac and probably have the finish I want.

Re: I must be con-fused...

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>The African mahogany I have is different colors. My understanding is that it will come in either a yellowish/brown or a reddish/brown basic color. my stock is the yellowish/brown although the dust from sanding is salmon colored.

Re: I maybe con-fused too...

Frank Mutchler in Colorado Springs

>Scott, that's the color I want to end up with!

Re: synonymy

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>Hereabouts, we usually just call it "ribbon striped". Changing the name doesn't make it any easier to plane.

Re: Anyone tamed African Mahogany??

KL

>Did a lot of piano/grands refinishing 20 years ago.

Just sanding it starting with grit 60 by hand or machine in a strait line. Next use cardscrapers.

finishing with first a chemical (potasium dichr.?)to give it a yellow/orange tint. Then shellac garnet polish. Fill the pores with shellac or stop polishing and steelwool with wax.

kees

Re: I maybe con-fused too...

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Frank here's a poor picture of a colour sample of African mahogany coloured with NaOH as I described above. The wood started out very pale and perhaps yellowish. Plane shavings were brown/salmon coloured as you desribed.

The 1/4 tsp of NaOH powder per cup of water concentration appears to give approximately the colour you are looking for.

I tried colouring the sample with three different concentrations of NaOH. There is an untreated section showing the original wood colour between each trial section.

ps. I also had a heck of a time planing this wood. Some sections planed beautifully, but watch out if you planed the wrong way at the wrong spot - there would be a 1/8" deep section of tearout. A very sharp 50 degree smoother with a very tight mouth and careful attention to grain direction eventually worked.

Another typo...1/4 tbsp per cup, not tsp.

GolfSteve in Calgary

>

Where's Arno when ya need him?!

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Ok, late into this thread, but here goes:

The problem here (well, my problem here, since I seem to be the only one riddled in befuddlement, yet again) is one of colloquial naming. The "African mahogany" I've purchased from Hearne Hardwoods was sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum), which they listed as synonymous with African mahogany. Then, after some quick Googling, I find a whole bunch of links refering to Khaya Ivorensis as "African mahogany", which, I think, is the wood being discussed here. Also found that many species of Khaya are grouped and sold as "African mahogany". Finally found another page (whose URL I can't seem to find again) which suggested both genera are grouped (along with some others) as "African mahoganies", though none are true mahoganies.

So, there you go. Another case where binomial nomenclature'd save the day. Anyway, sapele isn't what's being discussed here. Which most, if not all, of you already knew. Now I'm finally on the same page. Late. As usual. Feel like Eeyore. Dadgummit.