Whats the best stain for Koa ?

I have built a couple of mandolins with koa sides and backs and did do a subtle sunburst on them. It was quite a while ago, but I think it was a reddish brown concentrate in alcohol. If the koa is only slightly figured, a hand stain can make it stand out more. But, the great difficulty with hand staining things is you don't know how it will look until it is finished. To be sure of things, you need to take a piece of the same wood you intent to use, and stain it and finish it to see how it will look; which is a lot of work, especially if you don't like it and have to repeat the process.

Brad
 
Timbuck... Chuck and Pete are the 2 finest uke makers that God has graced the surface of this planet with. If you choose not to hang on every word that they say.... Well... Bad decision. Period. Together they have a more years of uke making experience than you or I have been alive. Blasphemy only happens AFTER you ask someone and they hand you knowledge and you choose to do the wrong thing. Do the right thing, ask them more questions. They will not disappoint.
 
Addmittedly some Koa is absolutely stunning and best left as is..But some grades are quite plain and could be improved with a little enhancement of the grain..Like this Koa telecaster.
Koatelecaster-1.jpg
 
There used to be an ex-pro bass player and amateur luthier who had a music shop near here. He showed me his working bass he made years ago fom solid koa. I have to say it was some of the most unexciting wood I've ever seen.
 
Not being the best of anything "on the planet", a tiresome expression, and running the risk of going against the grain, so to speak, not to mention offending the gods, I will offer that fine instrument builders have been adding a bit of color to their woods for eons. Violin varnish has natural amber tones to it from the solids therein. Unless you're talking about 3 to 5 A grade koa, which undoubtedly doesn't need or deserve any enhancement, there's nothing inherently wrong with the idea. Pigmented stain? No. But water soluble aniline dyes applied judiciously, with a light wash/sealer coat of shellac can enhance the grain and chatoyance of an otherwise unimpressive piece of wood.
 
I use orange shellac on koa and walnut. It seems to bring out the character of the wood, even when there is little figure. Darker stains seem to mute the wood and blend the colors together.
 
There is this bass made from Ash with a Koa top grafted on..For looks...I prefer the Ash.

I completely agree, that's a gorgeous piece of Ash and I would never have dreamed of covering it even with a veneer of Koa. Some people just don't see the obvious do they.

Ian.
 
Not being the best of anything "on the planet", a tiresome expression, and running the risk of going against the grain, so to speak, not to mention offending the gods, I will offer that fine instrument builders have been adding a bit of color to their woods for eons. Violin varnish has natural amber tones to it from the solids therein. Unless you're talking about 3 to 5 A grade koa, which undoubtedly doesn't need or deserve any enhancement, there's nothing inherently wrong with the idea. Pigmented stain? No. But water soluble aniline dyes applied judiciously, with a light wash/sealer coat of shellac can enhance the grain and chatoyance of an otherwise unimpressive piece of wood.

For what it's worth, I agree. Koa can be boring, just like any other wood - we've all seen the "meh" samples. When koa is good, it's very good, but when it's bad - it's like mashed potatoes with no gravy. Various finish techniques can make an "ok" slab of wood look great. I also think that just dumping a pigment on there is a bad idea, but in general a moderate piece of koa with just the right treatment can be real art.
 
IMO, the best way to deal with "plain mashed potatoes" koa (I think that's a new grade classification now!) is to avoid using it in the first place. If you really want to use it and want to hide a boring surface I would rather stain the lacquer than the wood itself which can cause some koa to turn "muddy". A million years ago when I used to make mistakes, I would sometimes add a tint to the lacquer and do a subtle "tabacco stain" finish on the outer edges of the body. I've seen tint used in lacquer of all colors of the rainbow (including a rainbow colored uke) on top of curly koa. It's a unique effect but not one that I personally care for.
 
That's a real good point Chuck. I haven't worked with koa much, certainly not NEAR as much as you have for sure, but I imagine that especially with some chunks, quartersawn in particular, the somewhat "open". roe-ey (?) grain might soak up stain or dye at uneven rates and have a tendency to become blotchy too. With a mediocre piece of wood, though, there's not much making a silk purse out of a sow''s ear. I'd try a pale aniline dye wash I think, Timbuck. On a pre-sealed piece of scrap. Might pretty it up.
 
As in most things, there are trade offs. That very plain looking koa may have the potential for producing the best sounding instrument. I agree with Chuck that the easiest way to control how a sunburst looks, is by tinting the laquer. That method however, is not going to do much to enhance some hard to see figure. My Native American philosophy likes for every piece of wood to be used to its fullest potential, if you are going to kill the tree, let's use the wood as best we can. An effective way to help control the stain absorbtion in hand stained wood is to apply a seal coat of shellac, let that dry and sand it down to bare wood (just). That helps keep the stain from traveling all over.

Brad
 
To each his own. I don't like staining almost any wood. Boring straight grained pieces are my thing, but vanilla is also my favorite flavor of ice cream. There seems to be a conception that koa, or any other wood needs to be figured to be considered beautiful. I really don't like staining koa. Tinted laquer isn't too bad, but I find that staining really kills a lot of the natural chatoyance of the wood. Koa runs a wide gamut of colors and grain patterns, but almost all of it displays some degree of chatoyancy. If you clear or amber coat right over, the natural beauty of the grain is highlighted a lot more than pieces that are stained.
 
I was wiping on a coat of shellac to show a customer today and I remembered this thread, so I thought I'd post photos of the before and after of a piece of koa with amber shellac. The board is sanded to 80 grit and I use off the shelf shellac by Zinsser. Normally, I sand to 220 grit then wipe on 3-4 coats as sealer coats then clear coat with lacquer. I really like how the amber in the shellac brings out the highlights in the wood.

Andrew
 

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