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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.

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too cool, man. thats a great little story. thanks for sharing.

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sweat the small stuff.

sweet thanks for sharing the story ! I noticed you NEVER offered to share the WOOD

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I am certain it is at least mostly true about the aging changing the color. I actually did reply to a local ad here in town where a guy was advertising some mahogany. I knew I live in such a backwater podunk place that there could not be any genuine mahogany here, but the price was so low I went to look anyway. That is where I learned how they used to make the molds for the inside plastic lining of refrigerators. I could not believe this guy had all this real pattern grade mahogany left over from the 1970's. It was a little boring looking because it was ordered as pattern stuff and so was mostly flatsawn and real wide(18-22 wide). It is a shade or two or three darker than that imported today.
Also, when the hurricanes knocked over the mahoganies I collected from miami, it was really pinkish looking, but has mellowed/browned in storage here over a few years. The stuff from florida is the finer grained called cuban, and may be even more color reactive with time.
Always be on the lookout for the old mahoganies.
There is a guy around the block from me here that is cutting some fresh neck blanks that are being sold on the ebay, and they are very pale in color, but I have noticed they look better about 6 months after he cuts them to size. When they are first cut, I would sort of swear they are too light to even be mahogany.
Now whether time is the only factor or not, I am unsure. Maybe someone who has seen lumber freshly cut 50 years ago, might be more certain.

Thanks guys.
Mike, great post.
Besides being darker, the grain of my wood seems much finer that anything I get today.
I live in an refinery town, and there was a pattern works just around the corner from my home. It was sort of a hardware store, bicycle shop, foundry, pattern works and machine shop all in one. In about 1979 I went by there to visit the owner we called "old man McCloud" and he showed me a bunch of pattern mahogany he had in his loft, and yep, I bought it for $60, huge long boards and one 6" x 14" x 7' "log" that I had no idea how I was going to cut. I still have one piece of that lot, a "double" neck blank.

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If you mean by a finer grain a much smaller pore, you might have the real mccoy there, cuban mahogany- I have seen it in old public buildings before. Its kinda hard to tell, because sometimes the pore is smallish in quartered honduran, but even on the flat sawn pieces the pore is smallish, like on a good(northern) piece of walnut.
The necks the guy nearby is cutting are from honduras and they do have a smallish pore, just not quite as small as cuban.

That's some nice mahogany, alright, and those are a couple of SWEET uke bodies. In color and grain pattern, they look very much like my dad's 1920's vintage Martin soprano uke--now in my possession. I also have a chest of drawers which my dad built from a re-purposed 1930s radio/78rpm record player cabinet. (We actually had the radio and speaker re-puporsed to our shop three houses ago, too.) The chest has a dark/light/dark ribbony grain pattern running through it, very fine pores, and a color very much like what I see in your uke bodies. I look at my chest of drawers all the time. I think.... ...but then I stop myself. It was a radio cabinet which my parents owned early in their marriage. It's now a piece of furniture that my dad built forty five years ago. He has been gone for 35 years. It's from his hand. It might be mine, but I could never cut it up for instruments. .....but I do have the occasional fantasy.....

Patrick

About 25 years ago I walked into a lumber yard to pick uo some supplies. While I was waiting I walked over to a rack with mahogany stacked upright. It had the same dark red/brown color. I asked the salesman about it and he said it was an old stash of Cuban Mahogany. At the time I had no interest in guitars but bought some 12/4 and 5/4 stock to make furniture with. Sure wish I knew then what I know now. I would have borrowed the money and bought it all.

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What a great story!

I have been on the lookout for old mahogany tables of exactly that kind, trying to get the materials together to replicate a 1958/59 Les Paul using the old growth woods that would have been available at the time Gibson put them together. I have some nice figured maple salvaged from Lake Superior that is probably from the turn of the century, but I am still on the lookout for that old mahogany 5 years after I got the idea.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

Bob, do you know some characteristics to compare Honduras & Cuban?
Since I bought a set of the Pacific Cuban you had on offer, and some of "my old mahogany" and some recent Honduras, I should make a close up study. I don't quite see any obvious differences.
Would be funny if the old tables were Cuban.

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Looove old dark Mahogany.

I'd love to get my hands on some!

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Jim Hansen

Jim from my observations cuban is darker, denser and smaller pores.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

pm me your address again dave, and I will send you a stick of cuban from miami that is laying on the desk here. Just a stick, but when you look at the pores, you will know. I think I still owe you anyway.