Mahogany

This is not mahogany, even though it looks like it could be.

There are only two sources of mahogany in our house. Igor beat me to the blipping of one and the other (our banister rail) would be a bit dull. Igor tends to get up before I do in the mornings so any good blip material is often snapped up (literally) before I get a look in. Sometimes I have to stake a claim the night before if I have a particular idea in mind. Still he kindly lent me the prop I’m using today (so he's not all bad!). It’s an egg made from a wood called lignum vitae.

There are lots of interesting facts about the use of this wood on Wikipedia. These are just a few of them:

Lignum vitae is hard and durable. It is by far the densest wood traded and it will easily sink in water.

Due to the density of the wood, balls, in particular "heavy bails" used in windy conditions, are sometimes made of lignum vitae. For example cricket balls. It is also used to make lawn bowls, croquet mallets, and skittles balls.

It was the traditional wood used for the British police truncheon until recently, due to its density (and strength), combined with the relative softness of wood compared to metal, thereby tending to bruise or stun rather than simply cut the skin

According to T. H. White's version of the King Arthur story The Once and Future King, lignum vitae, from which the wand of Merlin is made, has magical powers.

So all in all not a bad blip even though I’ve strayed away from the challenge topic a teensy bit.