Mahogany Transom?

[Zach]

Hi guys...

Noel is tempting me with a blank slate for a transom... (step off the staging and walk through...)

I've been scouting around and found a few nice boards of mahogany long enough to do the job, but they are cathedral grained. No sense using them for much structure... so I'm pondering ripping them down to 1/2 inch thick slivers and book matching them across the transom.

Anyone seen cathedral grain on a transom, I've only ever seen ribbon grain used...

Thanks!

Zach

[Hirilondë]

Wood is beautiful, I don't care which way the grain is going. The only time I get hung up on grain is when choosing boards for structural purposes.

[Tim]

I've seen plenty of "normal"-grained boards on bright mahogany transoms, if not necessarily in a book-matched orientation. Quite honestly, I think it often looks better than the trying-too-hard ribbon stripe look, which I think can get busy on a large surface. Similarly, I think book matching can be a bit precious and is best reserved for smaller items.

I like the look of wood because it is natural and random and sometimes more disorderly than things created by humans. Therefore, I tend to favor avoiding forcing patterns out of un-patterned natural beauty: let the wood do its own thing. It's beautiful as it is and doesn't need much help from us. I'm a minimalist when it comes to arranging and finishing wood.

Clearly, it's a matter of personal opinion with room for many different tastes, but that's my take on it. There's a time and a place for everything.

[Quetzalsailor]

My taste would be to 'veneer' the transom, as you are thinking, but arrange the 'boards' like planks. Not bookmatched but randomized. Depending upon the width of the boards that you are resawing, you may wish to consider how thick your finished 'veneer' is, and how you will clamp it.

A now-destroyed Egg Harbor motoryacht, formerly in our marina, had the showiest grained transom of varnished mahogany that I've ever seen. Gorgeous! Anybody who knew wood would know it was veneer, but gorgeous. The veneer was 1/2" thick, screwed and bunged to 3/4" plywood.

The advantage of ribbonstriped Mahogany is that it's about as stable and easy to work as Mahogany ever gets.

Certainly, the 1/16" thick veneers that I bought for my FD work are flat and easy to work when ribbonstriped, perpendicular to the rings, and progressively more ripply and brittle the more parallel to the rings, or closer to branches that the veneer is. I reveneered the Dutch FD hull in flat cut, since that's what it was and it's prettier to my eye, but I did all the structural laminates in ribbonstripe with a flat cut face, the deck will be flat cut Khaya 1/4" marine plywood. I'll do the deck of my Mader FD in ribbonstripe, since the German builder would have preferred it as a matter of taste. I'd like to do the deck of my Italian FD in flat cut, but it's no longer available in useful thickness.