“Mahogany” is sold under many names. Genuine mahogany is Swietenia from tropical America; African mahogany is Khaya, a different genus with similar uses; and lumberyards also sell sapele, meranti and others as mahogany. This page compares black walnut with genuine mahogany and African mahogany, using the Wood Handbook figures for each.
Walnut vs Mahogany: the numbers
| Property | Black walnut | Genuine mahogany (Honduran / big-leaf) | African mahogany (khaya) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janka side hardness, 12% MC | 1,010 lbf | 800 lbf | 830 lbf |
| Density at 12% MC | 38.5 lb/ft³ | 33.0 lb/ft³* | 31.0 lb/ft³* |
| Weight per board foot | 3.20 lb | 2.75 lb* | 2.58 lb* |
| Bending strength (MOR), 12% MC | 14,600 psi | 11,500 psi | 10,700 psi |
| Stiffness (MOE), 12% MC | 1.68 million psi | 1.5 million psi | 1.4 million psi |
| Crushing strength parallel to grain | 7,580 psi | 6,780 psi | 6,460 psi |
| Shrinkage green to ovendry, tangential | 7.8% | 4.1% | 4.5% |
| Shrinkage, radial | 5.5% | 3.0% | 2.5% |
| Shrinkage, volumetric | 12.8% | 7.8% | 8.8% |
| Tangential / radial ratio (cupping tendency) | 1.42 | 1.37 | 1.8 |
| Width change per 1% MC, flatsawn (Table 13-5) | 0.274% | not tabulated | 0.201% |
| Heartwood decay resistance (Table 14-1) | resistant | resistant | moderately resistant |
What the numbers mean
- Hardness: Black walnut is 26% harder than Genuine mahogany (Honduran / big-leaf) (1,010 against 800 lbf), so it resists dents from furniture feet, dropped tools and wear correspondingly better.
- Weight: Black walnut is 17% heavier. A 1 x 6 board 8 feet long (4 board feet nominal) weighs about 12.8 lb in black walnut and 11.0 lb in genuine mahogany (honduran / big-leaf) at 12% moisture content.
- Strength and stiffness: Black walnut is 27% stronger in bending and 12% stiffer. Stiffness is what decides how much a shelf of the same size sags under the same load.
- Movement: tangential shrinkage from green to ovendry is 7.8% for black walnut and 4.1% for genuine mahogany (honduran / big-leaf); the lower figure means less seasonal movement across the width of a flatsawn board.
- Decay resistance of the heartwood: Black walnut: resistant; Genuine mahogany (Honduran / big-leaf): resistant; African mahogany (khaya): moderately resistant. Sapwood of every species has low decay resistance.
- The percentages above compare the first two columns; the table also lists African mahogany (khaya) for comparison.
Appearance, working and what to watch for
Genuine mahogany is reddish brown, darkening with age, with a medium texture and often an interlocked ribbon figure. It is famous for stability: its shrinkage is low and its tangential-to-radial ratio is one of the lowest in the Handbook, so it stays flat and holds joints, which is why it was the standard wood for pattern making, boat building and fine furniture. It cuts, carves and finishes very well. Black walnut is darker and brown rather than red, slightly heavier and harder, and works equally well, but it moves more with moisture changes.
Availability matters with mahogany. Bigleaf mahogany has been listed in CITES Appendix II since 2003, so legal trade needs export permits, and much of what is sold today is African mahogany or plantation-grown wood. Ask for the botanical name when you buy. African mahogany is somewhat less dense than walnut and has interlocked grain that can tear out on planing.
Finishing and colour
Mahogany has open pores that are traditionally filled with a paste grain filler before a high-gloss finish; walnut’s pores are a little finer and many people leave them open under an oil finish. Mahogany darkens with age to a deep reddish brown, while walnut slowly lightens towards a warm brown. Under the same clear finish the two therefore drift apart over the years. If you need to match an old mahogany piece, a reddish dye on new mahogany usually works better than staining walnut.
Which to choose: verdict by use
| Use | Better choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Boat building and outdoor trim | Genuine mahogany | Heartwood rated resistant, and very stable. |
| North American furniture with a dark finish | Black walnut | Domestic, widely available, dark without stain. |
| Carving and pattern making | Genuine mahogany | Very stable, even texture, carves crisply. |
| Guitar bodies and necks | Either | Both are traditional tonewoods; mahogany is the more common neck wood. |
| Easy legal sourcing | Black walnut | Domestic hardwood with no CITES permits. |
Frequently asked questions
Is walnut harder than mahogany?
Yes. Black walnut is 1,010 lbf of Janka hardness, genuine mahogany 800 lbf and African mahogany 830 lbf (Wood Handbook).
Which is more stable, walnut or mahogany?
Mahogany. Genuine mahogany shrinks 4.1% tangentially from green to ovendry against 7.8% for black walnut.
Is African mahogany real mahogany?
Botanically it is a different genus (Khaya) in the same family as genuine mahogany (Swietenia). It looks and works similarly and is often sold as mahogany.
Sources and method
All property values are read from our parsed copy of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material (FPL-GTR-190, 2010), a US Government publication in the public domain, the same data as the wood species database. The percentages and the board examples above are our arithmetic on those values. The values describe small, clear, straight-grained specimens: real boards with knots or sloping grain differ, and structural lumber is sized from graded design values in your local building code, not from this table.
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material. General Technical Report FPL-GTR-190, 2010. Chapter 2 (species descriptions), Chapter 4 (Tables 4-3, 4-4 shrinkage; Eq. 4-7, 4-9, 4-12 density), Chapter 5 (Tables 5-3b, 5-5b strength and hardness), Chapter 13 (Table 13-5 dimensional change coefficients), Chapter 14 (Table 14-1 decay resistance)
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook, 2021 edition (FPL-GTR-282)
Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. How we build and check our data: methodology and corrections. Spotted an error? Please let us know.