Patrick-
Thanks for the kind words- I didn't use any stain, but I suspect it's more the type of mahogany that gives it the color. I only know this type of mahogany as 'scavenged'. My wife and I pulled it out of an old restaurant that was set to be razed, and that was about 18 years ago. (I'm a packrat) Also, it's not coated with epoxy, just three coats of spar varnish. I generally go down to 220 grit paper. For preventing 'blotchiness', I've had great success using a pre-stain wood conditioner, although I've never used it on mahogany. If you use the oil based type, it won't raise the grain. A lot of the mahogany you find these days is relatively soft, so it's more prone to the problem. Another approach might be to use a filler stain. Z-Spar makes one that I used many years ago, and with a few coats of varnish, it really turned out gorgeous. Again, though, that mahogany was pretty dark, heavy, and tight-grained. I doubt that the sandpaper grit has much to do with your blotches, but it is critical to sand everything the same. I once did a project for a customer, and did some extra sanding (this was on oak ply) to clean up filler in nail holes, and after I coated it you could see exactly where I'd done the sanding. I guess the sanding 'opened up' the veneer surface, and allowed for more absorption.
Anyway, too bad about the blotching... just tell people you did it on purpose to give it more 'character'.
Enjoy!
Steve

: Great Job! Very pretty boat.

: May i ask, did you use stain on the mohagany, the color is excellent.
: Also what grit did you sand the mahogany down to?

: I ask about the grit because i am trying to figure out why the mahogany on my
: boat came out with blotches...i figure maybe i used different grit
: sandpaper and the epoxy was absorbed deeper in places.