Has anyone worked with koa?

[rnt80]

A friend of my wife has an old coffee table that is made of koa that she would like to have refurbished.  It's a beautiful old piece that's been in her family for a while.  Among the other things that need to be done with it, she would like to raise the height by adding to the legs.  As it is now the legs are tapered turned legs approx. 18" in length.  I don't have a lathe so I'm looking into using some legs from a place like Osborne.  I plan cutting the square portion of the leg off and attaching them at one of the transition beads.  I'm pretty sure I won't be able to find koa legs, not too mention they'd be crazy expensive so I'll have to go with an alternative wood and try and stain it to match.  My first thought would be some kind of maple, especially something with a little figure.  If anyone has worked with koa in the past I'd appreciate some insight regarding potentially matching species.

 

[rjwz28]

Russell, I work mostly with koa since I live on the Big Island of Hawaii where most all the koa comes from.  It is not hard to work and is a beautiful wood to work with and yes very expensive.  Anywhere from $15 to $60 bf.  Most koa is very dark after finishing but some can be a little lighter.  I would guess some walnut would be close and even mahogany and sepele would be nice as I've used both.  The other thing to do is use something totally contrasting like the maple as not to even try and matching the koa.  This is a maple curio with koa trim on the top and a curly koa door frame.

Aloha,
Rob

 

[fritter63]

I've built 3 acoustic guitars out of Koa, including the tops. It's fairly easy to work with (and I was steam bending it as well).

As for matching, I'd go with Mahogany. It won't have that unreal curly figure (though I think you can get some?) but the color and base grain pattern are similar I think.

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