Koa Lumber – Figured Hawaiian Wood 2024

3 Things to Hate About Koa-wood

Finding desirable Koa wood for sale is difficult. Despite that, we do have Hawaiian Koa lumber for sale.

Yet, here I am bad-mouthing it.

However, it’s a tongue-in-cheek rant.  Most accurately, our relationship with Hawaii’s Koa wood lumber is one of love and hate.

1. Koa Branding.

Koawood is unique because it has a spiritual association with Hawaiian culture. It makes people feel a certain way. Significantly, I cannot think of any other hardwood  specie with that type of ingrained branding.

Koa wood from Hawaii makes people think of playing ukuleles, sipping drinks on the beach, Hawaiian history and culture.

Because of this unique specie branding, Acacia Koawood is treated with reverence. Reverence sometimes breeds arrogance among sellers.

The figured Koawood market is a sellers’ market. Perspective buyers are often forced to deal with unresponsive arrogant suppliers. Cash-ready lumber buyers are vetted by exotic wood dealers.  It’s a unique phenomenon  in the wood business.

Sawing Koa Lumber; A Sawmill’s Story

A small Koa sawmill posted their frustrations in dealing with Acacia wood on the Lumberjocks forum in 2015.  

Gamesmanship and competitive pressures literally forced this sawmill out of business despite its optimal Hawaiian location.  Additionally, this acacia producer vented online about both his suppliers and customers. Again, this rarely happens with other hardwood lumber species.

I’ve posted text from the thread below. Keep in mind that I do not know Joseph Jossem and cannot verify his claims. However, his account dovetails with my understanding of the cult of Koa.

Koa Wood Mill

 I have been cutting and selling hardwoods since out of high school. I used to get alot of satisfaction selling and seeing others use the lumber in projects. Now 80% or more of lumber customers either want to haggle on price or complain and then haggle. The majority of them build to sell and make good money at it. No more of that for me everybody can cut there own damn lumber!

When I first started I also bought and resold a lot of koa lumber. Main thing I was sure to be polite never try to bargain and be happy with what I got. I guess those days are gone respect I think is the main thing and a lot lack it. Not sure where the mentality of trying to bargain everything down but in a full circle sustainable operation everybody has to pay up. So think about the next time you piss off your sawyer it might be the last time you get lumber.

 think it has a lot to do with Hawaii also. If you look on cl and other places people want more $ then the item cost new. I often go above and beyond to help customers out guess the majority see it as a weakness.

Joseph Continues

Actually the lumber market is in really bad shape here now. All the past companies have raped the forests so much theres (sic) no more chances for the new companies coming up. federal departments haven’t been able to put a legal bid out since 2007. Now the companies that also caused the mess all of a sudden are instant tree huggers and blame others for the current market. You would figure with the most valuable wood in the world we would at least have a good koa source in this state. if you go to japan or others areas in the states they have more Hawaiian koa go figure.

Dave thanks but I haven’t had koa in 7 years. 7 years ago I tried to expand my lumber operation and started bidding logging jobs. With in a months time I lost all my vendors I was cut from koa sources and was kicked out of my warehouse. I went from a really good monthly income to nothing over night. Warehouse was broken into and road flares thrown inside 1 of my 2 dogs was poisoned Koa is a very dangerous business.

Best part is I knew I was on the right track when all the trouble started. I have adapted my business to survive with out koa. Now I get a good laugh watching everybody going after koa.

Source: Jossem, Joseph (“I Finally Quit” Lumberjocks.com https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/74681) 

2. Koa Pricing.

Even bland Hawaiian Koa lumber is expensive. Highly figured Koawood is extremely expensive. For reference, here is a link to Hearne Hardwoods Koawood for sale online. As of January 2020, I see some individual slabs priced at up to $19,000+!

Due to the high cost of Acacia Koawood, buyer expectations for the Hawaiian wood are high, across the board. Thus, buyer quality expectations often run against reality. Arguably, this is a seller communication issue.

3. Hawaiian Koa-lumber Manufacturing. 

Much of the koa-wood we buy arrives poorly manufactured. Boards are not square, lots of wane with a generally sloppy appearance.  In contrast, most of the mainland domestic hardwoods we buy such as red oak, maple and poplar arrive well manufactured, square with a uniform appearance. 

There are 3 reasons why Koawood boards are rarely cut uniform.

First, unlike Poplar, every fiber of a Hawaiian Koa-tree is valuable wood. Thus, processors leave as much sell-able wood on the board as possible. Often, at the expensive of uniformity. Second, Acacia Koawood from Hawaii is in high demand. Thus, lumber availability is more important than presentation. Third, Acacia lumber processing is usually done on a small scale since the volumes are relatively small. Accordingly, Hawaiian woods are often processed on portable, low precision sawmilling equipment.