A day in the life...

[malmomike77]

^ that's looking OK now but i'd recommend getting it well sanded with finer and finer grit. Try the alcohol test and you'll get a good idea and it'll highlight scratches.

Seeing the last pics it looks like you've got good figuring on there and the oil will really bring that out much nicer than that urethane crap. Is the oil coloured? if so you'd be advised to try it out on an area it won't show, i.e. underneath to get an idea of the outcome before you start.

With oiling remember its not like a massage in Suki, don't apply too much and buff it between coats when its dried as you need to fill the grain first (you can see how open it is in the pics) and don't expect a quick happy ending it'll take time.

[Mendip]

^ Everything takes time at my age and I've learnt not to expect anything quick.

I've ordered some Watco Danish Oil Red Mahogany so there will be some colour but hopefully not too dark.

[Reg Dingle]

strangely enough she doesn't seem to have any lingerie any more

Does that save on mosquito repellant or keep the flies off your 7 eleven toasties?

[BLD]

About 3 years ago it was one of those whack years where it seemed like every Mango grew. No wind storms to thin them out. I think my wife counted > 500 from 3 trees combined. We had blue baskets full of them. My wife said she would take them to the local market and offer them to people. That went over like a lead balloon. There are people there selling them to live. You can't go to a market and give them away. While a nice e gesture and a way to avoid waste, you might get black eyed.

My wife understands now about having the fruit trees nice and small now. We can pretty much consume what we grow, load a big box and send to my SIL in Ayutthaya and toss the rest.

As a kid growing up we had Washington Delicious Apples, Pippen Apples, Navel Orange and Walnut trees. Same problem. Just way too much albeit I did love eating apple pie alot.

That sparked a memory. As a 26 year old I decided a sort of working holiday in Canada and the states was required I was cashed up from working desert seismic young dum n full of cum so of I went . Canada first where I picked apples and cherries with a bunch of Pakistanis in the okanagan. caught up with with the Canadian outlaws there in Vancouver Island ( fantastic place. Then buggered of of down to the states via Washington state where the Apple picking season was still going on for another 3 weeks so I decided to pick apples with d Mexicans this time. I had bought an old RV for about $5000 that I lived in.it was the way to go. . You sure can't get fat n rich picking apples but you can have a lot of fun and offset your fuel expense. Which I found ridiculously cheap at about a buck a gallon back then. And that was a 440 dodge v8 pulling a 22 ft motor home. I wish I had that rig here. V8 or not anyway bottom line was I was a tourist working illegally for fuel Money but I sure got treated right by Americans. Acountry I would love to visit again. Sadly my US relatives are thinning out now.

[Looper]

^What year was that Lao?

I cycled from Vancouver to Tijuana summer '93

Dodging the old retired geezers bowling down Highway 101 in their giant RV barges with their flask of JD in their lap kept me on my toes in my old school leather pedal straps (before clip-on shoes became mainstream)

One of them might have been you!

[Mendip]

I'm going table mad here.

I decided that 15 half-finished projects that will probably never get completed just isn't enough...

[malmomike77]

Question? why have you got the table up on blocks placed on their narrow sides? are you just waiting to see who long it takes for the table to slip off them

[Mendip]

^ A very good question Mike. I did ask the gardener but am really none the wiser.

Maybe it's to raise the legs a bit higher so that he doesn't scuff his knuckles on the ground when sanding around their base?

These tables 'slip' nowhere. They weight a bloody tonne... the dining table was a 4 man lift and even the coffee table was a 2 man lift.

[Stretchy]

Are they 100% solid wood or is there some veneer Mendip?

[Mendip]

^ 100% solid mahogany.

[Shutree]

^ 100% solid mahogany.

Late eighties, living in Bangkok, I enjoyed taking visitors on a slow boat around the small klongs. There was one small shop beside a quiet back klong that sold miscellaneous stuff and for some unexplained reason had a large mahogany table for sale. It wasn't decoratively carved or anything, just a giant slab of mahogany. Probably big enough to seat 8 people. Several times I saw that table and told myself it would be madness to buy such a thing. I still wonder, what if ...?

[Mendip]

I still wonder, what if ...?

I'll tell you what if Shutree...

You could be spending every spare moment for three weeks sanding the b@stard... that's what if.

[Bonecollector]

^^ 55555

[Mendip]

The sanding continues... this could be you, Shutree!

The gardener reckons that the coffee table is a different kind of wood to the mahogany dining table. It looks the same to me but I do know that it also weights a bloody tonne.

'Mai sapp' is the best I can work out that he's saying. Any ideas?

[malmomike77]

^ He may be suggesting tectona grandis? but you've heard it wrong.

[malmomike77]

Comprehensive list of commonly available timbers in Thailand.

[Mendip]

^^ Oh, teak... nice!

It all looks the same under half an inch of polyurethane.

I'm probably hearing him wrong but he does have a strange accent.

He's taken to calling Lola 'Laurel' as in Laurel and Hardy.

I think that between them, the wife and gardener have around 8 different names for her. Poor little dog doesn't know what's going on.

Edit: ^ That's a useful link Mike, thanks. Why do you think that mahogany isn't on it?

[malmomike77]

^ Its not a native to SE Asia.

Oh, teak... nice

is it Teak? its easy to tell by the grain, you'd need to post a few close ups.

[Mendip]

Here ya go Mike... a few close-ups of our coffee table. One thing, if mahogany isn't native to SE Asia how wood you think we have a mahogany dining table? Or maybe it isn't mahogany? We have loads of stuff I was told was mahogany from this wood guy when we built the house and back then I tended to believe people.

Anyway, the 'teak' coffee table...

[Shutree]

mahogany isn't native to SE Asia

It is not native here, however the Europeans planted it around Asia. The Philippines has a lot, I believe.

Then there is the question of what, exactly, is mahogany? Several different types of tree are broadly labelled mahogany. I used to have a lot of rosewood dining furniture, currently to be found at my ex's house. Exactly what kind of wood it is I don't know, there seem to be various trees that end up being sold as rosewood. Whatever your tables and mine might be it doesn't seem important, they are all good, strong and attaractive wood.

If someone told me that coffee table is teak then I'd believe them. Mike might have a better idea.

[malmomike77]

^ Correct on mahogany Shu.

re the table its not clear but i'd almost bet my Mrs's house its not teak, looks like Magogany too but not as fine as your dining table - i could be wrong as its still not easy to tell. Teak can have those dark lines.

[CalEden]

My understanding one of the major factors driving the Spanish colonization of the Philippines was its expansive old growth Mahoganey forest/jungles.

[Mendip]

I was on my way up to feed Pajama Girl's puppies today when I came across this... the tail of a large rat snake sticking out of the verge at the side of the lane.

I don't know why but I decided to pinch the tail with my thumb and forefinger and give it a pull, just because I could.

The snake did an about turn and had a real go at me but luckily just missed. I have discovered that running while screaming like a girl is a good defense against an aggressive rat snake.

[Topper]

Here's a picture of my Filipino mahogany table if that helps....



From what I've read, Chris Craft (the boating manufacturer) used Filipino mahogany back in the 50's to build their boats.

[DrWilly]

I was on my way up to feed Pajama Girl's puppies today when I came across this... the tail of a large rat snake sticking out of the verge at the side of the lane.

I don't know why but I decided to pinch the tail with my thumb and forefinger and give it a pull, just because I could.

The snake did an about turn and had a real go at me but luckily just missed. I have discovered that running while screaming like a girl is a good defense against an aggressive rat snake.