Monday, October 16, 2017

About Lovely Curly Koa Wood

By Matthew Rogers


The beauty of koa wood is widely known and appreciated. This lovely plant comes from Hawaii and people there were using it for centuries. They used it for building boats, making furniture, different everyday items and even food bowls. Thanks to its exceptional beauty, curly koa wood was especially appreciated through the time, and even more lately.

These trees grow on Hawaii from the beginning of time. The forests were immense once, but there are significantly less forests today. People cut them down to make place for other plants and other activities. Since they don't grow anywhere else, there is a limited supply of this lovely material, but as a plant, it is still not considered as the endangered species.

The wood has really desirable acoustic qualities. In fact, it was used for this purpose for many centuries here on Hawaii, but in the last few decades, both professionals and amateurs from all over the world use this material to make their own musical instruments. You don't have to make one ukulele out of it, it is perfectly good for making a guitar, for example. And it looks astonishingly good, with this reddish and gold pattern. Sets for making different instruments can be found online.

Although there are different colors and shades, the most interesting and desirable one is the combination of gold and mahogany red. Surprisingly looking patterns make curly koa especially interesting. The wood itself can be compared to mahogany for some characteristics, but it looks so much more appealing, primarily thanks to these amazingly looking patterns. Pale gold and deep red make really appealing contrast.

Another very interesting use of this material is furniture making. People on the islands, but also in other parts of the world, are making really attractive pieces using different techniques and finished, and these resulting pieces of furniture are really attractive and, of course, really expensive, too. Limited supply, high quality and attractive appearance are to blame for this really high price. And it can only go up in the future.

Thanks to the fact that this wood stretches equally in different directions, this makes it highly resistant to changes. It is also highly resistant to humidity and has other highly appreciated qualities. Although it can be used for different purposes, it is mainly used for making musical instruments, furniture and decorative items. The main reason for this is the price, which makes it too expensive for making hardwood floors, for example.

When it comes to furniture, the one made out of this lovely material is especially attractive. Beautiful colors and patterns make this furniture something you would probably want to have in your home. Polished pieces are especially appealing, and hand made curved ones are just amazingly beautiful. In fact, many traditional objects look really decorative and can be used in interior decoration.

By the way, koa is the Hawaiian word for a warrior. It probably get its name thanks to the fact so many warrior items were made of it, for example, their canoes, parts of their spears and warrior equipment, and even the bowls they were eating from. So many different items were made of koa during time, and there are less and less koa forests today.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment