Rehabbed mahogany board from 2005

[John Loftis]

I posted this on social media, but realize not everyone sees that so wanted to put it up here as well.

This butcher block was made/purchased in 2005. Dave was probably still in his first year of business at that time. I've honestly never seen this brand before, so he must have only used it a short while.

The customer sent it to me to rehab. I spent about an hour sanding it, added new feet and escutcheons, and re-cut the perimeter groove. I was very surprised to realize it isn't walnut, but mahogany. The pre-rehab pics look just like walnut to me.

Two things to note:
1) Dave stopped making mahogany boards many years ago because he said there were significant splitting/cracking issues with that wood species. He encouraged me NOT to make mahogany boards for that reason. This one seems to be doing beautifully, however.
2) In an hour of sanding, 15 years of hard use (including serrated knives...tsk tsk) was erased. That's part of the beauty of butcher block. They can be made brand new over and over again if they are well-made and taken care of.

 

[crockerculinary]

Awesome! Looks great. Buy for life!

 

[Lars]

The maple/mahogany board David made me 8 years ago has treated me nice and posed no problems at all.

 

[esoo]

Spectacular!

 

[chinacats]

I bought one of the last mahogany boards Dave made. Still gorgeous and holding up perfectly.

 

[daveb]

Wow.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

Got a Mahogany board from Dave years ago still using it no problems. Nice deep color gets better with age.

 

[bkultra]

I have a Walnut boardsmith, but now I want a mahogany to go with it.

 

[bahamaroot]

I tried to order a Mahogany board from Dave but he had just ran out and said he was done with it because of the quality of wood he was getting.

 

[WildBoar]

Yeah, I seem to remember he could source good quality mahogany anymore. I think he had some problems with some boards he was making.

 

[Stewart122]

Amazing job.

 

[Nemo]

Nice work!

May I ask which grits you used? Was it hand sanding (kudos if so) or did you use a power tool such as a random orbital sander?

 

[WildBoar]

Pretty sure John has a drum sander (or two)

 

[robrpb]

Very nice job.

 

[ma_sha1]

Looks awesome!

Can I ask what’s the best way to do this? Are sanding good enough or it needs the special wood shaving tool that I’ve Seen wood worker use?

 

[Migraine]

I would guess the difficulty is in sanding it evenly so it stays flat.

 

[Nemo]

Can I ask what’s the best way to do this? Are sanding good enough or it needs the special wood shaving tool that I’ve Seen wood worker use?

A thicknesser should work well although I understand that cutting across the grain (as in end grain boards) chews through thickneser blades pretty quickly.

I used a random orbital sander on mine wich worked well. Took about an hour of sanding (about half that time changing pads) to sand out 4 plus years worth of home use wear and tear. I used about half a dozen 40 grit pads then a progression up to about 360 IIRC. Looked great afterwards