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MAHOGANY, CUBAN

Swietenia mahagoni

THE MAHOGANY FAMILY a brief history of the mahoganies in the Americas plus a discussion of the whole family and the various names used

Swietenia mahagoni of the family Meliaceae

A note on Cuban mahogany: this species is basically not available in lumber form these days. I think the best expression of this is (this is a slight paraphrase of a comment by Eric Meier of The Wood Database in an email to me):

I just tell people that unless they actually live in Cuba, it's not Cuban mahogany and you're being delusionally optimistic to think otherwise.

Also, note: Cuban Manogany (Swietenia mahagani) cannot be distinguished from Honduran mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) outside of a well equipped wood science lab

my samples: NOTE: these pics were all taken in very bright incandescent lighting ("soft white" at 2700K) colors will vary under other lighting conditions

both sides of a sample plank of Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of West Indies mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of West Indies mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. Because of the light color, I'm thinking this might be all sapwood, but that's not necessarily the case.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of West Indies mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


small plank contributed to the site by Les Carr whom I thank for this and other contributions. HUGE enlargements are present for all the pics of this piece


end grain of the piece directly above, along with a face grain closeup showing the ray flakes of a surface area that is perfectly quartersawn


end grain closeup and END GRAIN UPDATE of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample of Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni. This part of a collection which is discussed here: COLLECTION A and is one of the few pieces from that collection that were too skinny to do end grain pics.


both sides of a crotch sample piece of West Indies mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a crotch sample piece of West Indies mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


both sides of a sample plank of mahogany, puerto rican / Swietenia mahagoni x macrophyl --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by Mark Peet whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above

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The Wood Book pics


flat cut, quartersawn, end grain
mahogany, cuban (Swietenia mahagoni, also listed as maderia wood) from The Wood Book --- both levels of enlargement are available for each of the 3 views.

web pics:

Cuban mahogany end grain --- HUGE enlargements are present


waxed log end listed as Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni


Cuban mahogany plank with wet and dry sections, and two end grain shots from the sample plank --- photographed by John Fuher whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site. HUGE enlargements are present.


planks


plank listed as caoba


flat cut and bookmatched quartersawn veneer listed as Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni


crotch veneer


veneer


paneling listed as Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni


flooring listed as Cuban mahogany / Swietenia mahagoni


guitar back


Cuban mahogany bowl turned and photographed by John Fuher, whom I thank for these pics and many other contributions to the site. The plank on which the bowl is sitting in the first pic shows both web and dry sections and is the same long plank from which the bowl blank was cut. HUGE enlargements are present.