Aloha

[George Guadiane]

ALOHA!
A word with many meanings, all of them applicable here.
I am currently in Hawaii on a "working" vacation. We will be vendors at the Hawaii All Collector's Show next weekend, but I GOT here in time for the Honolulu Woodturners meeting, where I picked up a nice piece of free wood from Dougie Bowen. I also have some local friends here. One of them had some Koa log shorts that I could manage to get into my van.

With no chainsaw and not knowing where or if I could rent one, as a non-local, I called Any Cole for suggestions... He immediately offered to have me come over there so that I could use his saw and bandsaw to get my finds "flat rate box ready."
When I arrived, he started out by handing me a NICE box ready piece of Formosan (acacia) Koa. We went right to work as he had a lunch date with his beautiful wife and I was keeping him from that.
We cut four nice pieces out of some (what turned out to be) sketchy logs with punky spots in places. I also got one yellowish softish crotch piece of "dunno wood" that smells like pumpkin.
He didn't chase me out, but he wouldn't even let me stay to clean up.
I am humbled by the Aloha spirit that I find here... If you can imagine, it is even stronger than the general friendly/helpfulness that we find in the general turning community (if that is even possible).

I got a picture of the wood before it was wrapped and put in boxes.
Aloha Andy,
Mahalo!

 

[Timothy Rowe]

are u sure

i would swear when i enlarged the photo my name was on one of the pieces, thank you g

tim😀

 

[George Guadiane]

i would swear when i enlarged the photo my name was on one of the pieces, thank you g

tim😀

😀Boy did you get that wrong:cool2:
Go get your glasses and look again.

 

[Timothy Rowe]

ALOHA!

I am humbled by the Aloha spirit that I find here... If you can imagine, it is even stronger than the general friendly/helpfulness and sharing that we find in the general turning community (if that is even possible).

I got a picture of the wood before it was wrpped and put in boxes.
Aloha Andy,
Mahalo!

i guess i miss read your quote my bad i thought it said sharing😀

 

[George Guadiane]

i guess i miss read your quote my bad i thought it said sharing😀

I meant I got shared with, not that you did😱
I didn't even break my postage budget yet.🙁

 

[Curtis Thompson]

Koa wod?

Can you legally bring back Koa to the mainland?

Will it have to go thru some agricultural inspections?

I remember a story a turner once told about trying to bring back wood from another country. It wasn't allowed, so he fashioned them into a goofy sculpture and labeled them art and brought them in that way. It worked. Don't know if the story is really true.

Break out your sharpy and do some goofy drawing on the blanks and sign your name to them. Just don't make it Hawaiian drawings as they probably wouldn't let you out of the State with Hawaiian art. 😀

Curtis Thompson

 

[George Guadiane]

Can you legally bring back Koa to the mainland?

Will it have to go thru some agricultural inspections?

I remember a story a turner once told about trying to bring back wood from another country. It wasn't allowed, so he fashioned them into a goofy sculpture and labeled them art and brought them in that way. It worked. Don't know if the story is really true.

Break out your sharpy and do some goofy drawing on the blanks and sign your name to them. Just don't make it Hawaiian drawings as they probably wouldn't let you out of the State with Hawaiian art. 😀

Curtis Thompson

Since this isn't a foreign country, we don't have too many problems. I wouldn't try to ship green Ash anywhere, because of the emerald ash borer, for instance, but I don't know of any bugs - OK, formasan termites, but they can't last through a winter, so don't stand much chance by me, that could stop me from shipping it, and the wood is legally obtained.

There are no termites, by the way, I checked and asked.
G

I wrapped them like meat, does that count?

 

[Jim Keenan]

George,
If you have the time, it would be a good idea to toss the wood into a freezer for a while. As many days as you can. If you can locate some sealing wax and coat all of the sides, I suspect agriculture would not give any trouble. The other option would be to send it to yourself via priority mail and put it into the freezer when you get home, just to be on the safe side. We have a lot of bad critters here.

When you get ready to turn the Formosan Koa, keep a fire extinguisher handy. That stuff is so hard, I swear it could throw sparks.😀

I think the yelliow wood is Nara.

Hope you enjoyed your stay in Hawaii, the land of Aloha.

 

[Steve Sherman]

Me Too!

Hi George,
Great to hear you're having a wonderful time. The guys & gals in the Hawaii wood turning arena are incredible folks, they share everything and anything...seems to be a spiritual "thing".

When I visited with my wife recently we were treated like Royalty and came away with some great friendships.

