Mahogany

[George F.]

I see there has been some talk about stocking woods, ash was mentioned today, I saw on the "other site" pecan, the walnuts, even apple I heard once, pear, persimion,  cherry, I heard someone tried oak, but was extremely hard to work, and my guess, heavy. I guess your everyday domestic woods. I know mahogany isn't a domestic wood, but I have never heard it mentioned. Any opinions?   ...Geo.

[rich pierce]

Soft and brash.  Probably dimensionally stable though.  Nice grain and color but not much figure except crotch grain.

[Ryan McNabb]

I used to wonder the same thing, but have never ever seen a gun stocked in mahogany.  For one thing, it's not a terribly hard wood.  For another, the original mahogany (old growth, rain forest) that would have been obtained in the 18th century is now nearly unobtainable on the market.  Most of what remains is in small pieces for the luxury guitar trade.  The "mahogany" that is commonly available is a lighter, softer wood, as different from the original as cherry is from walnut.  It's cheap and available - if you want a slab 4" thick by 10 feet long you can find one.  I wouldn't waste my time.

Most of the fruit woods mentioned that sometimes get snickers (apple, etc.) are actually very high quality woods that would be very suitable for stocking, if you could get a piece large enough for a stock blank.  Apple is wonderfully dense.

Wallace Gusler showed me a piece of holly just big enough to make a jaeger out of - it was insanely curled, and probably more than 100 years old.  It was from a huge, old neglected holly bush he found.  Good luck finding anything like that ever again.  It would have made a splendid ivory-hard stock that would carve like a dream.

[P.W.Berkuta]

I have a Remington 1100 20 gauge lightweight made in the 60's or 70's with a factory mahogany stock. It holds two shots only, its light in weight but the wood is unimpressive. I put a figured walnut stock on it. It now looks and shoots good.

[Eric Kettenburg]

I've made a few electric guitars out of very old pieces of old-growth Honduran mahogany culled from scrapped antique furniture/doors.  The newer stuff, which is not terribly hard to get but is pricey (as Ryan mentioned above, due to the Gibson cult ) is nothing like the old wood and frankly I'd never want to stock a rifle in even old tight-grained south american mahogany.  Too stringy, chippy, light etc.  You can get big pieces of Sapele (African 'mahogany') pretty easily, wacky ribbon figure but stinky, bad for your lungs and very unpredictable as to quality of grain, or crappy philippine 'mahogany' (Luan) or various other mahoganies which may or may not be real mahogany.  You'd be 1000% better off with a piece of walnut, and I hate walnut, but at least it's hard and it kind of looks like mahogany.

[oakridge]

There was a discussion about mahogany a while back. I have an ugly percussion pistol, made around 1850, that is stocked in mahogany. But, I've never seen a rifle using that wood. I don't think it would be a wise choice.

[jerrywh]

I have seen pistols stocked in Ebony.

[George F.]

A pistol stocked in ebony must of been butt heavy,  or just heavy I would think.  ...Geo.

[Z. Buck]

ok so i have some chunks of what i thought was mahogany, but light and soft are the exact opposite of what these are heavy and hard and he11, what do they look like to you all?

dry


with some olive oil rubbed on

second picture shows truer color

[Dan'l 1946]

Looks like true mahogany. A great boat building wood and wonderful for furniture too.  Seems like it would make a heavy stock . Almost impossible to get now anyway. The stuff sold as mahogany today has a resemblance to the real wood but is softer not very rot resistant. Sometimes you'll see Spanish cedar sold as mahogany but it isn't. Probably isn't really cedar either.

Sort of on the same subject, has anyone run across a wood called mountain mahogany. I believe it grows in the western part of the country and was sometimes used as gunstock wood?

[Joe S]

I’m familiar with Mountain Mahogany.  It’s more of a large shrub than an actual tree. I’ve never seen anything remotely big enough to make a rifle stock, but maybe somewhere there are giant Mountain Mahoganys.  Mountain Mahogany is in the Family Rosaceae, as are apples and pears.  These are good hardwoods, so perhaps Mountain Mahogany is similar.

[George F.]

To me it looks like Luan, which is kinda brownish. ...Geo.

