In February 2011, my wife and I took a couple weeks in Hawaii. It was very inspirational to see where the woods I have the privilege to work with come from.
Here is a picture of a beautiful old Koa tree we discovered during our adventures.
Since that wonderful vacation I came across this gorgeous Koa board.
Here is a closer view.
Even really close, it is hard to believe that this is a flat surface!
This board is 42" long, 5"-10" wide, and 2" thick. The first order of business was to get it resawed to see what it would yield.
I won't pretend that I resawed it myself. I have a decent 14" bandsaw but with all that figure and 10" width, I didn't want to risk it, so I sent it out to Dave at Borson Precision Resaw. I got back 12 great boards and 1 extra for faceplates etc! From each board I can get two back halves or two side halves. That's enough for six guitars!
The board still needed some drying when I got it. The pictures above do not have Naptha or anything on them though. Cut down thin they will dry much faster. The process for drying these is called "stickering" because you use "sticks" to open up the cuts so you get even airflow and control warping and cracking. By spacing the sticks both above and below the boards they can dry evenly and with pressure you can prevent warps and cracks. I covered it with plastic to start out. This slows the initial drying some and helps slow the shrinkage. This also reduces cracks.
This set of wood gives me the rare opportunity to build book matched guitars. I am going to build two of my Penelope models, but with a twist,
one of them will be a nylon crossover. I will build them side by side on this thread so we can compare and contrast the processes and result.
While the Koa dries I'll get everything together for this project.
Thanks. I hope you enjoy the ride!