That's what I have in my shop just now. Have no idea how much this stuff would even cost. 7 boards about 7' long, 1.75" thick and about 7" wide. Beautiful stuff. I was contacted by a nephew who is the tooling engineer for a local forge shop. His shop wants to forge some retirement gift/promotional items and they want knobs made from this mahogany.

He sent a picture, just a roundish ball with a straight shaft, ball is 1.75" diameter and the shaft is 3/4" long and 3/4" diameter. He wanted to know if I could make them and what it would cost.

I had some concerns about the joint between the knob and forging so I suggested a detail to hide any discrepancies between the two and gave them another option for the knob shape and sent a picture. The shop thought the detail was a good idea but wanted to stay with the round knob. Oh yeah, they want 300 of them.

I decided to do them in sets of 25, they get a threaded insert and that makes them easy to mount for turning. I already know I need to get faster on them as it's about a 13 minute turn, hope to get that down closer to 10 minutes. I'm still finding my way with them so I'm hopeful for that. Here are the first couple and the prepped banks.

After doing the sample pieces I came up with a figure for them which I really thought would be too much. After telling them how much they decided they want 600 instead. 300 of each style. GASP!!

This is a huge job for me and not sure how I feel about it, it's a been a long time since I've had a deadline. 300 by middle of Nov. and I'm used to turning when I want and not when I need to. It will definitely pad my shop account and time will tell if it was worth it I guess.

Wow! 2 things: that's quite an undertaking! Second, as a mostly flatwork guy seeing that mahogany made into knobs kinda hurts; even if they will be beautiful knobs.

Steve, what is implied when the wood selection is made reference to "pattern grade"?

Danl

20 minutes ago, Danl said:

Steve, what is implied when the wood selection is made reference to "pattern grade"?

Danl

Danl, honestly, I can't give you a good answer to that, I would assume it is at the very least 100% clear of any and all imperfections. Mahogany has been the wood of choice for pattern shops for decades as it's so stable and easy to machine. Since it came from a pattern shop I assumed it was what would be considered pattern grade.

I understand your dilemma. Tough choice with the time constraints.

Good on ya Steve! I could never do that many. My attention span would collapse long before completing the job. Love the mahogany. Beautiful wood. Pattern grade mahogany is high-quality prized for its straight, uniform grain and exceptional dimensional stability. I'd probably make some furniture with it.

Shouldn't be a problem. You can do this in your sleep.

And with this deadline, you'll probably have to!😁