Mango Wood Jewelry Chest

I really like mangos (the fruit), but never heard about Mango wood.  When a fellow internet woodworking aquaintance tipped me off about Mango wood from Hawaii, I was intrigued. I ordered a nice board of figured Mango from Winkler Wood Products in Hilo, Hawaii not really knowing what to expect. It came as no surprise that the shipping cost for the board cost was much as the wood itself. The wood looked very interesting - a creamy beige color, kind of open pored, with some spalting and curly figure. I put it on the lumber pile, but never quite forgot about it.

So when this fall (1999) the time arrived to make some new jewelry boxes, the mango wood was at the forefront of my choices. I stretched the wood out by using ash for the box and tray bottoms and managed to get two pieces out of one thick board.

This box features a drawer in addition to the tray:

  The Mango wood was a moderately soft wood, but the curly figure made it a little difficult to work. There were a few spots of pink that can just be seen in this photo.