Mexican Mahogany

Color/Appearance: Heartwood color can vary a fair amount, from a pale pinkish brown to a darker reddish brown. Color tends to darken with age. Mahogany also exhibits an optical phenomenon known as chatoyancy.

Grain/Texture: Grain is more likely to contain knots, irregular grain, or other defects than Honduran mahogany on account of the smaller tree size. Texture is medium and uniform, with moderate natural luster.

Rot Resistance: As a non-commercial species, there have been no reports that directly evaluate Swietenia humilis. Its durability more than likely is equivalent to wild mahogany trees, S. macrophylla and mahogani  (i.e., durable to very durable). Mahogany heartwood is generally resistant to termites, though vulnerable to other insects.

Workability: Typically very easy to work with both hand and machine tools. (With exception to sections with figured or irregular grain, which can tearout or chip during machining.) Slight dulling of cutters can occur. Sands very easily. Turns, glues, stains, and finishes well.

Odor: No characteristic odor.

Allergies/Toxicity: Although severe reactions are quite uncommon, mahogany has been reported as a sensitizer. Usually most common reactions simply include eye, skin and respiratory irritation, as well as less common effects, such as boils, asthma-like symptoms, nausea, giddiness, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.

Pricing/Availability: Mexican mahogany is a small tree with a nearly non-existent commercial presence. “For commercial purposes Swietenia humilis Zucc. can be practically ignored.”^[1]Record, S. J., & Hess, R. W. (1943). Timbers of the New World (p. 368). Yale University Press. Small pieces may be available locally, or on a very limited scale. Nevertheless, it’s still listed on CITES Appendix II with the other two Swietenia species, and is still subject to the same export restrictions as the commercial species.

Sustainability: This wood species is in CITES Appendix II, and is on the IUCN Red List. It is listed as endangered due to a population reduction of over 80% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation. 

Common Uses: Larger commercial mahogany pieces are used for furniture, cabinetry, turned objects, veneer, musical instruments, boatbuilding, and carving.

Comments: Among woodworkers, this tree is most commonly called Mexican mahogany, though the tree is native to dry coastal regions of both Mexico and Central America down to Costa Rica. In other contexts, the tree is much more commonly referred to as Pacific Coast mahogany, or the Spanish equivalent, caoba del Pacifico. Given its occurrence in these drier areas, these trees tend to grow slower and yield, on average, slightly denser wood than their tropical Swietenia relatives. Surprisingly, plantation-grown S. humilis actually grows faster than the other species under such favorable conditions—showing that the species is well-adapted to the drier climates and can actually make better use of limited resources.^[2]Whitmore, J. L., & Hinojosa, G. (1977). Mahogany (Swietenia) hybrids (Forest Service Research Paper ITF-23). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Institute of Tropical Forestry.

But despite the wood having slightly higher average density values, and presumably, commensurately higher mechanical values across the board (this is only inferred due to observations on commercial mahogany and the effect of growing conditions on wood strength),^[3]Langbour, P., Gérard, J., Roda, J. M., Fauzi, P. A., & Guibal, D. (2011). Comparison of wood properties of planted big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) in Martinique island with naturally … Continue reading Mexican mahogany tends to have an unfavorable reputation for producing inferior wood. This is undoubtedly due to the tree’s small size and somewhat twisted and branching growth habit, leading to wood that frequently contains knots, defects, or other irregular grain. (Indeed, the Latin species name humilis is where we get our english word humble, and denotes a tree that is small or dwarfish.) On a practical level, if clear and defect-free lumber can be found, S. humilis is likely to furnish very high quality lumber on par with old-growth wild Honduran mahogany.