[Dan'l 1946]

I’m familiar with Mountain Mahogany.  It’s more of a large shrub than an actual tree. I’ve never seen anything remotely big enough to make a rifle stock, but maybe somewhere there are giant Mountain Mahoganys.  Mountain Mahogany is in the Family Rosaceae, as are apples and pears.  These are good hardwoods, so perhaps Mountain Mahogany is similar.

There was an old timer some years ago that had a rifle he said was stocked with mountain mahogany. It did look a little bit like mahogany only he had put a dark stain on it so it had to out in bright sun light to see the grain. Very hard wood as I recall.

[Dan'l 1946]

Could be luan I guess. There are several woods that mimic mahogany. That's how some people get away with  calling various woods mahogany and adding a descriptive to give themselves some wiggle room. That bottom photo does look like it could be real though.

[FL-Flintlock]

Zack,

Possibly Lyptus.  Normally it's in the red to rust colors but occasionally found in amber, pink & brown.  Normally it's fairly straight grained but occasionally you can find it with some curl.  Density 40#/ft3, stable & hard.

[billd]

Zack,   
Could that teak?  I have small pieces left over from a boat repair that someone gave me. I never saw any large pieces.

Bill

[Z. Buck]

i suppose it could be teak or lyptus, what that piece of board is is the trim piece from coffin wood, a local rendezvous gets chunks like that for firewood, mostly that stuff and walnut, i would hate to have to carry the coffin made out of whatever this piece of wood is (other than as much as it would mean someone i care for is in it) is that that wood already weighs more that a similar sized piece of oak

[Robby]

Goex, I remember reading somewhere that early furniture makers would call our native cherry "mountain mahogany". Probably trying to make it sound more exotic, good marketing.

[Levy]

If I'm not mistaken, Herter's used to offer rifle stocks out of mahogany.  It was advertised as not being your run of the mill stuff, but strong enough and dense enough for stocks.  I have a friend with a ML shotgun stocked in mahogany by Arthur Huscusson in Franklin, NC.  I have a ML 12 ga. shotgun finished by him to, but in walnut.

James Levy

[Collector]

If it's being used by coffin manufacturers, it's being tree-farmed someplace.  Many wood importers outright  own or have an interest in tree farms in countries like Costa Rica or Brazil.  As dense as these 'mahogany-like' woods are (i.e. kumaru) you need to keep your tweezers handy for splinters... don't ask me how I know.     

If you're looking for sectional density, for firearms stock making, hard maple is your choice.  Surely hundreds of years of professional selection and use, for this purpose, should tell us something.

[E.vonAschwege]

I have an original 1820's-30's English export fowler, halfstock, stocked in mahogany.  This piece seems about the same density as average black walnut.  It shrunk considerably over the years, but everything is still solid. 

At an antique fair last month I picked up a piece of figured wood, about 14" x 36" by 2".  It has amazing figure, but I can't tell what kind of wood it is.  I first thought it was mahogany, but the person selling it said it was about 40 years old, cut from a tree in the lower midwest, and stored in a barn until now.  Whatever it is, it's dense, more red than american walnut.  Any ideas?

[George F.]

I don't know Eric, It looks like a burl.  I see a sap line, like evidence of some damage from a lightning strike at one time. As to species, haven't a clue. ..Geo.

[Robby]

Eric, I've never seen it that figured, but the bottom photo has qualities that remind me of osage orange. Is it real hard?

[Dan'l 1946]

Goex, I remember reading somewhere that early furniture makers would call our native cherry "mountain mahogany". Probably trying to make it sound more exotic, good marketing.

I'll bet that's the answer! Makes perfect sense. Thanks.
                                                                          Dan

[Dan'l 1946]

If I'm not mistaken, Herter's used to offer rifle stocks out of mahogany.  It was advertised as not being your run of the mill stuff, but strong enough and dense enough for stocks.  I have a friend with a ML shotgun stocked in mahogany by Arthur Huscusson in Franklin, NC.  I have a ML 12 ga. shotgun finished by him to, but in walnut.

James Levy

True mahogany, like we used for planking boats was a dense and hard wood. It was available in long clear lengths and a number of thicknesses. Once seasoned it was dimensionally stable and was considered a fine wood for boat building. I have no doubt that this wood could be used for a gunstock, but it would be heavy as sin.