First time sawyer, have koa, don't want to mess up.

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

I'm lucky enough to have a friend who trimmed his koa trees. He has a bunch of smaller cuts that I can help myself to; 4-7" in diameter, 2-5' feet in length.
About 2 weeks after they were trimmed I put anchor seal on all the exposed end grain to help with drying.

This is a sample piece and I'm wondering how best to make use of the lumber and for some general dos/donts as this is my first time cutting up a log.

Photo Aug 28, 10 56 17 PM.jpg

That sample is about 4' long and maybe 5" in diameter. I have about 4 others that are the same dimensions.

I was thinking of doing three cuts like this:
InkedPhoto Aug 28, 10 56 17 PM_LI.jpg

That would yield pretty straight logs of about 16" that I could then resaw.

Advice on where I should cross cut?

Advice on how best to resaw such a small diameter board? (I have access to a 18" bandsaw with a 3/4" resaw blade)

Ideally I would like to get enough boards to make a small box and/or some blanks so I can turn some handles for tools, and a tote and handle for a couple planes. I'm not sure if there is enough diameter there to get boards from though?

[Julie Moriarty]

If you can resaw the log without cross cutting it first, you can get a better idea what kind of grain there is and from there decided how you want to crosscut it. With an 18" bandsaw resawing 5", you shouldn't have any problem.

Koa can be pretty gnarly so make sure any planing tools are very sharp. Even with razor sharp tools you can still get tearout.

When you open it up, show us the pics!

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

so what is the first cut? freehand on the bandsaw right through the center?

[david privett]

get the lengths that you need ,keeping straighter the better and make cants to see the grain and go from there.

[Julie Moriarty]

so what is the first cut? freehand on the bandsaw right through the center?

That's what I would do...

[dan petroski]

Holding those small logs is always the issue for me. Made a couple of fixtures to do that with limited success. Out us know how you come out.