Members Montagman Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 I friend of mine has 2 boards 28 " x 84" x 1/2" of old growth honduran mohogany. It was originally 14 feet! He cut it in half to get into his house, He wants to make raised panels for one wall of his living room with it. I told him to use mohog plywood and sell the boards to a guitar builder. What do you guys think it would be worth? I thought at least a couple thousand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FretFiend. Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 Depends. They protect. Is the wood quarter sawn or slab cut? It would maybe be good guitar wood only if it was quarter sawn. Valuable wood? Definitely. Couple thousand? I doubt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Seorie Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 hi Montie, Impossible to say without seeing in person, depends on the board and how is has been sawn Swietenia mahagoni in now CITES listed II Bany pictures ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Montagman Posted April 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 I can get a picture, the wood was milled at least 60 years , I'm guessing Honduran, maybe African, a very chocolate color. At twenty eight inches I guess at least some of the board is quarter sawn. I thought it would be worth more because of age and width. I thought with a finer blade on a band saw you could triple the boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Seorie Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 hi Montie, have a look here to get an idea of 'quality' tonewood components and what they can fetch. Selling 'billets' (boards) of instrument grade wood is the best way to buy (cheapest) if your a builder but you need to have a big and powerful enough bandsaw to convert the timber to working sizes.http://rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5&zenid=qcg671b43vc7hdnpc1r1nofee3http://rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_119 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members knockwood Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 Unless it's some special figure stuff - quilted or beeswing, etc., I'm not an expert but I don't think you're anywhere near a couple grand. My best guess, sight-unseen, if we're talking about more or less standard Honduran hog (African would be less $), if it is quarter sawn, sold in 28 x 84" x 1/2" slabs you're talking downward of $1k total.That is a guess, though, and I wouldn't call myself a builder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 If I calculated correctly, he's got about 8 board feet. Mahogany clear-grain lumber sells for about $10/board foot. So he's got $80 worth of lumber. If he can resaw it into QS back and side sets, then he might be able to get $40-80/set depending on quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Opa John Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 If I calculated correctly, he's got about 8 board feet. Mahogany clear-grain lumber sells for about $10/board foot. So he's got $80 worth of lumber.If he can resaw it into QS back and side sets, then he might be able to get $40-80/set depending on quality. He's got TWO pieces of wood, Gitnoob. I think you'd have to disregard the fact that the wood is only 1/2" thick and figure a square foot of it would be the same price as a board foot. Still, even after doing that, he'd only have about 33 bd. ft. of it.......so, about $300 worth, tops. It's also 60 years old, so that could affect the price. By how much? No idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 How did you get 33 bd ft? I calculated total square inches = 28 * 84 = 2352. Then divided by 12"x12" to get 16 sq ft. Then cut that in half due to the 1/2" thickness, and that gave me 8 board feet. Ah I see what you did. For two pieces of wood, he'd have 16 board feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Opa John Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 How did you get 33 bd ft? I calculated total square inches = 28 * 84 = 2352. Then divided by 12"x12" to get 16 sq ft. Then cut that in half due to the 1/2" thickness, and that gave me 8 board feet. Read my last post. In the first place, he's got TWO pieces of it, not one. And I think, if you went to buy it, the seller would sell it by the square foot......not by the board foot. In other words, the thickness of it wouldn't make any price difference. They'd call a square foot a board foot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gitnoob Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 Yeah, I eventually caught that and edited my post. FWIW, here's a sample of mahogany pricing:http://www.woodworkerssource.com/wood_of_the_month_exotic.