New mahogany epoxy bar :-) Interesting how 1960 Algonac mahogany is so much mor…
New mahogany epoxy bar Interesting how 1960 Algonac mahogany is so much more cherry colored than 1964 Pompano mahogany… Is it the difference in plants or years?? Looks like next coat of varnish on the rest is getting a little cherry color added in. #nauticinderella
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looks awsome cindy if im ever down that way have to break in the bar Chris Craft style!@!
It’s the year. They slowly stoped using chris craft red on the newer boats. But they didn’t run red in interiors.
Always seemed kind of green to me.
I have had this discussion many times in the past. The basic family of genera that Mahogany belongs to is the Meliaceae family. It has about 50 or so genera, and about 600 different species. All of these woods are tropical in nature for the most part. The other group is Shorea’s which are members of the Dipterocarpaceae family, and this group has about 675 known species. There are names boatbuilders are familiar with, such as Swietania Macrophylla, a true mahogany, Khaya, 7 species of the Meliaceae family, and Meranti, one of the Shorea family, and finally Okoume, which is another family altogether, and generally not used in boatbuilding except for epoxy satured construction. Without getting very long winded, these tropical trees of the first two families are large, and have a lot of species with similiar properties… rot resistance, long clear lumber, close grained, similiar janka hardness and so on. Some species are better than others for boat building. These are trees that can grow to a huge size. True mahogany, Swietania, can grow to 45 metres tall and up to 2 metres in diameter. There is a number of Shorea species recorded at over 80 metres tall. The problem is this: In the pantropical families, there are so many species it is hard to pin down identification. Combined with somewhat less accurate logging methods in the generally less industrialized nations where these trees grow, you have a problem. Chris Craft bought a lot of wood around the world. They certainly bought some true mahoganies, but they also bought Shorea’s such as Tanguille, in huge quantities. The lumber was based on quality and it’s subsequent quantity, not necessarily an individual species. Without genetically testing some of the original planks, it would be hard to narrow down exactly what was used. However, some generalities are true: A lot of this lumber was old growth. Huge trees, some as old as 350 years depending on species, were cut. This differs from today, where mahogany plantations are cut at 50 years. The old growth trees could vary in color and ring size based on climate and soil, so fairly wide ranges could be seen. Chris Craft used their famous filler stain to even out colour more than anything else, although I am sure some boats were built out of similiar batches and were close in color. Anyway, it’s a dry subject, but it helps to understand the material that was used. Even today, a large percentage of South American mahogany is logged illegally, and so are other species. A lot of the old growth forests of these trees have been wiped out, particularly where there was foreign market access, such as the Phillipines. Name like “Phillipine Mahogany” ‘African Mahogany’ or even “Honduras Mahogany” really don’t mean a whole lot. Those are generic names for a variety of woods, although most of them are good for the purpose of building boats. Chris Craft was very careful to buy high quality lumber, and dry much of it themselves, using different moisture content for different components. If memory serves, a lot of the underwater components were left at 15-18% moisture, while interior lumber was 8-10%. We love the brand, but the CC operations were huge, well run, and well disciplined factories that needed consistent quality in every boat. Lumber quality was a big part of that.
This is the original color in mine (1965 Connie)
My 1960 Connie the interior stain is more of a walnut.
Our 1960 Chris Craft Constellation came with cordova on interior and Chris Craft red mahogany on exterior. What your looking at is not original. There was a dinette. Templates are at fabricator for stainless counters for entire galley
Heading into Algonac tomorrow. Too bad the plant is gone
RE: color, I’ve found that back in the day that “glazes” were often used to match or make unique colors, and are great at “blending” different wood like old and new fab. Filler stain, Adding some color to the varnish, it works great, and sometimes the gold glow of varnish coats can be toned with red, black, other colors and used sparingly to take the visual “edge” off a new piece. I’ve done this on my wood boats and house interior, repairs on late 50’s Redwood ceiling, fixed wood issues, then stained to get close, then used glaze over top for a few coats, then varnished entire ceiling over the repair work, and if I didn’t show you the exact spot, it’s not detectable. Lots of patience, samples, matching, and a few weeks later it’s incredible. Good luck!
In the seventies a guy would stop by my folks marina in Iowa where we refinished old CC’s, Centurys, and one Riva. He had a semi trailer full of mahogany and my dad would buy as much rough plank as they thought we would need for the year. Then hope the guy showed up again the next year. The carpenters taught me as soon as I was able to run the planer so they didnt have to. I made a lot of chips and sawdust when I was a kid.
All of the different woods add to the coolness factor of good old wooden boats. Every woody is a unique masterpiece!
Varnish comes in different shades too.. “honey” “warm”, etc. That can make some difference too