I've recently built a Frank Lloyd Wright lamp out of sapele and this is my first piece using this wood. My original intent was to make it out of honduran mahogany, which now seems to be unobtainable. I wanted mahogany because I want the final color to be the dark red-brown mahogany is known for. I really want to avoid staining or dyeing if I can. I've heard that sapele will turn red-brown. Does anyone know if this is true? If so, any idea how long it will take? I'm supposing that exposure to sunlight will speed this process. In the past I've worked with jatoba which I found to be very photosensitive and turned the color that I wanted very quickly. I would have made the lamp out of jatoba except that jatoba is really concrete disguised as a tree and I had real machining concerns. Is sapele similiar to jatoba with regard to photosensitivity?
I've also experimented with lye and it while really darkened the sapele I'm not crazy about putting chemicals on the wood, neutralizing, resanding raised grain, etc. [Incidental lye question: Does lye actually speed up the chemical process of aging or is it a totally different chemical process that mimics aging?]
Lastly, does anyone have a favorite finishing schedule for sapele?