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 Montag - a couple of quick thoughts. Depending on exact genus it may or may not be on the restricted list, Honduran is, African currently is not. Either way your friend should read the third paragraph herehttp://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=288 OK, lets say it is legal to sell and it has been correctly stored for 60 years - ends sealed, stickered, somewhere around 40-45 % RH. If your friend can resaw it (large very accurate bandsaw, he will cut it to about 1/8 thickness), it will make good backs and sides. Quartered is best, off quarter reduces the value a lot. Slab sawn isn't much in demand for instrument wood. It's too bad that its only 1/2 inch thick. Solid mahogany blanks for electric guitars go for around $125 for a 14 x 24 by 1-3/4 piece. And while it could be laminated for necks, it is really too thin for that too. And while I buy tone woods from time to time, I'm not familiar enough with prices to tell you the value of the whole stash. My suggestion for your friend would be to take some very good pictures, maybe a couple of samples and contact any of the tone wood vendors on the first page here -http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/ These guys know the market, have the necessary tools to resaw or cut to size and someone might be willing to broker your friends wood, assuming that it doesn't violate LACY. He may, however learn that the best use after all is going to be furnature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 I can get a picture, the wood was milled at least 60 years , I'm guessing Honduran, maybe African, a very chocolate color. At twenty eight inches I guess at least some of the board is quarter sawn.I thought it would be worth more because of age and width. I thought with a finer blade on a band saw you could triple the boards. No way could you resaw that into 3 boards if it was 1/2" thick. The blade will easily eat up 1/8" leaving you two 3/16" boards if you were very skilled. But a resaw like that would double your useful wood and be very worthwhile.Resawing into 3 boards would also just give you an odd set that isn't bookmatched.3/16 is a good place to start because you'll need to sand off all the "saw marks" That will leave you 1/8" stock useful wood. Assuming all the wood is usable, I'd calculate 6 complete back and side sets would be possible...worth maybe $600 to $800 these days. What you would do is resaw it to create two bookmatched sheets (each 28" by 84"). Then you would cut each of the sheets twice along it's longer length for a total of 4 bookmatced pieces. Two 9" wide (by 84") and two 5" wide(by 84"). 9+9+5+5= 28" For the TWO 9"x 84" wide sets: you can create 6 bookmatched back sets and one side set. Cut one set into 4 equal 21"x9" lengths. For the second bookmatched 9x84" ... you cut so one is one set is 42"x9. and the other two are 21x9. This will leave you with 6 bookmatched backs sets of 9" by 21" The extra bookmatched 9" by 42 board you cut along it's length to get two side sets that are 4.5" by 42" The remaining 5x84 boards you cut in half to get FOUR side sets of 5x42 This will get you 6 backs that are bookmatched and 9x21...Big enough even for a jumbo. It will also yield 6 bookmatched side sets. Four would be 5" by 42 and two 4.5" by 42" The tough part is resawing that board into two bookmatched halves.But really you don't want to build with sets that aren't at least bookmatched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members call me rob Posted April 30, 2012 Members Share Posted April 30, 2012 Hey man, I build acoustic guitars and I do resaw all of my guitar sets and some of my friend`s sets too. I do sometimes resaw material and sell it to make a little profit. From my experience, selling guitar wood is pretty tough. Guitar makers are VERY particular about what they use for guitar material. I have some old growth plum pudding honduran mahogany guitar sets and I couldn't even sell them for 90$ a set. This stuff is very nice and didn't sell because some material is just not all that desirable. I know mahogany is commonly used for guitars by larger manufacterers but smaller outfit guitar makers seem to be not use it as much. I think this is because the common perception that mahogany is inferior to rosewood, which IMHO is inaccurate. Also customers who are getting a custom guitar made normally choose a rosewood of some sorts. I would value that stuff probably closer to 60$ a set maybe, and you could get 6 sets out of the material you have there. If the mahogany is well quartered it is probably worth as guitar wood 360$, excluding resaw costs and time/effort selling the material. This may or may not be worth it to your friend. On the other hand I am curious as to how he plans on using 1/2 material for raised panels? For most of my raised panel ogee bits, they require around 5/8 of an inch in thickness for a raised panel. If he does have some bit that works for the thinner material, please post pictures because mahogany raised panels in his house would look awesome. Robbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted May 2, 2012 Members Share Posted May 2, 2012 I just checked Honduran mahogany back and side set prices on Ebay and I was a bit off in my pricing. Maybe my memory sucks or the prices have dropped but it's like $25 to $60 for a nice set including shipping. Jesus that seems cheap to me for all the work that goes into that wood by the time it gets to you to be able to buy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&hash=item4ab6c77923&item=320894105891 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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