Because the piece was rectangular I still have a small spindle piece that will be perfect for a large pen or even several bottle stoppers. It might even make a set of small salt and pepper shakers; time will tell.
The piece I used had a small bark inclusion left on it and I tried to preserve some of it without success.
As you would expect from a piece so old, my Koa was very well seasoned and extremely dry. It did cut quite nicely with carbide cutters from the Easy Wood Tool line but due to its age and its dryness it was quite dusty. As the bowl took shape, the Koa displayed a very nice figure and even some shine. If I had any doubts about the identification of the wood, comparisons to known examples of Koa would dispel them as the wood clearly looks like Koa once cut and sanded to a high shine with the distinctive figure showing nicely.
I did find the texture to be somewhat coarse and in that respect it most reminded me of Walnut (Juglans sp). As it turns out, this was not an inapt comparison as professional woodworkers compare the appearance of Koa most often to true Mahogany, as indicated previously, but structurally and functionally Koa is most often compared to Walnut. It is nice to know that my notes from the time are not wildly inaccurate and it further confirms the accuracy of the written identification on the blank.
I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work with Koa as it was a joy to turn and it is truly a beautiful wood once properly surfaced and finished. While I would gladly work with Koa again, and I can on a limited scale with the cut off piece that I have left, I don’t think it likely that I can afford to purchase additional bowl blank sizes even if they were available. Sellers on eBay are probably the highest volume source of Koa on the ready market but, as I have indicated, I have serious ethical concerns about eBay sellers and I also don’t care for the auction environment, at least as constructed by eBay with robo-bidders and the like, so I won’t be tempted to purchase from there. Other sellers don’t seem to offer bowl blank size pieces very often, if at all.
As a point of pricing reference, a book-matched set of Koa, most suited to stringed instrument making, of a thickness of roughly 1” although by an impressive 18” long x 8” wide, is offered for $399.99 PLUS $44.96 in shipping. This quite succinctly demonstrates my contentions about both the price of available Koa and the prices of shipping it from Hawai’i. That noted, I won’t be buying this offer!
Koa may prove to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I am grateful to have had the chance to turn it. If Koa should ever come my way in a reasonably affordable form in the future I am quite likely to snap it up, but even if that never happens, I will have enjoyed the chance I have been fortunate to have with this piece.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!