Panama Wood

[Scoony]

Just got back from a trip to Panama. I was there once before back when they had the Jungle Warfare school. Wife goes almost every year. We have been married for 16 years, but for some reason, I have never went with her until now. 

A little back story: We have a house that her parents currently live in. Wife bought the land and had the house built during her previous marriage. She retained ownership of the house. We also have a farm there close to the canal. The farm was the Wife's grandfather's who took great care of it. He passed long ago, and since no one in the family wants to put any effort or money into fixing it up, my wife has been going through the process of getting it in our names. It has a small house with 2 bedrooms. She recently had an additional section of concrete poured with a new roof overhead for a nice outdoor living space. Problem is that it is more of a jungle now since no one has been taken care of it. There are coconuts, bananas, mangos, gandules, oranges, papaya, avocados, coffee, etc... on the farm, but the jungle is overtaking everything. There are also Africanized bees down where the coffee is grown so I was not able to get down there to see the conditions there. When we retire, we will become snowbirds living down there part of the year. 

Wife's grandma just turned 100 to give you an idea of the age of the wood I recovered. 

Behind the house was some boards leaning up against a fence. I was looking through them and found a 12" wide x 6' board that looked like mahogany. The story behind the wood is that the grandfather recovered the log from the canal area. He used part of the log for a dugout canoe, and the rest they cut into boards.  So I am looking at this board thinking about potentials projects it could be used for. Wife's step dad had no plans for the wood and told me I could have it. I had to cut it down to fit my luggage. It had some nails and they were so rusted, they were not budging so I had to cut down the wood a little to avoid them. I used hand planes to flatten one side, then the tailed planer to finish milling it. Moisture content is 15% from being outdoors, so I will let it sit a while before doing anything more with it.  Will take it down a little more one the moisture gets down. 

Before

   

   

I am not absolutely sure its mahogany, but it sure works like mahogany.

[EatenByLimestone]

Beautiful wood with a story! Very cool!

[packerguy®]

I am not absolutely sure its mahogany, but it sure works like mahogany.

Is it really light? 

I didn't know you could make a canoe out of mahogany......it looks like mahogany, but if its light I wouldnt be shocked if its guanacaste. Its super common in that area, and a common wood for canoes and boats in that part of the world. I have some and it looks similar to what you have there. Im sure if I weathered some mahogany it would look similar too.....

[Arlin Eastman]

It sure looks like mahogany to me.

When you go down again can I put in an order and have you ship it all to me.

[Timberwolf]

Just got back from a trip to Panama. I was there once before back when they had the Jungle Warfare school. Wife goes almost every year. We have been married for 16 years, but for some reason, I have never went with her until now. 

A little back story: We have a house that her parents currently live in. Wife bought the land and had the house built during her previous marriage. She retained ownership of the house. We also have a farm there close to the canal. The farm was the Wife's grandfather's who took great care of it. He passed long ago, and since no one in the family wants to put any effort or money into fixing it up, my wife has been going through the process of getting it in our names. It has a small house with 2 bedrooms. She recently had an additional section of concrete poured with a new roof overhead for a nice outdoor living space. Problem is that it is more of a jungle now since no one has been taken care of it. There are coconuts, bananas, mangos, gandules, oranges, papaya, avocados, coffee, etc... on the farm, but the jungle is overtaking everything. There are also Africanized bees down where the coffee is grown so I was not able to get down there to see the conditions there. When we retire, we will become snowbirds living down there part of the year. 

Wife's grandma just turned 100 to give you an idea of the age of the wood I recovered. 

Behind the house was some boards leaning up against a fence. I was looking through them and found a 12" wide x 6' board that looked like mahogany. The story behind the wood is that the grandfather recovered the log from the canal area. He used part of the log for a dugout canoe, and the rest they cut into boards.  So I am looking at this board thinking about potentials projects it could be used for. Wife's step dad had no plans for the wood and told me I could have it. I had to cut it down to fit my luggage. It had some nails and they were so rusted, they were not budging so I had to cut down the wood a little to avoid them. I used hand planes to flatten one side, then the tailed planer to finish milling it. Moisture content is 15% from being outdoors, so I will let it sit a while before doing anything more with it.  Will take it down a little more one the moisture gets down. 

Before




I am not absolutely sure its mahogany, but it sure works like mahogany.

....................
It reminds me of a tree that grows very large here, called Ear Tree..AKA Enterolobium Cyclocarpum..Fairly soft and light weight but it has one outstanding characteristic...when planed it has a "sheen" or chatoyance....It is native to Central America...Years ago I cut one down that was 3ft in diameter at breast height...Wood in brittle and breaks easily in the wind...Member of the Legume Family.

http://www.wood-database.com/guanacaste/

[Scoony]

Compared to light wood such as sassafras, this is not light. I have some Honduras Mahogany, and this is very similar, but with slightly larger pores. It could be Espave which is a type of mahogany that was common in the canal zone. It works like butter with a hand plane.

As far as canoe making, I am sure that they would have used what ever log they were able to salvage. From the story, this may be a tree that was cut down when the canal was built. There are companies down there now pulling logs out of the water.

[Arlin Eastman]

Seple looks a lot like Mahogany.

[mike4244]

Compared to light wood such as sassafras, this is not light. I have some Honduras Mahogany, and this is very similar, but with slightly larger pores. It could be Espave which is a type of mahogany that was common in the canal zone. It works like butter with a hand plane.

As far as canoe making, I am sure that they would have used what ever log they were able to salvage. From the story, this may be a tree that was cut down when the canal was built. There are companies down there now pulling logs out of the water.

Many boat hulls and trim were made from mahogany. Fiberglas hulls took its place.

mike