Any Hawaiian woodworkers out there?

[Eric DeSilva]

Just got back from a week in Hawaii--exceptionally well timed given last week's weather issues in DC--and wondering if there are any Hawaiian woodworkers lurking around here? I managed to sneak a visit to the Woodworkers' Guild show in Waimea, and was really impressed by some of the work I saw. I don't typically get exposed to a lot of Koa, Mango, or Cook Pine, so it was an eye-opener. Koa, obviously, has a bit of a following, but I'd never seen mango in use. The Cook Pine turnings I saw were also pretty cool--it seems Cook pines have their branches coming out at a bunch of different directions at the same height, so the bowls I saw had a bunch of "eyes" in the sides that were really neat. The pine was also semi-translucent, which was also a nice effect, with very well defined grain.

The one question I never managed to ask anyone was whether the Koa products in Hawaii are really Hawaiian Koa, or whether they are South American Koa imported to Hawaii... I thought Hawaiian Koa was pretty rare, but saw an awful lot of Koa wood products for sale.

[Karl Card]

There is a guy on ebay named Joel. He has the absolute best wood I have seen come from hawaii. I am getting a collection of 17 different packs of pen blanks this week and then starting to get bowl blanks. I cannot find the types of wood he sales here in the states that is the quality that he has.. You may try and give him a message from ebay.
All of his auctions start with "joel" and he is a very nice and personble guy. I have a few spalted mango blanks here now at the house and I tell ya they are beautiful. I also had some curly koa and wow it is just awesome. I have some koa root, chinaberry, spallted signature, hawaiian olive, and just a bunch of beautful wood coming from this guy. One of my sayings is "once you go hawaiian, you never come back" it is just that different. Spalted signature for example is the hardest spalted wood that I have ever dealt with, but yet has the most colors of any spalted wood i have dealt with.

[Thomas Canfield]

Eric,

I recently spent some time in Hawaii but was not able to see the Woodworkers Guild Show in Waimea, but did have plenty of opportunities to see a lot of the Hawaiin wood in turnings, small boxes, and furniture. Koa is really something else. I would say that I shipped back 6 flat rate boxes of wood in addition to what I could stow in my suitcases, but no picture, it did not happen. I will post some of the wood in the future as turnings. One source for Koa is http://www.koawoodhawaii.com/1.html who also handles other woods. Chris shipped a couple of pieces of the Norfolk Island Pine for me a couple of years ago.

[brian platt]

I agree that Joel on Ebay has some great wood. I've bought pen blanks and small turning pieces from him in the past. The spalted signature wood has some wonderful colors especially for pens. He is very friendly and knowledgable.

Concerning Koa, there is no such thing as south american Koa. The tree Koa Acacia, is native only to Hawaii. There are of course a number of other Acacia varieties. In Northern Calif. we have Black Acacia that is sometimes called local Koa. Some of the color is similar, but without the figure that makes Koa unique.

While figured Koa is pretty rare and quite expensive, I understand that small koa trees common in residential neighborhoods and treated like junk trees. I bought some from a local guy who moved there for a few months. He bought several small trees being thrown away and had them milled. It was not 1st quality Koa, but was nice for turning small pieces.

There are also several woods in Hawaii that have color like koa but without the figure. Its possible some of these are sold as koa products since most tourists will not know the difference.

[Lawrence Nitz]

Eric,

If you were looking at finely made art, it is almost all real koa. If you were looking at $6.00 salad bowls, the wood is most likely monkey pod. It is hard to control the really inexpensive stuff, but gallery items that are falsely labelled will attract the attention of other woodworking artists and usually generate action from the local industry organization, the Hawaii Forest Industry Association, and a cease and desist letter from the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, or the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Forestry Division.

As for quantities of koa, koa and ohia are the two most common trees in Island of Hawaii forests. Much of the existing stand has had cattle damage or other problems, so the low grade wood is readily available. Fine, figured, curly koa is another issue, since we cannot really identify it from outside the tree. Veneer makers seek this out, since veneer will make the supply last longer.

Several experiments are under way, but there is no guaranteed method for farming koa at this point.

[Eric DeSilva]

Interesting. Most of the stuff I saw was either at the Wood Guild show or in Holualoa, so I'm guessing it was the real deal. I kept remembering hearing koa in other contexts, and after a bit of research, neither appears to be "real" koa--one was Brazilian koa, which turns out to be tigerwood, and the other was Australian koa, which turns out to be blackwood (but it is at least acacia).

I guess I was just struck by the difference in woods that are available--from a wood perspective, going to Hawaii is really like going to a different country the species are so different. I'm much more used to cherry, maple, walnut...

I briefly thought about trying to bring some koa back, but the idea of wrestling a 2 year old, carry on luggage, and a half dozen board feet of koa through 11 hours of air travel didn't seem so good. Maybe I'll look into ordering some off ebay or from a lumberyard that ships...

[Doug Shepard]

I've got a small stash of curly mango boards I picked up on eBay from a seller named nameleomoanikeala. Good guy to work with and good wood.

[Matt Uchida]

Im from Hawaii and I use Koa a bit. I do see a lot of wood on cheaper tourist items that I question what wood it really is.
Mango can be real ncie.
I am making two monkeypod tables right now and they are comming out real nice. Amazine color differentials dark rings right next to light rings (end grain).
We had our moneky pod taken down and three people were commign and selecting certain crotches and branch sections.

[Jeff Willard]

I kept remembering hearing koa in other contexts,


I once worked with a woman that was native to the islands. In her vernacular, any piece of craft or artistic woodwork was "koa". Even the maple:D.

[Lawrence Nitz]

Sorry, your respondent was not a woodworker. Not all craft items are koa; many are monkeypod or other acacias.

[Matt Uchida]

Monkeypod and mango do not look anything like Koa either.

Ive never heard the word Koa used as a slang referring to nice wood either.

I dont know if this is true or not but someone told me that the really curly parts of Koa wood come from the tree swaying in the wind.
Anyone know if this is true? How about for curly maple??

[Dave Hoselton]

I don't know if this is true or not but someone told me that the really curly parts of Koa wood come from the tree swaying in the wind.
Anyone know if this is true? How about for curly maple??

Compression 'fire curl' does occur from stress, and is localized but usually from weight or such as in crotch wood. It can be identified by striations in the bark, helpful when planning a turning. Then there is the highly sought 'genetic curl' which is not detectable in bark and may occur throughout a tree - thought to exist in only a few percent of all Acacia Koa.

Big Island Koa such as you would see in that Waimea show or Holualoa is preferred because of its wider range of color hues. However, the biggest show takes place on Oahu, http://damontucker.com/2010/03/28/24809/

Some years back the Hawaii Kai & Waipio Costco had a 'traveling display' of acacia furniture from Australia being marketed as Koa, then when the HFIA got involved it disappeared overnight. Local people highly value Koa, so you will find both profiteers and the uninformed wishfully calling almost anything "koa".

[Matt Uchida]

Here is a link to a threat with pictures of my two recent projects. One with Milo wood and one with monkey pod wood.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=137383

[Karl Card]

I was going to make a pen set and use alot of wood from hawaii and call it the Hawaiian collection. Then the more i looked into the wood I really could not do that.. Most of the wood grown in Hawaii is native to Japan etc.... so I finally made up my mind that if i do the project I will call it the "pacific island collection".

[Matt Uchida]

There are lots of native hawaiian woods and woods grown in hawaii that are definately not from Japan....