Timber Profile - Mahogany

Mahogany is an important source of timber due to its durability, rot resistance, and warm reddish colour. It is a tall evergreen tree that produces hardwood. The foliole of each compound leaf is arranged like a feather. It has white flowers borne in clusters, while its fruit is a capsule that contains winged seeds through which they propagate.

Some of the commercial mahogany is e African Khaya and Entandophragma. Lauan, or Philippine, mahogany (Shorea species) of the family Dipterocarpaceae. Mahogany is usually used for furniture making, cabinets, flooring, Jewelry box, plywood veneers, boats and panelling. The tree can grow as high as 75 feet and up to 50 feet. The big leaf variety can grow up to 200 feet and live up to 350 feet, while Honduras mahogany is the smallest and can grow up to 20 feet.

The sawdust can cause an allergic reaction

Mahogany is quite popular among woodworkers for several reasons, which include:

Workability: the tree is known for its gentle nature. It is easy to work it (sanding and machining) and has an amount of density which makes it flexible.
Stability: This timber exhibits minimal shrinkage and swelling.
Decent rot resistance: the resistance cannot be compared with other tropical timbers,
It has a beautiful wood grain
The tree yields long, wide, knotless and defect-free boards.
It stains and polishes well
It is quite resistant to wear and tear.

The mahogany is chosen due to its unique features, but it is also limited due to these features :

Colour disparity: the wood is available in various colours, and getting the same for a large uniform job can be difficult
Darkens over time; the wood darkens after absorbing sunlight, thereby changing its entire look
Price: due to its scarcity and continued demand, the prices of timber increase daily
Identification: some species of trees can be passed on as mahogany due to its similarities; hence identifying the real one can be difficult.

However, the wood market is filled with many mahogany look-alikes because some of the varieties share similarities in quality with mahogany. Kaya spp., also known as the African Mahogany, is the most affordable and easiest substitute to the swietenia, and they are related biologically, although it is not as dense as the true mahogany.

Another substitute with African origin is the Entandrophragma cylindricum, also known as Sapele, and Entandrophragma utile, also known as Sipo, has similar characteristics to the Cuban mahogany but is not readily available.

The genuine Mahogany has been chosen with the highest of standards, and they include:

Swietenia Mahogani, also referred to as Cuban mahogany, is the original mahogany. It is a very scarce and highly demanded wood, as one tree can yield a large amount of timber. The trees were banned from being exported out of Cuba due to overharvesting and the reduction of the specie from the forests.
Swietenia macrophylla, also known as Honduran Mahogany, American Mahogany, Genuine Mahogany, Big-Leaf Mahogany, and Brazilian Mahogany, is closely related to the Cuban Mahogany in features and is also an original mahogany by standards.
Swietenia humilis is also referred to as Mexican Mahogany. It is smaller in size when compared to the first two above and has a lower quality of lumber due to knots and irregular grains.

African mahogany, also known as khaya spp has quite a number of specie which includes K. anthotheca, K. grandifoliola, K. ivorensis, and K. senegalensis. Although it belongs to a different genus and origin from the first 3, they all belong to the Meliaceae family which suggests the reason for their similarities. However, the African mahogany has more interlocked grain than the swietenis specie. The K. anthotheca is said to be the source of the true African mahogany, it is a very large tree, highly valued, and other species are sold as it. It is used for flooring, panelling, instrument making and also used to make canoes.

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