I've bought a Peugeot for a fiver.

[Togalosh]

I chopped down a big apple tree before I got so deeply into woodwork & it went to ..firewood - bugger !

I will be looking out for hornbeam & keeping my eyes peeled for some apple..but I do have a monster sized (& even heavier) beam of Jarrah & off cuts of a snooker table which I think is mahogany..are these good enough?

 

[AndyT]

How many lifetimes do you want it to last? ;-)

I think any of those would be fine. I would choose the mahogany as being much more workable, but Derek Cohen has used jarrah with spectacular success.