Mahogany Lumber: Genuine Mahogany 2022

Genuine Mahogany Lumber: What is it?

Genuine Mahogany lumber or Swietenia macrophylla (also called Honduras or Honduran mahogany) is the specie of choice for millwork, wood furniture, ship interiors and musical instrument tonewood.

Key Takeaways:

Woodworkers often consider Genuine Mahogany the one true mahogany.
Gibson Guitars use Genuine Mahogany for the bulk of their American-made guitar bodies.
Genuine Mahogany machines cleaner and smoother than mahogany substitutes like Okoume, Khaya and Meranti. Accordingly, it has less grain tear out when milled by hand or machine tooling.
Unlike African, Honduras Mahogany, Genuine Mahogany lumber has a consistent texture and low silca content. This means it mills longer without dulling toolblades.

Genuine Mahogany Lumber Data

Scientific Name	Swietenia Macrophylla
Common Names	Big Leaf Mahogany, Honduran Mahogany, Honduras Mahogany, Real Mahogany, South American Mahogany, True Mahogany
Family	Meliaceae
Genus	Swietenia
Higher Classification	Oleeae
Rank	Species
Kingdom	PLantae
Region of Origin	Central America, North America, South America
CITES Appendix	Yes
IUCN Red List of Concern	Yes
Durability	High
Density	Medium
Janka Rating	800
Scent	Sweet, Yes
Average Weight (LB) per Board Foot (KD)	3.0
Average Board Width (inches)	7.5
Average Board Length (feet)	10
Average Tree Diameter (inches)	55
Average Tree Height (feet)	180
Texture	Medium, Uniform
Heartwood Color	Brown, Red
Sapwood Color	Brown, Red
Grain Type	Fine, Normal, Slight, Uniform
Heart/Sap Distinction	Strong, Weak
Drying Difficulty	High, Medium, Prone to sap stain
Commercial Availability in US	Low, Medium
Cutting Ease	High, Machines well, Medium
Glue Difficulty	Adheres well, Low
Color Tone	Brown
Stability	High
Finish Difficulty	Low
Thickness Availability	10/4, 12/4, 16/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 8/4
Plain Sawn Availability	Yes
Quartersawn Availability	Yes
Live Sawn Availability	Yes
Veneer Availability	Yes
Grades Available	#1 Common, #2 Common, FAS, Select
Milling Available	Edge Glue, Gang Rip, Rough-sawn, S2S, SL1E, SL2E
Millwork Wood	Yes
Birdseye Figure	No
Curl Figure	Rare, Yes
Quilt Figure	Rare, Yes
Flame Figure	Rare, Yes
Furniture Wood	Yes
Turning Wood	Yes
Flooring Wood	Yes
Guitar Wood (Acoustic)	Yes
Guitar Wood (Electric)	Yes
Price	$$$
Similar Species	African Mahogany, Sapele, Spanish Cedar

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Genuine Mahogany Wood Properties

Scientific name: Swietenia macrophylla
Alternative Names: Honduras Mahog, Honduran Mahog, Cuban Mahog
Region of Origin: South America, Central America, North America
Average Dried Weight: 39.5LB/cubic foot
Janka Hardness Rating: 800
Specific Gravity: .595
Aromatic: Has a spicy-wood smell
IUCN Red List: Yes
CITES wood: Yes

Swietenia Macrophylla Producing Region

Mahogany Wood History

Origins

In 1671, the term mahogany was first used in print. Cartographer John Ogilby wrote of mahog in his atlas titled “America.”

At that time, there were no plantations. It grew in native areas only. These areas ranged from Florida to Peru and Brazil. This remained unchanged through most of the 20th century.

African slaves likely coined the term mahogany. They saw mahog trees in the West Indies. Because of the many similarities between African and Honduras, they mistook the new specie for Khaya or m’oganwo, as they referred to it. The similar phonetic sound of mahogany vs. m’oganwo is likely not a coincidence.

New York Times – Arts – “Felling Mahogany in Honduras.”

Although Honduras Mahog is synonymous with wealth and prestige, its early trade is characterized by boom and bust cycles. According to Central Washington University‘s Dr. Craig Stephen Revel‘s doctoral dissertation:

Controversy

Additionally, harvesting was inexorably tied to the slave trade. Thus, the wood was controversial. It was the blood diamond of the late 19th century. In The Lazy Tour of Two Apprentices, Charles Dickens uses mahogany as an allusion to slavery:

Modern Harvest Areas

Most of the Genuine Mahogany Timber (Swietenia macrophylla) now grown comes from plantations where the timber is managed under controlled conditions. They typically operate responsibly and sustain-ably.

