Maui wood source

[steven carter]

Friend of mine is going to Maui and would like to bring back some wood for me to turn. Does anyone know of sources there?

[Paul Williams]

This won't be a lot of help as I don't have the names, but I found 2 wood suppliers on the island a few years ago who sold chunks of wood as opposed to boards. I just asked the locals. I have another source and that is my cousin's ukulele teacher. He also makes instruments and gives my cousin cut offs to send to me. Besides Koa you might find coconut, mango, and kolohala or pheasant wood. Kolohala is real hard, unlike the others, and has a grain pattern that looks like the feathers on the side of a pheasant.

Sorry I couldn't be more specific about the sources. Good luck.

[William Tanner]

I am going to Maui in August and was wondering the same thing.

[Paul Williams]

let us know what you find.

[alex grams]

I went about 3-4 years ago, found a guy doing some carving at the farmers market/square in Lahaina. He gave me the number of a guy who cuts a lot of slabs/trees and such. I don't have his contact number, but if you look up 580 laie drive maui, hi, you can see it clearly. His front yard looks like piles of trash, but it is all logs/slabs he has cut up. While I was there visiting with him he was anxious to show me some bowls he was working on, so I know he does turning and will probably have some blanks. I don't know if it is an official business, but he has a lot of equipment for processing slabs and says most of his wood comes from land clearing/contacts with the highway department.

Update, I did some more digging:

580 Laie Dr
Makawao, HI 96768

His name is Gilly: 808 572 8540

Nice guy, I could have spent the day talking to him about woodworking and such, but I could tell the wife would have rather been at the beach, hah.

[Ryan Mooney]

One of the galleries in Makawao had some interesting pieces at a somewhat reasonable price for retail - not in the main gallery but when I was talking to the fellow he pulled them out from a side room (at least as far as koa can ever be reasonably priced). Unfortunately I'm really bad at names - I want to say the Avalene gallery but could be wrong. You might also get some assistance asking at the Maui Hands gallery since its somewhat of a co-op they might know who to talk to.

I didn't get any from there because my suitcase was already full of monkeypod I'd gotten from a buddy in Kihei - they apparently cut down a bunch to widen one of the roads ~6 years ago and there were logs 6-8' across laying there rotting or being hauled off to burn so he'd snagged some of it and had it drying in his shed for years since. A lot of it was pretty termite bitten but we found enough to fill a couple of duffels full. Another friend over there has a 3" thick 3' wide by 9' long slab of koa in his shed that's been air dried for over 12 years.. I couldn't quite figure out how to get that one on the airplane though

Worth the trip up country to Makawao town anyway to look at some of the work in the galleries there, some really fantastic stuff (some of the cook pine turnings were really jaw dropping, as were the prices but hey it is Maui). Especially enjoyed Maui Hands http://www.mauihands.com/index.php?a...WOOD&mcat=WOOD

While you're up there stop in the Hali'imaile general store for the lunch special, its one of the best priced 4 star deals on the island (the dinner seating was a bit out of our budget) - their cocktails are very very well done as well so worth the tipple if you're into that sort of thing.

[steven carter]

Thanks for the info everyone, I was stationed on Oahu part of my time in the Army. Wife and I went back for 25th anniversary in 1998, alas this was before I got my lathe.

[Wes Ramsey]

Thanks for the info everyone, I was stationed on Oahu part of my time in the Army. Wife and I went back for 25th anniversary in 1998, alas this was before I got my lathe.

Ditto Steven, but ours was a belated honeymoon in 2004. Was good to see Schofield hadn't changed much. Hope to go back again someday and bring back some fun exotic woods!