Type of wood
- Thread starter Pellere
- Start date
L&VW
Well-Known Member
Looks like each of my five Sunfish's. One of my tillers is mahogany.
Freshly varnished, they have a deep and gorgeous luster. Back in the 1950s, while building a wooden boat, my Dad and I found that loggers had begun to run out of mahogany.
A Miami acquaintance retired as a millionaire after developing a chainsaw with a 14-foot reach. So many "wild" trees had been deforested from Haiti's slopes, a longer saw blade was needed to reach the remainder!
Today's mahogany is a cultivated "crop".
Freshly varnished, they have a deep and gorgeous luster. Back in the 1950s, while building a wooden boat, my Dad and I found that loggers had begun to run out of mahogany.
A Miami acquaintance retired as a millionaire after developing a chainsaw with a 14-foot reach. So many "wild" trees had been deforested from Haiti's slopes, a longer saw blade was needed to reach the remainder!
Today's mahogany is a cultivated "crop".
joe c
banned
It's difficult if not impossible to find nice pattern grade south American or "Honduran" now. The restrictions have made it difficult to get and expensive..While the same species grows all over south america and parts of mexico..honduras has the best soil environment and oldest growth. African mahogany, kaya, and what people call sapele are not nearly the same wood but a close substitute for it. I've milled probably 10s of thousands of bf of Honduran pattern. Lots of bars and entry ways in south boston.Looks like each of my five Sunfish's. One of my tillers is mahogany.
Freshly varnished, they have a deep and gorgeous luster. Back in the 1950s, while building a wooden boat, my Dad and I found that loggers had begun to run out of mahogany.
A Miami acquaintance retired as a millionaire after developing a chainsaw with a 14-foot reach. So many "wild" trees had been deforested from Haiti's slopes, a longer saw blade was needed to reach the remainder!
Today's mahogany is a cultivated "crop".
Most likely it was either pattern grade or fas grade or a mix. Tillers I don't believe we're originally made from mahogany. It doesn't have the strength. Every one I've seen looks to be ash. But I'm sure it varied through the years.
And mahogany, if its not when dressed, will turn orange from reddish with purple heart wood. Left untreated, it turns grey like everything else.
Mahogany would have been easy and inexpensive to get in 1990..so likely. Lots of things being built from it back then.
Not factory, this particular tiller was crafted along "wishbone" lines, which suggests the craftsman knew of mahogany's limitations.
But I could be recalling the tiller's makeup incorrectly.
When I'm back at its location, I'll snap a picture for all to beat up on me. 
Tiller looks to be ash, a good type wood for that application, strong with some flex but not too heavy. Some received mahogany stain back in the day to match the "mahogany" rudder and daggerboard.
The rudder and daggerboard seem close to sapele mahogany to me, but to be sure I'd need to saw it in half and sense if it smells like cedar, and then bend it til it breaks to determine elasticity modulus...
They look like nice blades and should serve you well on your Flagship, which we'd love to see photos of.
The rudder and daggerboard seem close to sapele mahogany to me, but to be sure I'd need to saw it in half and sense if it smells like cedar, and then bend it til it breaks to determine elasticity modulus...
They look like nice blades and should serve you well on your Flagship, which we'd love to see photos of.