Geographically, we are talking about areas in Mexico, Fiji, Costa Rica instead of lush rain forests. The soils in these plantations are different than the old harvest areas. More minerals in the soil = more mineral streaks/color variations. The new plantations also tend to be in faster growing areas which means quicker turn times for getting lumber to market. However, the quality is not the same. Young fast growing trees in a less-than- ideal climate results in wide growth rings, weird colors, pin knots, etc. Thus, plantation grown wood sometimes fails to command premium wood pricing.

Much of the production we’ve seen out of Fiji has at least some of these quality issues. It is the same specie as Genuine (Swietenia macrophylla) but it’s pinkish red color as opposed to dark brown primarily because of where it’s grown. Dark, dense, uniform color mahog can still be found.

Where Does the Best Mahogany Grow?

Here is our answer based on years of lumber buying experience.

For electric guitar bodywood applications, the best geographic region is in Mexico. This is because the rich Mexican soil promotes fast growth and low density wood in a low mineral environment. Additionally, production methods are often sustainable and well monitored. Thus the guitar wood is light weight and consistent color. The result is low weight uniform color guitar bodies.

For millwork and furniture applications, the best region is the central to southern portion of South America. Here, the wood growth is slow and wood tone is dark. Accordingly, the color is rich and consistent. Also, the lumber from this region machines better. This is due to less grain tear out than wood from faster growing regions.

Honduras Mahogany Lumber For Sale in 2022

Unfortunately, many people believe that high quality Genuine Mahogany no longer exists. Current production methods and locations are different than they were 200 years ago. Thus the product is different but not worse, in my opinion.

We supply Honduras/Genuine in quartersawn and plain-sawn grain orientations.

4/4 Genuine Mahog
5/4 Genuine Mahog
6/4 Genuine Mahog
8/4 Genuine Mahog
16/4 Genuine Mahog

Old Growth Mahogany

There are several ways to acquire high quality Honduran Mahogany lumber:

Find a way to some harvest prime old-growth wood from restricted forests. * This is not an option for us but unfortunately not everyone shares this morality.
Track down some of the few remaining Honduran stashes that have been sitting dormant in warehouses for years. Wood people have a tendency to go wood crazy when there is money in the bank and they’ve found something special. I know lumber baron-types who died leaving their estate with 7 figure sums of exotic woods to find homes for. It happens in smaller shops, too. When you suddenly find a rare exotic wood after years of fruitless searching it’s easy to over buy. Who knows when the next opportunity will present itself? Thus, a stash is born.
The third and best option is to align yourself with plantation producers who understand the quality issues and have controls in place to deal address them.

Why Is Plantation Mahogany Quality Inconsistent?

My theory is that the driving force behind many plantation operations are bean counters rather than lumber people.

Unfortunately,few accountants outside of the industry understand lumber well. Accountants like SKU’s that are cleanly categorized. There are dozens of reasons why a SKU of Honduras may be worth more or less than where an accountant pegs the value. Rather than lumber quality, the focus is too often on cash flow, ROI, inventory turns, political stability, etc. These are important considerations but all Genuine is not good Genuine.

Mahogany In Necks

Mahogany is one of the most common electric guitar and acoustic guitar neck woods. Perhaps second only to maple. Gibson Brands uses mahog necks in most of their guitar builds.

Roasted African Mahogany guitar body wood lumber — 10/4 Roasted Mahogany guitar neck wood.

How are Mahogany necks different than Maple necks?

MAH necks are different than Maple necks in several significant ways:

Appearance. MAH necks have a deep brown/red color tone with pronounced grain lines. Maple necks are typically made of white sapwood. Also, maple grain-lines are slight.
Density.Generally speaking MAH has a lower density than both sugar maple and soft maple. According to the Cedar Strip Kayak Workshop, maple is approximately 12% more dense than Honduras MAH. However, it combines both hard maple and soft maple into a single merged category. Thus, wood density variation is greater when comparing MAH to hard maple than soft maple.
Cost. Unfigured FAS grade Genuine MAH lumber costs approximately 200-300% more than Sugar Maple lumber.
Machining. Honduran MAH is very easy to shape and machine. It is not prone to grain tear-out. Whereas, maple is harder on tooling. Chipping is also more common in maple than mahog. Significantly, Sugar Maple is also commonly referred to as Hard Maple.
Tone. Among luthiers, MAH is known as a darker and warmer sounding tonewood than maple. Maple has a clean pronounced tone with a strong mids and highs. Maple tone characteristics involve clarity and note separation.

Read Steve Ondich's answer to Is Honduran mahogany higher quality than other mahogany? on Quora

GENUINE MAHOGANY Lumber 2024