I have just returned from a neighbor's house, having been invited over for a BBQ to inaugurate his new "mahogany" deck. I returned home well fed and with a handful of 4 and 5 foot scraps of 4/4 1x4 decking. Thought these might make some nice picture frame material when ripped down but...
...I'm sure this isn't real Cuban mahogany. To be frank it has a similar pinkish red grain pattern as some luan I have seen. But some of the grain is rather wavy. After planing and sanding to 220 I find streaks where the wavy grain is. The wood becomes rather dark and a markedly blotchy when oiled with either "teak oil" or ordinary mineral oil and the streaks just don't look good, more like diagonal zebra stripes than medulary rays.
So my question to the group mind is: How shall a finish this wood to preserve the pinkish red tone, without greatly darkening or splotching it and without unduly enhancing the striped figure if it must remain?
Thanks in advance,
Jean