Andy Cole is world-class wood artist and personality. He spent a few days with me and our club before the AAW conference in Hartford and did a demo that has left the members so excited that I had to order a complete coring system for the club to bring them back down to Earth.

I hope I get a chance to re-visit them all in the near future.

Steve

 

[Don O. Jr.]

OK, I'll admit it...

... I'm very jealous ! I've never been to, and probably will never get to go to Hawai'i. Glad to hear you are having a great time! Cool wood too.

See you when, or is that IF you get back. Give my best to your other half.

 

[George Guadiane]

... I'm very jealous ! I've never been to, and probably will never get to go to Hawai'i. Glad to hear you are having a great time! Cool wood too.

See you when, or is that IF you get back. Give my best to your other half.

She's here with me, we're heading home today🙁😀
She sends her best right back atcha.
I'll be at the meeting, I have a little pen blank wood for the crew.
G

 

[KellyDunn]

George, sorry you are not coming over to the big Island. Would love to sit your hyperself down for some beers and a chat on life. And its true we tend to give plenty here. The aloha spirit is alive and well with woodworkers in general here.

 

[Chip Hidinger]

🙂 I spent a week in July visiting family on the Big Island and was blessed to meet several of the local turners and visit the galleries. Jim Keenan was gracious enough to spend 1 day+ helping me turn a Calabash which I am giving to my father who lives in Captain Cook. Jim's skill level in a few short years was amazing and his knowledge and most important openness to share was truly a blessing. The Calabash came out great! Thank you Jim. I also spent a couple of days visiting the Cliff John's Gallery where my Dad bought a Maloof inspired incredible curly Koa piece by Tai Lake. Cliff's gallery is a don't miss as is Linda and Kelly Dunn's Gallery. Kelly was gracious to spend about a 1/2 hour talking to me and we discussed all the AAW stuff going on.

Regarding bringing wood back, I had no problem going thru Hawaii Ag Inspection and carrying wood in my suitcase. A valuable lesson is to wrap each piece in plastic bags (I did) and when you get home anchor seal the ends (I did) and put back into the plastic bags (I didn't) to allow the wood time to adjust to the different moisture levels. I just moved back to the desert of AZ in Phoenix from Dallas and it is much harder on the wood to adjust from the high moisture of Hawaii. Needless to say I had some checking. My Koa is still curing in my parents freezer to kill any bugs, but I can't wait to get it and I just bought the McNaughton coring system to maximize the wood.

In short the Aloha spirit is alive and well.
Mahalo,
Chip Hidinger

 

[George Guadiane]

George, sorry you are not coming over to the big Island. Would love to sit your hyperself down for some beers and a chat on life. And its true we tend to give plenty here. The aloha spirit is alive and well with woodworkers in general here.

Kelly,
I just got back home yesterday, but I'm planning on getting back to Oahu in February. I'll try and make reservations so that I can spend a day or two on the Big Island with you and whoever else we can meet up with. If there is a meeting around that time, let me know and I'll try and figure that in as well.
Not much of a drinker, but I'd be happy to down something while we sit and talk story.

🙂 I spent a week in July visiting family on the Big Island and was blessed to meet several of the local turners and visit the galleries. Jim Keenan was gracious enough to spend 1 day+ helping me turn a Calabash which I am giving to my father who lives in Captain Cook. Jim's skill level in a few short years was amazing and his knowledge and most important openness to share was truly a blessing. The Calabash came out great! Thank you Jim. I also spent a couple of days visiting the Cliff John's Gallery where my Dad bought a Maloof inspired incredible curly Koa piece by Tai Lake. Cliff's gallery is a don't miss as is Linda and Kelly Dunn's Gallery. Kelly was gracious to spend about a 1/2 hour talking to me and we discussed all the AAW stuff going on.

Regarding bringing wood back, I had no problem going thru Hawaii Ag Inspection and carrying wood in my suitcase. A valuable lesson is to wrap each piece in plastic bags (I did) and when you get home anchor seal the ends (I did) and put back into the plastic bags (I didn't) to allow the wood time to adjust to the different moisture levels. I just moved back to the desert of AZ in Phoenix from Dallas and it is much harder on the wood to adjust from the high moisture of Hawaii. Needless to say I had some checking. My Koa is still curing in my parents freezer to kill any bugs, but I can't wait to get it and I just bought the McNaughton coring system to maximize the wood.

In short the Aloha spirit is alive and well.
Mahalo,
Chip Hidinger

Glad to hear Hawaii is a blessing to us all!
I hope the wood you collected is mostly salvageable (I hope mine is too - I picked it up at the PO yesterday and will seal it and put it back in the bags and boxes when I'm done). Thanks for the heads up.