Reclaiming mahogany from doors

[Neil]

I inherited a pair of doors from an old boiler house when it was demolished - the timber looks like mahogany. I've had them in my garage for 10 years but now that we are converting the garage, I need to do something with them, even if its just breaking them down for easier storage in the garden shed. My MAB might benefit from some of it...........eventually.

So how to maximise the return and reduce wastage? Main joints are mortice and tenon at each corner and the cross piece across the middle. I could saw out the joints, but that would halve the length of the longest sides. I'd still be left with the mortice hole, anyway? I don't know yet how the whole thing is held together....

 

[srp]

Reclaiming timber nearly always results in a pile of short lengths, unless you are prepared to fill in (and put up with the appearance of) the old mortices and screw holes. I'd just saw through the joints at the top and bottom rails, then knock the middle rail joint apart. The doors might be teak by the way - especially if they came from a public building. If they are, they are definitely worth saving.

 

[Seajet]

Sounds like good stuff, but dimensions would be handy. You might get your arm torn off if contacting ' Classic Boat ' magazine !

 

[Neil]

Reclaiming timber nearly always results in a pile of short lengths, unless you are prepared to fill in (and put up with the appearance of) the old mortices and screw holes. I'd just saw through the joints at the top and bottom rails, then knock the middle rail joint apart. The doors might be teak by the way - especially if they came from a public building. If they are, they are definitely worth saving.

So, drill out the tenons rather than cut off the corners, especially with the middle cross piece? Could be teak, I suppose, hard to tell under the surface grime. I'd be nice to plane off the top mm of each face, who'd do it?

 

[Gordonmc]

I reclaimed some fairly heavy lengths of teak which had been used as decorative cover panels for wiring channels, about 30cm x 5cm in lengths of about 4 metres.
I hade no specific use but recovered them from the skip on the off-chance
Unfortunately there were big fixing screw holes at regular intervals. After making absolutely sure there was no metal anywhere in the wood I took the lengths to a joinery shop with a thicknesser.
I would recommend that approach as I could never have got regular surfaces with a plane.
The sawdust was retained to mix with epoxy and fill the holes.
Some was used to make up repair sections for toe capping (much waste) but I found by sawing strips across the thickness I had enough slats of 5cm x 25mm to rebuild my taffrail bench seat.

 

[Neil]

lengths to a joinery shop with a thicknesser.

Yes, that's what I had in mind!

The best reclamation job I'd heard of was an old colleague of mine who reclaimed the mahogany bench tops from a university laboratory. The benches were made from single whole planks! Once 'thicknessered' to remove the stains and burn marks, he had pristine whole width and length bench tops for his vicarage restoration project. Can't get wood like that anymore.........

 

[rob2]

Much depends on what you will use the timber for. The joints will weaken it if you hope to use it as a structural beam, so that's a non-starter, but if largely ornamental, then you could cut pieces to fill the old holes with the grain in the correct orientation. Worth doing the filling before running through the thicknesser so you get a nice smooth, straight face.

Rob.

 

[Bobobolinsky]

Yes, that's what I had in mind!

The best reclamation job I'd heard of was an old colleague of mine who reclaimed the mahogany bench tops from a university laboratory. The benches were made from single whole planks! Once 'thicknessered' to remove the stains and burn marks, he had pristine whole width and length bench tops for his vicarage restoration project. Can't get wood like that anymore.........

I bought as many as I could of those at £40 each, just coming to the end of the pile

 

[srp]

So, drill out the tenons rather than cut off the corners, especially with the middle cross piece? Could be teak, I suppose, hard to tell under the surface grime. I'd be nice to plane off the top mm of each face, who'd do it?

I would run a fine saw straight through the existing joint lines at top and bottom. You will probably find that the stiles will pull away from the middle rail quite easily once you've done this, unless the mortice and tenon has been pegged in some way.
If you find someone with a planer-thicknesser who's willing to run them through for you that's fine, but to be honest a decent hand plane will take the surface off very easily and just as quickly. Having both to choose from I would go for a hand plane - I would always prefer to resharpen a plan iron than mess up my planer blades. Avoid a hand held electric planer at all costs - you're very unlikely to achieve a good flat surface. Try and fill with solid wood rather than glue and sawdust, and I would fill after planing as it's kinder to the blades.