$483 Worth of Mahogany

Article - May 10, 2011

Much like a teenage girl at the Mall, I did some damage today! Ever wonder what $483 worth of Genuine Honduras Mahogany looks like? It looks a lot like that pile of boards you see in the back of my truck! This is the material I plan to use for the upcoming Adirondack Chair Guild Build. Since the chair is heavily Greene & Greene influenced, I decided to go with Genuine Honduras Mahogany. This mahogany has decent rot resistance and will do fairly well outdoors.

Mahogany can be very expensive but it might not be as bad as you think. I purchased enough for two chairs (maybe) but on some thicknesses I have WAY more than I need. That wasn’t my original intention, but sometimes the boards come long and I really don’t mind having stock left over. Does anyone?! So let’s break down my sweet stash and the prices.

8/4 – 16 Board Feet @ $8.65/BF = 138.40
6/4 – 15 Board Feet @ $9.00/BF = 135.00
4/4 – 26 Board Feet @ $8.08/BF = 210.08
———————-
Total = $483.48

Our cut list estimates for this project call for 1.3 BF of 8/4, 5.1 BF of 6/4, and 13.6 BF of 4/4. So I should have enough for two chairs, although I might need to resaw some of that 8/4 stock to get some extra 4/4 to work with.

I also wanted to point out the two lighter boards in the stash. They are lighter simply because they were recently surfaced to some extent. But what caught my eye was the beautiful milky swirls in the grain. Also notice how the cathedral grain pattern is a little more pronounced due to the lighter veins of white outlining them. I honestly don’t know how these boards will age, but I thought they would be great candidates for creating some nice focal points on the back slats. Hopefully I won’t regret that decision. But hey, you have to take a chance sometimes and when I see something interesting at the lumber yard, I snag it! With some finish and natural aging, it may not make one bit of difference but it was certainly worth a shot. Next stop: millin’ time!

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