Mods, please move if in wrong thread.
I'm wondering if anyone has worked much with mountain mahogany? I was given a few logs of it recently and really like it. Come to find out, it's quite common in my area. I was informed where to go to harvest some and I am working on figuring out some logistics. I don't want to get to excited about it yet, but I'm hoping someone could give me some more info regarding harvesting, milling and turning it. I have not found much about it online, other then it's compared to DIW. I looked up both on wood database and found the following.
DIW:
Dried weight 75lbs/ft3
Janka- 3260lbf or 14500 N
MM
Dried weight 69 lbs/ft3
Janka- 3200lbf or 14230 N
These seem pretty similar to me, but I'm far from an expert. It says MM can grow 10-20' and have a trunk of 1'. Most of what I see is 10' and an 8" trunk would be a good find, most is 6" or less I would say.
It is really twisty and looks like sage brush on steroids, how would you deal with this? Cut logs at the bends and mill from there? With it being so small and hard, can you keep the pith? For turning duck calls like this, maybe @SENC would have an idea?
It seems to crack a lot and I read one thing where a guy said 80-90% can go to waste. I would have to take dead trees, any advice with this to minimize cracking?
Any general tips working with this specific wood? I turned some with carbides and it seemed fine to me.
Again, I don't want to get excited until I get some, but there seems to be plenty around. I have found very little of it online for sale. One place was selling chunks and the other place had little blanks. I heard it's sought after for knife and pistol grips and a guy in Oregon makes duck calls from it. It's used in musical instruments such as violin pegs. I think it would make nice pens or vases with inclusions. Part of the fun of this was learning the history on the wood. Native Americans used it for bows and digging tools, it was used in smelters as it burns really hot and apparently was used for roller skate wheels at one point. Sorry about the rambling, but part of the joy I have in turning is learning the history of woods. I have attached some pics so you guys can give me your opinions on it! I personally like the tight grain pattern and colors.
Also, @shadetree_1 and I spoke about this and I said I would tag him so he could see pics
Put water on these to help show grain:
Endgrain:
Side view/Scale
Couple of pen blanks
Cutoffs
Quick turning I did with whatever friction finish was closest. In all honesty, I didn't take my time really, skipped grits...I wanted to see how it looked!
I'm wondering if anyone has worked much with mountain mahogany? I was given a few logs of it recently and really like it. Come to find out, it's quite common in my area. I was informed where to go to harvest some and I am working on figuring out some logistics. I don't want to get to excited about it yet, but I'm hoping someone could give me some more info regarding harvesting, milling and turning it. I have not found much about it online, other then it's compared to DIW. I looked up both on wood database and found the following.
DIW:
Dried weight 75lbs/ft3
Janka- 3260lbf or 14500 N
MM
Dried weight 69 lbs/ft3
Janka- 3200lbf or 14230 N
These seem pretty similar to me, but I'm far from an expert. It says MM can grow 10-20' and have a trunk of 1'. Most of what I see is 10' and an 8" trunk would be a good find, most is 6" or less I would say.
It is really twisty and looks like sage brush on steroids, how would you deal with this? Cut logs at the bends and mill from there? With it being so small and hard, can you keep the pith? For turning duck calls like this, maybe @SENC would have an idea?
It seems to crack a lot and I read one thing where a guy said 80-90% can go to waste. I would have to take dead trees, any advice with this to minimize cracking?
Any general tips working with this specific wood? I turned some with carbides and it seemed fine to me.
Again, I don't want to get excited until I get some, but there seems to be plenty around. I have found very little of it online for sale. One place was selling chunks and the other place had little blanks. I heard it's sought after for knife and pistol grips and a guy in Oregon makes duck calls from it. It's used in musical instruments such as violin pegs. I think it would make nice pens or vases with inclusions. Part of the fun of this was learning the history on the wood. Native Americans used it for bows and digging tools, it was used in smelters as it burns really hot and apparently was used for roller skate wheels at one point. Sorry about the rambling, but part of the joy I have in turning is learning the history of woods. I have attached some pics so you guys can give me your opinions on it! I personally like the tight grain pattern and colors.
Also, @shadetree_1 and I spoke about this and I said I would tag him so he could see pics
Put water on these to help show grain:
Endgrain:
Side view/Scale
Couple of pen blanks
Cutoffs
Quick turning I did with whatever friction finish was closest. In all honesty, I didn't take my time really, skipped grits...I wanted to see how it looked!
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