I felt the need to pay tribute to the last of my “Old Mahogany”.
In 1975, just out of the Navy and having set up a shop in my brother’s house, I was building my first few instruments, and doing some repairs for the local guitar store.
My dad, in the furniture business, was leasing a turn of the century warehouse that was scheduled to be demolished, told me of some old Mahogany tables that had originally been in the 1900 Post Office in our city, and if I didn’t want them, they would “go” with the building.
In 1901 the Spindletop oil field came in, and that Post Office became the busiest post office in the country for a while, it was truly a “boomtown”. Written on those tables must have been letters of fortunes made overnight, and scams that stole millions of dollars.
I usually advise against furniture as a source of instrument wood, as veneer is usually found, but, being government furniture, what could I expect but the most expensive tables of their kind. With 36” x 48” and 18” x 60” tops, and 36” to the writing height, with 4” x 4” square legs, and a 6” apron all around, there was plenty of 3/4” & 1½” thick Honduras Mahogany to be had.
I used one for a shop table, and dismantled the others, only to become our first dining room table when I got married. Our little girls sat at the table at dinner time with the food at about nose level, so out into storage it went.
Over the years I have chipped away at this dark Mahogany, mostly for necks and blocks, but I remember 4 guitars, and at least a dozen ukes made from the wood. In the last few months I’ve made some more ukes, each one touted as the last of my “old wood”, only to find enough for one more. After that last uke, I made a concerted search through my piles, and am now convinced beyond doubt that this is the last 2 instruments that will be made of it.
I often wondered why this wood was so dark, and all the mahogany I buy today is so light. I asked Jerry Hibdon if he ever gets dark Mahogany, and he told me that this wood was probably light when it was cut, and it darkens over the years, so there is hope that all the light-colored Mahogany that I use today will one day be rich and dark. But I am always on the lookout for old Mahogany, stored in the loft of some abandoned Pattern Works.
