Never seen Koa like this before

[Burl Source]

The dark stuff on the right is some koa I just got.
I have never seen koa this dark before. It is even darker than it looks in the photo. The piece on the left is normalish for koa.

I am hoping Stefan will give his opinion being from Hawaii.

[Jim]

That's the rare beach Koa, spend all its time surfing and chasing skirts- Hell of a tan.

[JBroida]

haha

[Darkhoek]

Sure is nice.

DarkHOeK

[apicius9]

Nice pieces, someone must have let them leave the islands by accident, please send them back immediately

I am still learning about this, and the two things I think I remember are that the heart wood is a bit darker in the lower parts of the tree toward the roots, and what may be more important is that the wood seems to get darker with the elevation the tree grows in. So, maybe this came from a tree up the higjer slopes of one of the Big Island mountains? In any case, it's amazing in how many variations you find koa. It can be very bland or with nice colr variations without any curl. I think I read that only 10% have a strong curl pattern, and the curl ranges from the regular stripes to a quilted variation or an almost 'burly' irregular pattern (which is my personal favorite). I even found a piece that has some birds eyes.

Stefan

[tgraypots]

shaka dude!

[Eamon Burke]

Ah yes. To grow Koa like this, you pour freshly brewed Kona coffee on the roots, just before dawn, every day.

[Burl Source]

More koa photos
These are some fiddleback blocks I am waiting on to come back from K&G


These were called birdseye koa by the guy who sold the wood to me.
But another wood guy called it blister koa. Blister seems a better description


This looked like koa but wasn't.


This too


This was called ribbon koa



It looks like you can make up your own names when it comes to different looks with the Koa.
I'm going with Eamon.
Black Kona Coffee Koa!

[apicius9]

Nice looking pieces, Mark. I will cut up a few pieces in the next week, but I doubt that any are like the regular striped/curly ones. Have to check out with a few places here to find something like that.

Stefan

[Mike Davis]

Mark...that stuff is all bad, you should throw it all out...my address is in your inbox Great looking stuff....I am still leary about using the last stuff i got from you. These look pretty amazing...Might have to add more to my collection.