Exotic woods?

[Barry Smoger]

Anyone familiar with bloodwood and makore?
Both available to me locally. Are they interchangeable with mahogany?

[Bruce Hooke]

According to my reference books Makore would be the better bet. Bloodwood is very dense (up to 66 lbs/cubic foot). Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is 29-43 PCF so substituting Bloodwood for Mahogany could add a lot of weight to a boat. Makore is around 42 PCF. The heartwood of both Makore and Bloodwood is listed as highly durable and resistant to insect attack. As usual the sapwood should be avoided. Like Teak, Makore has a high silica content, which means that tools get dull quickly and carbide-tipped cutters are recommended if you are using power tools. The strength properties of Makore reportedly resemble those of the denser grades of Central American Mahogany. The dust from Makore may irritate the nose and throat and cause dermatitis. In terms of stability Makore shrinks (green to ovendry):

radial 4.7 to 6.2%
tangential 6.8 to 8.0%

This is a bit worse than Mahogany:

radial: 3.0 to 3.7%
tangential: 4.1 to 5.1%

But, of course, Mahogany is famous for it's stability and many other less stable woods are successfully used in boatbuilding.

I do suspect that the name Bloodwood may be used for more than one species. The species my reference identifies as Bloodwood is "Brosimum rubescens" and it is listed as being native to French Guiana, Brazil, Peru, Panama, and Venezuela. Another common name for it is satine. However, I think it is quite possible that some timber merchants might call just about any deep red wood "bloodwood." My reference also says that it bloodwood is rarely found with a heartwood diameter of more than 8" and it is relatively uncommon and so quite expensive. Makore on the other hand comes from West Africa, grows to very large sizes, and is fairly common.

My primary source on this was:
A Guide to Useful Woods of the World

The higher shrinkage numbers for Mahogany came from:
Understanding Wood by R. Bruce Hoadley

The lower shrinkage numbers for Mahogany, and all the shrinkage data for Makore came from the US Forest Products Laboratory website:
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/Chudnoff/TropAmerican/html%20files/swiete1new.html
and
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/Chudnoff/African/htmlDocs%20africa/Tieghemellaheckelii

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

I use blood wood as trim, It doesn'd bend that well, I guess it would make a good floor timber.