We ordered custom-made wood furniture from my brother in law's friend. They said they are going to use mahogany wood. It was only at this time that I was able to check that there's such thing as Philippine Mahogany and that's not real mahogany. How can we confirm if what they used is the real south american mahogany and not just the Lauan which is the Phil Mahogany? Read about the weight of real mahogany, how heavy is a "heavy, genuine mahogany?" should we look at the grains?
We got king size bed for 21k and a 6-seater dining set for 13k.
Maybe someone can also list down the more popular types of wood (gmelina, palochina, australian pinewood, etc) for woodwork and describe them? Ex: gmelina is soft and good for ---
Thanks!
happybroomstick, honestly, for a person with little experience about hardwood like us :-), it would be difficult to know if it's PH mahogany or imported south american mahogany. if you have visited the person's shop, you should be able to gauge, based on his operation, if he is capable of sourcing imported mahogany for his furniture materials.
another way of gauging the material he will use is by looking at the quoted price. example, for a 6-seater dining set price at 13K, the dining table top should be at least 1M x 1.5M x 25mm (3.28 feet x 4.92 feet x 1" thick). so, in board feet (bf), that's 16.1376 bf (3.28*4.92*1), @ 13K, that's about P805 per bf (including labor). if you allocate some of the bf for the frame/legs of the dining table + the 6 frames of the chairs, say 65% of the cost, your already looking at around < 300/bf for the top of the dining table. at that price, most likely, the person will be using lauan (PH mahogany) for the furniture. i mentioned 'mostly' because some furniture makers substitute some other type of wood for the hidden parts to cut on cost :-(.
personally for me, the type of wood to use for a furniture really depends on one's preference and budget and most important is it's availability (the harder to find, the costlier it is). the type of wood to choose will be dictated by how you want the furniture to look once it's finish and how it blends with the motif of the house or area where it's going to be placed - e.g. the grain, the color of the stain or no stain at all, deep dark shine, etc.
from my knowledge, locally, the hardest hardwood here in PH is molave (other name is mangkono, tugas, ironwood), the best wood for a furniture that you want to last for generations. up to now (for more than a year), i'm still hoping to find some here in south cotobato. lauan is already a good wood, i use it as stairs for our house. i have also use santol and red nato for other parts of the house ... cheers
Boo!
Thanks for the reply Boo! I have zero knowledge on wood and woodworking. The info you gave somehow confirms my guess that it's Lauan and not mahogany. They are a small woodworking shop in Lipa, Batangas. I asked several custom furniture makers in manila who claims to be using "mahogany" too and they all said what they use is Philippine Mahogany. I did some research and Lauan is an entirely different wood type than mahogany. It's just sad that many use the term mahogany for marketing purposes, and many still do not know that lauan or meranti is not mahogany. 🙁
glad to know nonetheless that lauan is a good wood. at least consuelo ko na lang sa feeling na "naloko" ako.
by the way, here's a photo of the bed which they claim made of mahogany wood.
