flamed koa

I got some real nice stuff on Ebay from Bob's exotic wood. It is not stablilzed, but the piece of koa I got was smokin. Try him, Burlsource, That Burly Guy. I have a couple other sellers saved but I cannot remember em off the top of my head. Staburl has always given me #1 service and their stuff is stabilized. Their good stuff goes quick so you have to look on a regular basis.
 
As long as we're on the topic, does anyone know a good source for koa lumber? Bigger than knife blocks, but not necessarily huge. The companies I usually deal with rarely carry the stuff. I want lots of figure, but I don't want to be completely poor afterwards (I know that's tough).
 
Koa is the same tree as the Australian Ringed Gidgee from what I have been able to find out about it. They are both Acacias, related to many other thorn trees like Mesquite, Locust and Desert Ironwood from the Americas and Makawood from SE Asia.

The Gidgee looks amazingly like Koa. It is available from some importers here.
 
Definitely not the same tree. Same genus and similar look, though. Another close relative is Tasmanian blackwood (Acacia Melanoxylon), it looks very similar to Acacia Koa.

Many of the woods I use are in the family you mention (Fabaceae, formerly Leguminosae). It's the third largest family of flowering plants, including over 900 species of Acacia alone.
 
Phillip Dobson said:
As long as we're on the topic, does anyone know a good source for koa lumber? Bigger than knife blocks, but not necessarily huge. The companies I usually deal with rarely carry the stuff. I want lots of figure, but I don't want to be completely poor afterwards (I know that's tough).
Click to expand...

Google luthiery supply places. Koa is a very popular in the custom guitar world. You may find some nice neck blanks if you shop around. A neck blank would be enough for several knife handles.
 
The best way is to have friends in Hawaii :D


I have several pieces as large as 8/4 x 10 x 60" or so which would make about ...9 million knife handles or so!

(I've actually made furniture mostly!)

Luthier suppliers are a good source, but the best stuff is NOT cheap.

http://www.alohawoods.com/ has been a good source in the past, with occasional good specials

Bill
 
Being in Hawaii isn't necessarily enough, at least not for me. It sounds like you have better connections.

Koa is a fairly rare tree. The Hawaiians used to make their canoe ships out of it. Some years ago some folks reenacted the Polynesian voyages across the Pacific without modern technology. It has been done many times since. It is quite impressive. One of the catches is, they could not find any native Koa trees big enough to build the canoes. They ended up working with some native Alaskans to get some substitute tree wood that was large enough.

This is all to say that not only is the wood beautiful. It is truly rare too. That's why most of it finds it's way into applications as veneer, such as musical instruments, to maximize its coverage. I have a friend in the micro-lumbering of exotics. He sells all his koa as veneer. It just doesn't pay for him not to, much to my disappointment.

Good luck with your search and keep us posted with what you find and make with it.
 
FWIW, I bought from that eBay seller...once! Their "stabilization" is not like WSSI or K&G...it is very poorly penetrated, and clearly not "the good stuff"

I didn't bother complaining, but I've heard that others have tried without much luck

Bill
 
Here are a couple pics of some nice stuff - the big piece is pretty rare!
 

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That sure is sweet looking Billf. Are you going to share your secret with us? Or did you already in mentioning a friend in Hawaii?
 
That's what I want!

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OK

here is one of my secrets:

http://www.woodshopgallery.com/

check out the "koa lumber sales" - and get on the email list - they occasionally have some very nice sales, and the "shorts" or "cut-off" boxes are an unbelievable deal for handle size pieces.

gee, now I'll have to be in competition with all of you for the best pieces.....

OK, forget what I said, don't go to the site, you won't like it :D

Bill
 
If I recall correctly from when I bought my acoustic guitar, Doa is a type of wood in Hawaii that is a substitute for Koa. I will look up that a little more to see what's the substitution.
 
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