Kiri/Empress/Phoenix Wood

I was curious if anyone has had any experience with Kiri wood, also known as Empress or Phoenix? It is a highly renewable lumber-grade timber that reaches maturity in five years, and grows back quicker on subsequent generations from the old stump. Apparently it is used for stringed instruments, and will save the world.

Kiri is described as light-weight, fine-grained, warp-resistant and resonant. It caught my ear because I have been in the printing industry for twenty years, and I'm always excited by new pulp sources for paper. The article reported a farm in the Nevada desert that plans to sell not only timber, but carbon credits.

I was listening to NPR and heard a segment on little known news items, that were touted as conversation starters. I only mention this because I was unable to find a link on their site. I am convinced that this is what they were talking about:

Paulownia at Wikipedia
Fighting Deforestation at Yahoo News

Never heard of it, but it sounds like it's a heck of a tree.
http://www.plantingdirections.com/RoyalEmpress.htm
From that page:

Spring Pruning
Let your tree grow for one entire year. If your empress tree did not grow at least 4 feet before winter dormancy, we recommend that you cut it to the ground at the very start of spring (a process called coppicing). This may seem odd, but it will grow a very straight, beautiful tree. Your tree(s) will more than make up for the lost growth in the first few weeks. We have seen some Empress Trees grow as many as 20 feet in the first year after being cut back to the ground.

Click to expand...

Also sounds like a weed. A hardwood weed. I see the wiki article you linked to says it's listed as an invasive species in some parts of the US. Once you've got it, you just can't get rid of it!

I've built one ukulele with kiri from Japan and I have a set in the shop that I haven't used. I thought the finished instrument sounded good. I'll use the other set one day, when I have more free time.