How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently
He said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan.
It has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.

Larry

salacioustoo wrote:
How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently
He said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan.
It has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.


Luan also spelt lauan can be any one of several species (~200) from
four different genera. They range in color from a very pale tan
(white mahogany) to dark cocoa and the grain can range from bold
like oak or pine to suble and nearly uniform like, well, mahogany.

It can be nearly as light as balsa or almost as dense as teak
and duarability varies as well.

--

FF

salacioustoo wrote:

How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently
He said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan.
It has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.

Virtually anything you find at the box stores or a commercial home
center/lumberyard will be luan or similar species, not true mahogany.

How the ply is made is, of course, independent of the species of the
wood, so that isn't a direct clue other than real mahogany is expensive
enough that one would rarely find it on anything except fine
cabinet-grade plys or as veneer.

"Luan" is now a generic catch-all name as is "Philipine mahogoney", etc.

In general, luan is less dense, has an open, porous grain and flecks
whereas mahogany is more subtle and does not have such a open pore.

I bought a large lot of "mahogany" for a very low price. Some pieces were
chocolate brown, others red, and still others white. Some pieces were
heavy, some were light.
I took a medium piece to two good lumberyards and asked them what it was.
They both told me "mahogany". I asked them if it was American mahogany.
They both said they didn't know; it was some imported hardwood, but it was
impossible to guess what.
Obviously it is not American mahogany because the color and density range
was too broad; but my point is... if it looks okay, what difference does it
matter whether it is luan or true mahogany? (but yeh, it is almost
certainly luan)

So as a follow up to the previous question... I have kitchen cabinets
(very plane) that are made out of "mahoganny" They are the original
circa 1960 cabinets. Would this also be "Phillipne mahoganny" or the
real thing considering the time they were built.

Toller wrote:

I bought a large lot of "mahogany" for a very low price. Some pieces were
chocolate brown, others red, and still others white. Some pieces were
heavy, some were light.
I took a medium piece to two good lumberyards and asked them what it was.
They both told me "mahogany". I asked them if it was American mahogany.
They both said they didn't know; it was some imported hardwood, but it was
impossible to guess what.
Obviously it is not American mahogany because the color and density range
was too broad; but my point is... if it looks okay, what difference does it
matter whether it is luan or true mahogany? (but yeh, it is almost
certainly luan)

salacioustoo wrote:

So as a follow up to the previous question... I have kitchen cabinets
(very plane) that are made out of "mahoganny" They are the original
circa 1960 cabinets. Would this also be "Phillipne mahoganny" or the
real thing considering the time they were built.

I'm assuming they're not flying so that they would be "plain" ...

Unless this was an upscale house, I suspect the answer is "yes".

On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:44:32 GMT, salacioustoo
scribbled:

How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently
He said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan.
It has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.

All the stuff you get at the borg stores, at least here in western
Canada, is luan/lauan aka Philippine mahogany. They call it mahogany.
No relation to the real mahoganies that come from the Caribbean and
Centra/South America.

Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...ct_Woodworking

Good grief!!! Thanks for correcting me. I'm usually very good about
homophones! You know i did look at it for a few seconds but made the
wrong choice. I slept poorly! ;-)

Thanks for the answer to the actual question.

Duane Bozarth wrote:

salacioustoo wrote:

So as a follow up to the previous question... I have kitchen cabinets
(very plane) that are made out of "mahoganny" They are the original
circa 1960 cabinets. Would this also be "Phillipne mahoganny" or the
real thing considering the time they were built.


I'm assuming they're not flying so that they would be "plain" ...

Unless this was an upscale house, I suspect the answer is "yes".

"salacioustoo" wrote in message
news:5fM9f.379424$1i.375670@pd7tw2no...

So as a follow up to the previous question... I have kitchen cabinets
(very plane) that are made out of "mahoganny" They are the original circa
1960 cabinets. Would this also be "Phillipne mahoganny" or the real thing
considering the time they were built.

