February 25. I 9 18 



Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



25 



Mahogany as a Veneer Wood 



Sources of the Supply and the Qualities and Amounts Procured 



F THE QUANTITY of veneer produced from 

 various woods is taken as a basis for compari- 

 son, mahogany falls below a number of other 

 woods manufactured in the United States. At least 

 nine woods or groups of woods yield veneers in larger 

 quantity. These nine, named in the order of their rela- 

 tive importance, are red gum, yellow pine, maple, cotton- 

 wood, yellow poplar, white oak, birch, tupelo, and elm. 

 But, foot for foot, mahogany is more valuable than any 

 of them. 



Veneer is of two kinds, considered from the manner 

 of manufacture. One class or kind is rotary cut; the 

 other class is produced by sawing or slicing. All veneers, 

 no matter of what w^ood they are made, belong in one 

 or the other of these classes, and in that respect mahog- 

 any veneer is like all others. The two classes of ma- 

 hogany veneers are nearly equal in quantity, but appar- 

 ently the rotary cut slightly exceeds the other kind, but 

 there are no very recent figures shov^ring exact quantities 

 of the two kinds. About 49 per cent of the total output 

 is sawed or sliced, and 5 1 per cent rotary cut. 

 Prevailing Thicknesses 



Most mahogany veneers are thin. The wood is too 

 valuable for thick stock where thinner will do. That 



of supply are tropical America and West Africa. 



All botanists are a unit in saying that no true mahogany 

 grows in Africa. If a strictly scientific definition is in- 

 sisted on, the botanists are doubtless right, for they arrive 

 at their decisions by examining leaves, flowers, and fruit. 

 But to say that the wood coming from Africa is not 

 mahogany is a good deal like splitting hairs to find differ- 

 ences. There are several kinds or qualities of so-called 

 mahoganies in Africa; and there are also several kinds 

 or qualities in America; and between these varieties there 

 are differences which the ordinary observer can detect 

 by sight alone; there are other differences which the 

 wood-working machines will detect; there are differences 

 in weight — as much as fifty per cent, or more; and there 

 are differences in the minute structure of the woods 

 which a microscope reveals but which the unaided eye 

 cannot detect. 



Holding all of these differences in mind, it can be said 

 that, for all practical purposes, some of the African 

 mahoganies can hold their place with any others. The 

 leaves, flowers, and fruit may vary from those of the 

 American species, but the wood will stand up to any 

 practical test that a user may insist on. 



The African mahoganies grow near the western coast 

 of that continent, both north and south of the equator. 



v*rhich is rotary cut is mostly reduced to thicknesses of 



116, 1 20, and 1 30 inch, the relative quantities running All the trees which are marketed as mahogany in that 



in the order here given. The sliced stock is generally a region are not of the same species. It is not necessary to 



little thinner than the rotary cut, and the relative quan- 

 tity of each thickness is in the order here named: 1 30, 

 1 '28, 116, and 1 20 inch. Mahogany is not manufac- 

 tured in as many thicknesses as some other woods; for 

 instance, it is made in only about half as many as red 

 gum. 



Most of the mahogany veneer manufactured in this 

 country is produced in the five states, Illinois, New York, 



listen to the disputes of botanists on the subject, for any 

 observer can see that there is as much difference between 

 the woods of the several so-called African mahoganies as 

 there is between the woods of the several kinds of pine in 

 the United States. For that reason, a custom has de- 

 veloped among dealers in African mahogany to designate 

 each kind by naming the region where it grows. That 

 accounts for so many geographical names for African 



Michigan, Kentucky and Indiana. The quantity of pro- mahogany. Dealers who are familiar with the mahogany 



duction in each of those states is in the order named. 



Rather more than half of the mahogany brought to 

 this country is reduced to veneer; the remainder is sawed 

 into lumber. Though a given amount of wood will go 

 farther as veneer, yet the demand for lumber is very 

 strong. A single business block in Chicago used 800,000 



business can judge fairly well of a wood's quality from 

 the region wrhere it grew^. 



Some of the woods now passing as mahogany are 

 clearly something else, and no dealer buys or sells them 

 as mahogany; yet some of them are valuable woods. 

 Among the names of places used in designating African 



feet of one-inch mahogany for interior finish. That is mahogany, the most important are Gaboon, Okume, Coco 

 said to be the largest quantity of mahogany ever used Beach, Cape Lopez, Lagos, Bathurst, Axim, Grand Bas- 

 in a single building in the world, though the quantity sam, and Assinee. These are names of districts where 

 wasted and used in a public building in the island of mahogany grows, or the names of localities on the coast 

 Haiti must have been nearly as great. whence shipments are made. The names mean nothing 

 Sources of Mahogany to a person unacquainted with the African mahogany 

 Some mahogany once grew in southern Florida, and trade; but they mean a great deal to those acquainted 



an occasional small tree is still cut there; but the users 

 of this wood in the United States depend wholly upon 

 imports from foreign countries. The two principal sources 



with that business. 



American Mahogany 

 Botanists are satisfied that true mahogany grows in 



