What’s the right finish for mahogany chairs  

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Sand lightly with P300 or higher after oil has dried at least 24 hours and between as many applications as needed. Sometimes, it can take as many as 5 or 7 (or 4 or 6)!

FWIW, I'm not sure that it's true mahogany, which is not "harder" than teak. More likely it's another of the many tropical teak or mahogany substitute species.

Thank you very much. I will follow your advice! Will come up later with a result. 

That is not mahogany! It appears to be some wood in the pea family. 

Agreed^

I'm sure you didn't go as far as to commit to this word for a reason Leif, but it does look like a variety of 'rosewood'.

Leif's just teasing, Kyle. But, yeah...

FTR, I'm done with trying to ID wood species from photographs. "Looks like ****** to me" is as far as I'll go anymore.

Teasing? About what? No I am not teasing.  If my statement was not clear enough, then let me try to be more clear: there is a very large family of plants, the pea family in common English, although legume family is a fancier word for it (and there are even fancier, if your name is Linnaeus) and the wood from trees in the pea family has certain characteristics broadly speaking. (They also have flowers that look like pea flowers and pods that look like pea pods, surprise surprise). I don’t think that is Brazilian Rosewood, although maybe, but it might be some other rosewood in the Dalbergia genus, but it really could be many many trees in the Pea family. Mahogany it is not. Identifying wood by photos can be hard sometimes but is definitely not always impossible. The identification of pea family probably feels underwhelming because it is overly broad and certain few pea family species convey value and prestige while the vast majority do not. 

Thank you very much Leif. Indeed, for me it only looks like mahogany. I thought cause it's red, heavy and quiet solid, I would be close with mahogany. Do you know if those kind of pea woods requiere another approach than the common furniture woods as teak, oak or beech?

 What oil are you using?  When sanding did you remove all of the old finish?  What was the old finish?

While all of that is true, Leif, the best we can do here is to offer educated guesses. As our world is depleted of preferred hardwood species traditionally used in production of fine furniture, alternatives and substitutes have become increasingly common. Often enough, the *only* way to accurately identify these is by comparing them to verified samples under magnification. At some point, when it comes to vintage mid-century furniture, the exercise becomes so esoteric as to render it moot or, worse, uninteresting.

My accusation was meant to tease. Apologies if it wasn't obvious. I'm quite aware that not much is funny anymore, but that's not gonna stop me from trying ...and often failing.

I have to confess, I feel fairly confident identifying Brazilian rosewood now by close up shots. It's the other rosewoods that I find homogeneous and hard to distinguish. Having said that, I am not identifying pen or knife blanks out of context, I probably only feel confident with that looking at design from the period when I know rosewood was used.

And then having said that, I did buy some pen blanks the other day as I am 100% sure they are Brazilian rosewood in case I ever need some for repairs... Or maybe a project one day? Hopefully the latter.

Hi Leif, 

regarding your questions: 

 What oil are you using? Linseed oil for furniture. 

When sanding did you remove all of the old finish? I suppose, but there might be some residue, shouldn't be much though. 

What was the old finish? Not at the point yet, that I could source it out, but I suppose shellac.