Unless you bought an extremely high dollar home, it was Luan Mahoganny. I
wonder if anybody ever used Honduras Mahoganny for kitchen cabinets, door
facings, etc.?
Jim

HEY! We'll have none of that homophonia around here! grin

Tillman

Toller wrote:

but my point is... if it looks okay, what
difference does it matter whether it is luan or true mahogany? (but
yeh, it is almost certainly luan)

I've used lots of Phillipine mahogany of many types - and some I like a
lot - but I have never seen one with grain or color very close to "true"
mahogany (Swietenia) of which there are *also* several species.


--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

salacioustoo wrote:
So as a follow up to the previous question... I have kitchen cabinets
(very plane) that are made out of "mahoganny" They are the original
circa 1960 cabinets. Would this also be "Phillipne mahoganny" or the
real thing considering the time they were built.

Phillipine mahogany.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

Jim wrote:

I wonder if anybody ever used Honduras Mahoganny for
kitchen cabinets, door facings, etc.?

In Mexico, they use it like we use junk kind 2x4s. For good stuff, they
use "cedro" (Spanish cedar).



--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:2XP9f.58$l23.16@trnddc05...
Toller wrote:

but my point is... if it looks okay, what
difference does it matter whether it is luan or true mahogany? (but
yeh, it is almost certainly luan)

I've used lots of Phillipine mahogany of many types - and some I like a
lot - but I have never seen one with grain or color very close to "true"
mahogany (Swietenia) of which there are *also* several species.

I bought about 40 boards of extremely varying color, grain, and density.
There were two that looked like true mahogany; well, about as close as
African mahogany is. Some the rest was real pretty in it's own right; some
was crap.

"salacioustoo" wrote in message
news:kbL9f.379216$1i.342533@pd7tw2no...
How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently He
said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan. It
has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.

Larry

Smell it. The far east stuff has that cedar-type smell to it. True
mahogany doesn't.

Oh, just to confuse the issue, several Khaya species were popular in the
sixties. They were called "African Mahogany." Key to them is their rowed
grain pattern.

I just recently saw a design show on HGTV that featured a kitchen with
crotch mahogany cabinet doors and this unbelievable range hood clad in
yet more crotch mahogany. OH MY GOD it was gorgeous!!!


Jim wrote:


I
wonder if anybody ever used Honduras Mahoganny for kitchen cabinets, door
facings, etc.?
Jim

"Rowed" pattern??

George wrote:

"salacioustoo" wrote in message
news:kbL9f.379216$1i.342533@pd7tw2no...

How can you tell if you are looking at luan plywood vs. mahogonny? I've
never even heard of luan till recently. I'm guessing it's not as common
here in Canada as in the US. Bought some plywood from a friend recently He
said it was mahogonny but I'm starting to trhink it's probably luan. It
has sevral thinner plys like a baltic birch. Thanks.

Larry


Smell it. The far east stuff has that cedar-type smell to it. True
mahogany doesn't.

Oh, just to confuse the issue, several Khaya species were popular in the
sixties. They were called "African Mahogany." Key to them is their rowed
grain pattern.

Jim wrote:


I

wonder if anybody ever used Honduras Mahoganny for kitchen cabinets,
door facings, etc.?


IMHO, if you want mahogany, it is Hondouras mahogany.

Anything else that wants to call itself mahogany, simply has feet of clay.

Might be good enough for a house, but never a boat.

Lew

On Wed, 02 Nov 2005 04:07:08 GMT, salacioustoo
scribbled:

"Rowed" pattern??

He means roe grain or figure.

Vertical stripes. Common in african mahogany. I have the dining room
table that my father made out of african mahogany that has a beautiful
figure. If you scroll down on this page, you will get as sample guitar
back of "khaya mahogany" showing the roe figure.

http://www.chrislarkinguitars.com/woodandstuff.htm

However, I've also seen it on lauan, so it's not a dead giveaway for
real mahogany.

Luigi
Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/humour.html
www.yukonomics.ca/wooddorking/antifaq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...ct_Woodworking