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Finishing Mahogany to match teak

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
I finished the construction phase of my new nav desk cabinet, now I'm trying to figure out how to finish it to match the teak interior. I was relatively successful matching the interior of my 25+ with a stain and finished with teak oil, but that was with teak plywood. I'm wondering if anyone has experience finishing mahogany to somewhat match teak. The plywood panel is sapele and the frame is African mahogany 20210207_151107.jpg
 

sailing42

Member II
I have a Ericson 27, 1974 Vintage and have found Minwax Wood Finish - English Chestnut 233 to be a fairly good match for my woodwork. I wipe it on with a cloth, wait about 10 mins and then rub it down. Usually, one application is enough, sometimes 2 to get it a bit darker. Hopefully, you have some bits that you can try out first. Not sure how the plywood will stain, I've always used wood - Ipe or Sapele.
Nice job on the woodwork.
 

Pete the Cat

Member III
I have matched teak and mahogany. There are so many different variants of mahogany and teak (some woods are called those names but are really of another variety) that it is hard to give an answer. I suggest testing some stains, but I will also say that I just rebuild a Folkboat with mahogany and teak and did very little staining--just applying varnish worked in some places. Color might have been a bit off, but you will not notice it.
 

Mark F

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
Hi trickdhat,

Looks great. I like how you lined up the hinge barrel with the wood bead detail.
 

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
Mark,

Thanks! That was kind of a happy accident. I wasn't sure how I was gong to finish the edge of the plywood, so I started messing around with the router table and table saw. I ended up with a 1/4" piece with rounded bead at the top and a 1/2" x 1/8' rabbit to accept the plywood. When I put it together and held up the hinges, everything just lined up. How often does that happen?

Nick

20210203_185031.jpg
 

Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Probably too late for this project but this may help somebody else.
No two woods on my boat take stain the same, so what is perfect on a door panel is too dark on solid trim wood.
20200823_134414-X2.jpg
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I threw together a shelf for the first-aid kit over the weekend, using ancient leftover plywood, scraps of Home Depot mahogany, and the last remains of Ericson teak hatch boards and drawer faces. Close enough, at least in the dim light belowdecks. A quick wipe of Minwax mahogany stain to redden the old raw teak.

Interlux satin varnish, with its own mild stain, is very forgiving for stuff like this.

IMG_6517.JPG.
 

clayton

Member III
Minwax has the consistency of water with some food coloring in it. Try Zar stains, thick almost like gel, much better results. Color matching new material to established finishes, especially on different wood species, is an exercise in patience, often more than one or two different stain colors in succession is required to get there. The sample board is a great approach.
 

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
I'm finally wrapping up this project. It's been an adventure. I gave up trying to match the finish with stain. I even took samples to a paint store to have it matched and experimented with different grain fillers / sealers. It ended up looking horrible. the best I've come up with is selecting a good wood (Sapele seems to be a good compromise) and a few coats of Interluxe Goldspar Satin (I think this is the stuff Christian referenced above....back in February). The "mahogany" I chose for the frame looks really cool with some nice figure, but doesn't come close to matching the interior. I've decided to live with it. Maybe it will be better once it's installed.
Finsih Samples.jpg
On a more positive side, I'm done with the panel rewire and it turned out really well. It's almost a shame to cover it up with the Nav cabinet.
20210411_151002.jpg
20210418_143954.jpg
 

kapnkd

kapnkd
I finished the construction phase of my new nav desk cabinet, now I'm trying to figure out how to finish it to match the teak interior. I was relatively successful matching the interior of my 25+ with a stain and finished with teak oil, but that was with teak plywood. I'm wondering if anyone has experience finishing mahogany to somewhat match teak. The plywood panel is sapele and the frame is African mahogany View attachment 37078

Certainly LOTS of choices to be made with the many good suggestions offered!

It depends mostly on the color of your own cabinetry by Ericson at the year and time of assembly ...plus (of course) aging and exposure to sunlight UV over the years.

For us, with our ‘73 era mahogany, we selected MinWax’s “Gunstock” flavor as it had more of the reddish burnt sienna color in it we found lacking in the other offerings. It (to us) emulated more of a darker Teak color.

A small can or two of the various stain offerings may be in order and a blending of them to reach your preferred color may be the way to go. ...Experimenting on some small scrap pieces makes sense!

Here’s our new main salon bulkheads stained with MinWax “Gunstock”.
AF722EDA-0D2B-4444-9A85-7E5334A13324.jpeg
 

kapnkd

kapnkd
I'm finally wrapping up this project. It's been an adventure. I gave up trying to match the finish with stain. I even took samples to a paint store to have it matched and experimented with different grain fillers / sealers. It ended up looking horrible. the best I've come up with is selecting a good wood (Sapele seems to be a good compromise) and a few coats of Interluxe Goldspar Satin (I think this is the stuff Christian referenced above....back in February). The "mahogany" I chose for the frame looks really cool with some nice figure, but doesn't come close to matching the interior. I've decided to live with it. Maybe it will be better once it's installed.
View attachment 38463
On a more positive side, I'm done with the panel rewire and it turned out really well. It's almost a shame to cover it up with the Nav cabinet.
View attachment 38465
View attachment 38466
VERY NICE AND PROFESSIONAL LOOKING WIRING JOB!! ...WOW!!!
 

Filkee

Sustaining Member
I have a Ericson 27, 1974 Vintage and have found Minwax Wood Finish - English Chestnut 233 to be a fairly good match for my woodwork. I wipe it on with a cloth, wait about 10 mins and then rub it down. Usually, one application is enough, sometimes 2 to get it a bit darker. Hopefully, you have some bits that you can try out first. Not sure how the plywood will stain, I've always used wood - Ipe or Sapele.
Nice job on the woodwork.
Used the same.
 

bigd14

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
trickdhat, your wiring is a work of art (so is the woodwork)! Really excellent. Do you have source for the gray busbar and cable routing devices? That's a great way to organize wiring.
 

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
Thanks for the kind words

The terminal blocks are mudular DIN rail devices from Altech (part number Sth4dt). I purchased most stuff from Hawkusa.com and Arrow electronics. The wire duct is Panduit 2 x 2 narrow slot wire duct.

I'm a telecommunications engineer for a utility company, so DIN rail terminals and wire duct is stuff I work with frequently. Most DIN rail terminals, blocks are readily available, but the problem I ran into was the standard stuff is not really ABYC compliant. They don't seem to damage the conductor, but they are not really secure enough for use on boats. I had a hard time finding terminals that use studs to accept ring terminals. When I finally found the Altech blocks above, I realized most parts are special order. Hawk and Arrow are the only places I found that would sell in quantities I could justify.

I like this design because it's modular and I'm not tied to multiples of 12 (or whatever the standard barrier strips are available in). The Sth4dt blocks also have a disconnect between the terminals that allow you to work on a leg of a circuit without turning the whole circuit off. Maybe a little overkill, but nice when your working on the lights.

I'll try to write something up when I finish the project to try to help others. It's really not that hard once you can source the material.
 

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Kenneth K

1985 32-3, Puget Sound
Blogs Author
+1 for Minwax "Gunstock." I used it for sanded areas on my sole.

Great looking woodwork and wiring!
 

Nick J

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Blogs Author
I epoxied the blocks behind the hinge yesterday and screwed it ll together today. Just need to finish up the connections on the back of the panel and staple the headliner to a cleat on the back. 20210502_153929.jpgI'm really happy with how it's turning out. 20210502_153739.jpg
 
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