did a little ebay surfing

[CWS]

Spanish Cedar is a deciduous Tree, not an Evergreen like regular cedar. No relationship. Spanish Cedar is grown in Central America, and they have just been hit with a large tax, so it is about to become very expensive. But it will give up humidity to counter the effect of opening your humidor, and soak up excess when that is what is called for. Nothing like n it, no replacement for it. I have heard Mahogany, but have not had confirmed to me that it is the same, or as good as the real thing.

Stick with a winner, a known Good Thing, time tested and unique. Have you tried any of the replacements for cork in Wine bottles?

"Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) or Central American cedar is a very commonly grown wood that makes beautiful furniture. There are actually 30 distinct species of Cedrela growing in Costa Rica. The locals can identify most of them; we generally are happy to be able to tell that it is cedar.

Spanish cedar is of the same family as mahogany "

 

[Pendaboot]

Same family does not mean the same. There are members of my family who are nothing like me. Just because the Costa Rican government makes the stuff expensive, that is no reason to make the leap of faith that Mahogany is the same thing. Similar, related, yes. The same properties insofar as relative humidity is concerned, I don't know. Same aroma, no way.

 

[CWS]

Same family does not mean the same. There are members of my family who are nothing like me. Just because the Costa Rican government makes the stuff expensive, that is no reason to make the leap of faith that Mahogany is the same thing. Similar, related, yes. The same properties insofar as relative humidity is concerned, I don't know. Same aroma, no way.

I am sure you are quite knowledgable but mahogany is used interchangably with spanish cedar and is used regularly in walk-in humidors at some of the finer cigar establishments around the world.

It has nothing do with faith and I do not believe that the analogy to you and your family really works in this case

 

[oldglory]

CWS never said Mahogany was the same thing or even that it works as well as spanish cedar!! He made a simple statement that mahogany could be used in its place.....by the way I have seen A cigar shop use Mahogany for the walls.

 

[Pendaboot]

All I meant was that Mahogany does not seem to be used very often in small humidors. Commercial units pump large amounts of H2O into the air to replace what goes out the door. Most little humidors have passive sponges or beads that have limited capacity to rehumidify the air within. Spanish Cedar helps with that. I have not read that that ability to rehumidify is one of the properties of Mahogany. Catnip is from the same family as marijuana. The druggies in my neighborhood do not smoke catnip, and if they did, I am not sure that I would.

 

[CWS]

All I meant was that Mahogany does not seem to be used very often in small humidors. Commercial units pump large amounts of H2O into the air to replace what goes out the door. Most little humidors have passive sponges or beads that have limited capacity to rehumidify the air within. Spanish Cedar helps with that. I have not read that that ability to rehumidify is one of the properties of Mahogany. Catnip is from the same family as marijuana. The druggies in my neighborhood do not smoke catnip, and if they did, I am not sure that I would.

I don't smoke catnip or marijuana thank you but I have helped design and build three walk-ins for cigar stores and we used rough cut mahogany in every case. The rough cut has the same properties as spanish cedar and retains the humidity very nicely. Each had a central humification unit that would never be able to maintain a stable environment without the properties of the mahogany.

By the the way you can put 65% beads in a tupperware container and when sealed, viola, it maintains an environment of 65% with no wood of any type. The wood helps to stablize and mahogany and its brother spanish cedar do just that. They also help to defeat bugs such as cigar beetles.