I apologize in advance for the blog-post like entry. But I have no blog. So there.
My family and I went to Maui for 10 days on well-deserved vacation. One of the things I like to TRY to do while in a new place is find a 1.75"x13"x18" piece of local lumber to bring back, to (who knows?) maybe make a guitar someday.
We had just finished snooping around Haleakala crater - what an amazing place!
It's many hairpins up and down the mountain. By the time we were done, it was 3:30 PM, almost time to start thinking about where we're going to have supper (with the kids and all). The kids were tired, my wife was tired, my mother in law was in the van...
I had read about this guy: http://www.ecomauikoa.com/eco_koa.html by Googling Maui / lumber / koa / mango or something of the sort... Seemed like a neat place, so I asked if we could go see - my wife agreed. Mistake #1. I plugged the name of the street into the GPS and it took us on a wild adventure in Hawaiian upcountry with very narrow very winding very one lane roads with very large roots acting as monumental speedbumps. Called the guy - he said I was way too high up and had to come back down.
What we should have done:
What I ended up doing:
My wife was less than impressed.
After many wrong turns, finally find the guy. He makes us park at the top of his property and walk down into this little inaccessible valley.
This is what we see:
Excuse the crappy cellphone. It was huge. Those front and back supports are full sized trees! The two jerry cans on the left give a little idea of scale.
He had a mill set up, and to the left of the picture, a huge military style tent.
There was lumber everywhere! And it was mostly koa... Mountains of it!
He was working on finishing a monkeypod-pheasantwood table:
and some benches (oh, is that all koa behind there?)
His scrap pile looked like my wishlist:
And his shorts pile was like heaven:
He had koa everywhere! But since I was already working on a Koa guitar for my dad, and wanted something different - I asked if he had some mango. I think he knew I would pay for Koa (much more expensive too) - I think he lied to me and said no. He salesmaned me into buying a gorgeous, undersized piece of curly Koa (which I'll put up as soon as I can...)
There's also this great magazine article about him:
http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2007-04-12-173823.112113_Maui_Koa.html
Great guy - very interesting - has done many things and has many stories to tell!
Highly reccomend, although you need to be very specific and ask for end-sealing. His prices a market or greater, but his methods are worth it.
Now I'm in Denver for the week for a conference - at least they don't have any native hardwoods here!
Looking to go pay this guy a visit though:
http://www.tcwoods.com/
My family and I went to Maui for 10 days on well-deserved vacation. One of the things I like to TRY to do while in a new place is find a 1.75"x13"x18" piece of local lumber to bring back, to (who knows?) maybe make a guitar someday.
We had just finished snooping around Haleakala crater - what an amazing place!
It's many hairpins up and down the mountain. By the time we were done, it was 3:30 PM, almost time to start thinking about where we're going to have supper (with the kids and all). The kids were tired, my wife was tired, my mother in law was in the van...
I had read about this guy: http://www.ecomauikoa.com/eco_koa.html by Googling Maui / lumber / koa / mango or something of the sort... Seemed like a neat place, so I asked if we could go see - my wife agreed. Mistake #1. I plugged the name of the street into the GPS and it took us on a wild adventure in Hawaiian upcountry with very narrow very winding very one lane roads with very large roots acting as monumental speedbumps. Called the guy - he said I was way too high up and had to come back down.
What we should have done:
What I ended up doing:
My wife was less than impressed.
After many wrong turns, finally find the guy. He makes us park at the top of his property and walk down into this little inaccessible valley.
This is what we see:
Excuse the crappy cellphone. It was huge. Those front and back supports are full sized trees! The two jerry cans on the left give a little idea of scale.
He had a mill set up, and to the left of the picture, a huge military style tent.
There was lumber everywhere! And it was mostly koa... Mountains of it!
He was working on finishing a monkeypod-pheasantwood table:
and some benches (oh, is that all koa behind there?)
His scrap pile looked like my wishlist:
And his shorts pile was like heaven:
He had koa everywhere! But since I was already working on a Koa guitar for my dad, and wanted something different - I asked if he had some mango. I think he knew I would pay for Koa (much more expensive too) - I think he lied to me and said no. He salesmaned me into buying a gorgeous, undersized piece of curly Koa (which I'll put up as soon as I can...)
There's also this great magazine article about him:
http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2007-04-12-173823.112113_Maui_Koa.html
Great guy - very interesting - has done many things and has many stories to tell!
Highly reccomend, although you need to be very specific and ask for end-sealing. His prices a market or greater, but his methods are worth it.
Now I'm in Denver for the week for a conference - at least they don't have any native hardwoods here!
Looking to go pay this guy a visit though:
http://www.tcwoods.com/
arty07:
