Anyone want some nice koa?

Today I ran across a nice unit of koa at a local supplier. The flat billets are about 6" x 1.75" x 28" to 30". The ones that are square in section are 3" and 3.5". One piece necks, anyone? Lots of the flat billets are perfectly quartersawn and some have light figure. Most all of it has very nice grain patterns. The seller said that he bought the unit from a guy who had it in storage for twenty years or so. He's selling it at $7.50/lb, which works out to $35-45 for a flat billet.

He'll take phone orders and ship. I've bought from him a number of times and he's a good guy. Jim at Hardwoods Plus in Grants Pass, Oregon, 541-471-4941.

Good to see a lot of koa blocks! I wonder if people makes furniture out of it.

Sadly, it's a long way to Queensland.

Yeah, Allen, but you have no shortage of beautiful timbers there in Oz! That's fairly plain koa compared to some of the blackwood you have.

phone call placed...Thank You!

Rick Turner said:

Yeah, Allen, but you have no shortage of beautiful timbers there in Oz! That's fairly plain koa compared to some of the blackwood you have.

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Very true Rick. And I've got some really fantastic Blackwood on the shelves.

Funny thing here in Australia is that in the ukulele world, Blackwood is not appreciated near as much as it should be. I don't think that the ukulele buying public are all that educated about wood, so inquires always lean towards exotics (Koa being the prime contender). For guitars it's a different matter, and there's no trouble at all convincing that crowd of it's merits.

Allen said:

Very true Rick. And I've got some really fantastic Blackwood on the shelves.

Funny thing here in Australia is that in the ukulele world, Blackwood is not appreciated near as much as it should be. I don't think that the ukulele buying public are all that educated about wood, so inquires always lean towards exotics (Koa being the prime contender). For guitars it's a different matter, and there's no trouble at all convincing that crowd of it's merits.

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:agree: There are so many other woods out there. We are trying to keep it local wood as much as we can

WOBster said:

phone call placed...Thank You!

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You're welcome. I hope it works out well. While selecting some pieces, I set aside a bunch of others that were just as nice for instrument building. I told Jim that I would be doing this post and that he might be getting a call from someone who would like those pieces. So, you ought to get some suitable stuff.

Thanks saltytri,
Jim pick out 3 nice pieces for me and sent me a picture of them. They will be on there way here shortly.

Brad