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I'm working on my 1930 TVT again and am having a problem trying to match the new mahogany repairs to the old mahogany. I can live with the fact that I probably will never get the grain to match but I also am having trouble getting the color to blend in. I think it is African mahogany that I am using and I assume the original is Philippine. I even tried planing down some mahogany I had from an old 1953 Lyman bench seat. Any tips on blending or matching old and new would be helpful. I really want to keep the older look with it's nice patina and all.
Thanks in advance

IMO you are on the right track tryng to find a piece of older wood possibly from another boat. I have an old Lyman that is beyond repair that I use for the same thing. I don't think that Phillipine Mahogany is even available today. The guys that I used to restore Chris Crafts with guarded their wood supplies like they were gold. Not to mention the fact that you are trying to match wood that is now 80 years old and has been stripped, sanded and stained how many times. You are going to have to do some experimenting with stains and or a combination of stains to achieve the match that you want.
Also ,just from a guy who has spent 40 years messing around with stuff I try to remind my self to look at the big picture. In other words how will it look when it is finished. When some one will look at the whole boat what will they see. I don't cut corners and I always do the best work that I can but I have to remind myself that they are only original once.
Karl.

Bleach it.

Or stain the new to match the colour of the old.

Andreas

This is probably not helpful given your location, but I had no problem finding lumber described as Philippine mahogany at the Woodcrafter store in Portland, OR which I will be using to rebuild my windshield.

To the best of my knowledge the wood that was called Phillippine Mahogany and was used by most wooden boat makers up to the 1960's is nearly extinct and no longer imported to the US.
The wood we call Honduras Mahogany is also becoming extinct and no longer imported as well.
African Mahogany is a different species than the two afore mentioned woods and is still imported into the US.
I think that the real name of the wood type that we call Phillippine Mahogany was Tanguille or something like that and the species is Swietenia
The name Phillippine Mahogany was used as a marketing tool. The stuff that is being passed off today as Phillippine Mahogany is some sort tropical cedar that is now where near as strong or rot resistant as it's namesake.
Karl.

It's my understanding that what was always referred to as "Phillipine Mahogany" is being grown in Myanmar (formerly Burma) from the same genetic strain as what we're all looking to find. There has been much hand wringing and hair pulling over the deforestation of various parts of the world, but I think people are coming to realize that wood is very much a renewable resource. And the best places to reap the rewards of this are those 3rd world countries with people in place who understand that economics of the issue. If I am off base on any of this, as always I look forward to being enlightened as to the true facts

Brian

Interesting Info Brian. I will have to look into that. My sources for wood (Rare Earth Wood) in Traverse City Mi says that they can't get anything called Phillippine mahogany. As I said in my earlier post the old boys that I worked on boats with back in the day treated their stash of lumber like a treasure. And I guess it was one.
Karl.

Quick quote from Danenberg's book regarding types of mahoganies:

School of hard knocks- The real skinny on mahoganies

The true mahoganies are from the family Meliaceae and include the American mahoganies (Khaya sp.), and even the misnamed Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata), which was apparently, very early on, given the erroneous taxonomic name because of its cedar-like aroma. It has since been found to be of the Meliaceae genus, not of Cedrela.

The so-called "Philippine mahoganies" (Shorea, Parashorea, and Pentacme spp.) are not related at all to the Meliaceae family and, as such, are not true mahoganies.

In my research in the Chris-Craft archives at the Mariners' Museum I found wood orders dating back to 1927 for millions of board feet of lumber placed with the Indiana Quartered Oak Company. The only "mahoganies" ordered were "good dark" or "fine wormy dark" Philippine "mahogany". See, isnt't it fun to learn that the only mahogany boats built by Chris-Craft were the Spanish cedar-planked hulls built just after WWII?

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Also, he has a rot resitance scale that seems interesting to me:

Very Resistant- White oak.

Moderately Resistant- Honduras (American) mahogany, African mohogany, Douglas fir.

Slightly or Non-Resistant- Red oak, Philippine mahoganies, Ash.


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Not sure how this applies to the problem at hand with matching wood but thought it would be good to add with all the Philippine mahogany talk in this thread.

Good luck and my apologies in advance for any spelling/transcription errors.


EE

Great thread.
This is the kind of info that makes this site so great. I look forward to meeting many of you face to face at the Thompson Rally.
Karl.