The concept of “mahogany” combines several types of elite wood with high technical characteristics and unique decorative qualities. This group includes breeds growing in the territories of Central and South America, Malaysia and India.
Mahogany Species
In Europe, the first existence of exotic wood became known after the discovery of the New World. This timber impressed with its dissimilarity to the usual light and light brown massif of the species used: beech, oak or pine. The shade of mahogany varies from bright orange to purple-crimson and almost black with a beautiful mottled or striped pattern. The structure has practically no pores, the texture is uniform, the surface is smooth and silky.
The trade name "mahogany" applies to more than a dozen species. Among them, several of the most valuable are distinguished:
- Species Switenia mahagoni - Mahogany retinue or real mahogany. Their homeland is the tropics of the South American continent and the Antilles. These are powerful hardwoods up to 60 m high and up to 2 m wide trunks. The wood is sound, with a characteristic reddish-brown or violet-red hue with indistinguishable annual rings. Coloring of various intensity. It has a beautiful uniform structure, lends itself well to any processing. It is used as a standard for determining the quality of other redwood species.
- Amaranth. Another tree with red wood. Distributed in Central America, Sri Lanka. Plants up to 25 m tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m. Fresh woodland has a nondescript grayish-brown color with light veins. After drying, it turns violet-red, raspberry or almost black.
- Caring. Homeland: countries of Southeast Asia, African coast, Indonesia. Tree trunks up to 50-60 in height and more than 1.5 m in diameter. The surface of the lumber has a wide palette of shades from light orange to dark cherry and brown with contrasting splashes.
- Teak. These species are common in Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia. An array of golden, ocher, bright brown hues.
- Merbau. Species of trees, the distribution area of which is North Australia, South Asian countries. Wood of saturated warm shades: beige, dark golden, chocolate, with beautiful contrasting veins.
- Red sandalwood. This species grows in India. The trunks do not differ in high growth, which does not exceed 10 m, but the width of the logs reaches more than 1.5 m. This material is characterized by a dark red even shade with an elegant natural pattern and soft even shine.
Technical properties
Mahogany logs during processing relieve unnecessary sapwood, then sawn into boards. After molding, the resulting base is machined on lathes and proceed to manual grinding. Depending on the further use, the boards are putty and polished. The most important thing is to identify and emphasize the natural unique pattern of wood. Properly processed material does not lose its technical qualities and decorative properties for many decades.
The density of the array that has undergone pre-processing is from 560 to 870 kg / m3. Mahogany is famous for a set of unique qualities:
- Despite its high density it lends itself to all kinds of manual and mechanical processing: it is well cut, grinded, ground, polished. Reliably holds inlay fasteners, does not crack and does not crumble;
- wearproof and durable: it is not subject to erosion, swelling, drying up, influence of moisture, decay. It is not damaged by bugs, fungus, perfectly resists temperature changes, winds, direct sunlight;
- shows good elasticity;
- tolerates shock loads, has high strength, resistance to compression.
These qualities, along with excellent natural decorativeness, make mahogany one of the most expensive. Price for 1 cube m. of material begins with 350 thousand rubles.
Company | View | Price, rub / m3 |
Eastwood | Teak Burma | 650 000 |
Teak Malaysia | 320 000 | |
Forest Story | Teak Burma | 360 000 |
Mahogany edged board | 65 000 | |
LegProm | Decorative mahogany | 170 000 |
Using
Areas of application of mahogany: manufacturing of furniture, extra-class finishing materials, production of piece parquet, musical instruments, art design items, sports equipment, collectible figurines, caskets, souvenirs. Possession of mahogany products, as a rule, indicates a high wealth and exquisite taste of the owner.
Tables, wardrobes, armchairs, benches and beds of these rocks have long been available only to the aristocracy. They are now impossible to meet in the usual interior. The ability to work with this material was possessed only by talented cabinet makers, whose skill was appreciated along with jewelry. Not every carpenter could emphasize the beauty of wood and bring it to perfection. Exquisite painting was applied to the products, inlaid with ivory plates, silver, precious stones, covered with glaze.
The main suppliers of mahogany to the world market are Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the countries of equatorial Africa. Since the colonization of these territories by Europeans, raw materials have been considered the most desirable and rare. The areas on which valuable populations grew were regularly reduced due to rapid deforestation. The restoration of lost plantations requires at least 300-400 years. Almost all species - sources of red wood - are characterized by slow growth. In the year, trunks rise by only 2-3 cm. The depletion of the natural range has made it necessary to introduce restrictions on clearings. Most supplier countries have strict regulations on the procurement and export of raw materials abroad.