Cuban Mahogany

[Brookside]

Does anyone know of a good source of cuban mahogany? (swietenia mahagoni) I found a Blue Moon Exotic Woods that appears to have it. Anyone ever dealt with them before? Could someone translate the mill language for me? What is a board foot? Widths are refered to as 4/4, 8/4, 12/4. What does that translate to? Sorry for such stupid questions. I've just never dealt with a mill before.

[Jeff Hildreth]

A "real " board foot is 12" by 12" x 1" thick

But if you go to an average lumber yard and get construction lumber milled in america a board foot is likely 11 1/4" by 11 1/4" by 13/16ths "

4/4 means a full 4 1/4 inches or a "real" one inch.. but alas American
lumber would be 13/16ths
5/4 is usually an actual 1 inch
6/4 should be 1 1/2 but is usually 1 1/4"
8/4 should be 2 full inches but more than likely 1 5/8 to 13/4
unless the lumber is measured "rough" or milled exact or from out of the country

confused.. try buying a 2 x 4 and see what you get

As far as Cuban MAhogany.. hmmm I have a small bit of the real stuff
but unless it comes with a passport...Cuban offered for sale may not be Cuban.. just as Brazilian Rosewood may be spruciana or amazonas

If it's nice looking stuff tight grain very small pores go for it
tough t tell between higher grades of Honduran and cuban

I am no expert... I look for characteristics not green cards


Jeff

[danb]

Cuban Mahogany appeared briefly as windfall from Hurricane Andrew.. Southern Florida stuff. I've seen a bouzouki back & sides made from that, it's a wonderful instrument. Zan McLeod's http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[sunburst]

A "real " board foot is 12" by 12" x 1" thick
True, but any shaped board that is 144 cubic inches in size represents a board foot. It can be 1" by 6" by 2' for example.

The quarter measurements refer to rough sawn lumber, and are in fact quarters of an inch.
A four quarter board actually leaves the sawmill 1 1/8" thick. After drying and milling it should be 3/4" thick, but is still called four quarter lumber.
The 5 quarter board refered to earlier should have started out 1 3/8" thick and was dried and milled to 1' thick.

In general, a board milled 1/8" over (1 1/8" for a 4/4 board) will shrink in drying to about 1 inch. It is then milled (planed) to remove the rough saw marks and any cup, twist or warp to the 3/4" thickness.

The main reason for measuring in quarters is the sawmill. Sawmills cant saw much more accurately than quarters, so lumber will vary in thickness as it leaves the mill. Anyone who has built anything with roughsawn lumber knows this. There are cut-off points where below this measurement it's 4/4, above this measurement it's 5/4 for example.

[Luthier]

Brookside, how much do you need?

Don

[Brookside]

I need at least a 2 X 6, at least 6 ft in length. Perhaps a bit more if it were really good stuff, and available.

[thistle3585]

Brookside,
If interested. I have about a 30 page word document on just about everything that has to do with mahogany. It includes photos of a couple different species. It also lists a myriad of sources across the US. I originally accumulated it for boat building. check out www.woodweb.com as a resource just be careful because a lot of people advertise Honduran or Cuban but actually sell african.