Identifying Meranti vs. Sapele vs. Utile (vs. Mahogany)
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Wood and Wood Preparation / Identifying Meranti vs. Sapele vs. Utile (vs. Mahogany)
Could someone help me appreciate better the difference between the above woods?
I am thinking more in terms of identification and our sort of hand tool usage.
I have a reasonable amount of one of these – removed from a house during window replacement (frames that were probably installed in the mid-1908s).
It’s quite dusty to work, the grain is very interlocking and almost impossible to avoid tear out – which suggests it’s Sapele? But thought I’d seek more expert opinion.
if it’s very very dusty it’s more likely to be meranti, sapele is harder and has a much nicer grain pattern, I haven’t used utile. I’ve found that with meranti you need to keep your tools sharp or it can get very dusty quite fast, there is light and dark red meranti, they have a very open grain with much bigger pores than sapele. It’s very unlikely to be genuine mahogany because of how hard it is to find, the real mahogany is much richer in colour and very easy to to work, if you have any photos that would help us.