African Mahogany

[steven29860]

Hi everyone, ive been doing some research on what type of finish would be the best for a table (coffee table) made out of african mahogany and i wanted to ask what people think would be the best way to get a good durable finish while at the same time really exaggerating the beautiful grain of the timber so the grain and sheen that it produces really stands out nicely.

I was thinking one way of doing it would be to seal the timber first with shellac then putting a few coats of good quality matte or satin clear polyurethain varnish over the top, filling the pores so that the grain stands out. This i believe would give the timber, good resistance to vapour exchange from the shellac, while at the same time giving it the durability of a varnish. i was also wondering if it were worth it to give it another final top coat of shellac, that way if needed be, in the future i can more easily fix any scratches etc.

What does everyone think about that, or do you think there are better ways to go about it?

Thanks alot

Steven

[LGS]

Hi Steven,

Organoil Hard Burnishing Oil. It is durable (if applied correctly) and brings African Mahogany up beautifully. The pics below are of a Kitchen Bench I made using AM for the top and frame, with Tassie Blackwood skirts.

Regards,

Rob

[spokeshave]

I've used Wipe-on-Poly on an African Mahogany buffet i made (can be seen elsewhere on the forum) with pretty good results. It really bought up the nice grain of the timber.

It's held up pretty well (used a minimum of 5 coats on the top) but it wont see the sort of abuse a coffee table will see. So from a durability view point probably not the best finish, but it comes up great.

Steven.