Is Mohagony bad?

[Patrice Lemée]

Did a search for it on here and got 1 result.
Is there something about it that makes it wrong for scales?

Patrice

 

[mr2blue]

Try Mahogany

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks.

Patrice

 

[Brendan]

it's really bad, especially after a few beers - real nasty !!


sorry, couldn't resist !!

 

[Steve Hayden]

Mahogany has beautiful irridescent/chatoyant color, but often lacks patterned grain.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

It has all the right properties except interesting grain.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

Thanks guys. A friend gave me some. I'll keep it for utility/simpler knives.

Patrice

 

[Edro20]

I bet that it would make a nice contrasting spacer on a knife handle.

 

[firebert]

I prefer mahogany in larger pieces (boxes and furniture) than knife handles. That said, if I had a piece with the right figure, I wouldn't hesitate to use it in a handle. I'd think about getting it stabilized, though. I've always considered mahogany as soft for a hardwood.

 

[bikermikearchery]

Nice color, not much grain pattern. Hard and durable.

 

[Raymond Richard]

I once saw a Mohagony run a red light but I wouldn't say there all bad.

 

[Deweyknives]

Depends on the sub-species. Some is pretty, some very straight. Straight stuff tends to split easy along the grain. [been there ]

 

[Phydeaux]

Make sure you get real mahogany (Honduras), which is a beautiful hard wood. There is a wood called phillipine mahogany which is not a true mahogany. the phillipine mahogany is not a hardwood.

 

[cordovan]

Thinking outside the box here, I've got some mahogany that I use for inlay that has really neat and spectacular grain. It does this 3-d thing where the pattern changes as I shift it around in the light. Shellac really brings that phenomenon out. The difference is that I'm using the end grain. Not sure how that would work out for scales.

 

[firebert]

Make sure you get real mahogany (Honduras), which is a beautiful hard wood. There is a wood called phillipine mahogany which is not a true mahogany. the phillipine mahogany is not a hardwood.

This is correct. There are many things called mahogany. Some are related some are not.

I consider Swietenia Macrophylla to be "true" mahogany. But there are other species in the same family and even in the same genus. These include Khaya Ivorensis (African mahogany) and Entandrophragma Cylindricum (sapele). These related species are also very nice and can have amazing figure.

Mahogany is considered THE furniture wood for good reason. It's easy to work, stable and beautiful.

 

[James_Terrio]

I bet that it would make a nice contrasting spacer on a knife handle.

Yeah. I used some plain walnut that way with birdseye maple making up most of the handle and it came out nice.

Mahogany is considered THE furniture wood for good reason. It's easy to work, stable and beautiful.

True... it's also highly prized in musical instruments for those reasons, plus the fact that it has a nice warm tone. For instance, a large majority of Gibson Les Paul's have a mahogany body.