Wood Hunting on Oahu

[Edgar]

I promised to share my wood hunting experiences on this trip, so here goes...

First up was a visit to Waimanalo Woods this morning. It's on the leeward side of the island, about a 40 min drive from the Waikiki area. Just head out on the Pali Highway toward Waimanalo, but be sure to use GPS - it's kinda out in the boonies and there's no sign on the building.

The owner is a very friendly chap named Elmer who grew up in the logging & milling business in Montana. Like many of us, he swore he was going to get away from it first chance he got and never touch a saw again. But then he visited Hawaii 25 years ago and saw someone feeding a beautiful tree into a chipper and decided he couldn't live with that image, so he relocated to Oahu, bought a mill, and has been at it ever since.

We had a great visit & shared some stories. My favorite was the time someone asked him why he wanted that old tree they were about to cut down. He told them, "to make furniture". They replied "You make furniture from a TREE??"

It's a relatively small mill & his saw wasn't running today, but he has a large warehouse with stacks of wood drying all over the place. Lumber is displayed in racks on one side of the building. Everything is priced by the piece. You have to buy the whole board, but he will cut it to whatever length you need to fit in your suitcase or a box at no charge.

His prices are very reasonable (as far as I'm concerned). His Koa was about $8-$10 less than Woodcraft was charging.

I asked if he had any scraps or off cuts, but he pretty much shreds those up on a daily basis and sells it to farmers for mulch.

I bought a 6' board of some nice Toon wood ($20/bf or $40 total for the board). I also found a nice chunk of Pheasant Wood (6.5x2x11) lying on a machine in the warehouse & I asked if it was for sale. He let me have it for $40. He had a big stack of 1x1x48" sticker boards that he uses for spacers to stack boards. He didn't really want to sell them, but I persuaded him to let me have a couple of spayed Ironwood pieces. He charged me $5 each for those two & cut them in half for me. There were three pieces of Monkey Pod about 1x2x36 in his trash barrel (obviously chipper fodder). I asked about those & he let me have them. I also found a few small pieces of Monkey Pod lying around - he charged me a few bucks for a couple of them & gave me a couple. He has LOTS of Momkey Pod wood - not surprising, the stuff is everywhere.

Altogether I wound up with 6 bd ft of wood for $100.

It was a fun & productive visit and I highly recommend it if you have an opportunity to come to Oahu.

 

[Edgar]

Next stop was the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet to see if I could find the vendor who sells Koa off cuts. I had to walk halfway around the stadium, but I finally found his booth. He had 6 boxes of small pieces 1/2 to 2" thick and a few larger, really nice pieces.

All pieces were individually priced except for some in a small bundle. Prices were mostly $5 to $15 except for the larger pieces. Basically his prices canecout to about $35/bf which is pretty good.

I searched through the boxes for sizes that I wanted and negotiated $60 worth of wood down to $50. Then we chatted for a while & he wound up throwing another $10 piece into my bag as I was about to leave.

Altogether, I wound up with 2 bf of nice Koa for $50. Definitely worth the hike around the stadium.

I don't know how much longer the swap meet wil last. The state plans to build a new stadium on the property, then demolish the current stadium and build a hotel & museum in its place. As a minimum, the swap meet will be displaced for 5-7 years while all that construction is in progress, but it doesn't seem likely that the swap meet is in the long range plans did the property at this time.

Ground breaking is probably at least 2-5 years away though, so the swap meet should still be around at least that long.

 

[Edgar]

Yesterday I stopped off at ReUse Hawaii. It's very near Waikiki, so it's not out of the way at all.

They still have a lot of wood, but not nearly as much as they used to. They seem to be moving more toward recycling big stuff - doors, windows, stone, cabinets, etc.

They have a lot of Redwood, Mahogany, Ohia, and common stuff like Fir & Pine. Some of the Ohia looked real nice, but all the boards were 8' or longer & I didn't want that much.

They had a few piles of free stuff. I looked through one of them and it was mostly Oak, but I did find one piece about 5' long that I believe is Mahogany, so I scarfed that up. I packed a small hand saw in my tool bag & used that to cut it into smaller pieces when I got to my car.

 

[robutacion]

Oh boy mate, you made my day, your trip description/story and images are just the icing on the cake, that Elmer is my kind of guy, I only wish that I had the money to set up the equipment and space he got there, people that visit me they wonder how I managed to fit so much wood in such a small area/space so image if I have the equipment to deal with big logs...!

I would like to ask that fellow that asked if he could make furniture out of trees, I would be asking if he though furniture was made out of green grass...!

Is no place where you will find better deals than from the source and there are the mills, even though, in our days the mill owners are pretty cluey on what their woods worth but still, as soon as those woods start to get in the hands of the middle man that's when prices get inflated, I mean, everybody has the right to make a bit of money out of what they deal with but some folks don't work on anything less than 100 to 500% of cost price and more hands the wood goes through the higher the price in the end and that is just the way it is, regardless if I agree with it or not.

Now in relation to your second post, do you mean that this "market" is for people swapping woods only..? if that is the case, imagine the load I would be taking with me and the load I would bring back home...!

Thank you for sharing your experiences...!

Cheers
George

 

[magpens]

What fun !!!

A day well spent !!

Thanks for the pics and the stories !!

 

[robutacion]

Wow, I was posted not realising that Edgar was putting another post of woods for us, way to go mate...!

Cheers
George

 

[Edgar]

Oh boy mate, you made my day, your trip description/story and images are just the icing on the cake, that Elmer is my kind of guy, I only wish that I had the money to set up the equipment and space he got there, people that visit me they wonder how I managed to fit so much wood in such a small area/space so image if I have the equipment to deal with big logs...!

I would like to ask that fellow that asked if he could make furniture out of trees, I would be asking if he though furniture was made out of green grass...!

Is no place where you will find better deals than from the source and there are the mills, even though, in our days the mill owners are pretty cluey on what their woods worth but still, as soon as those woods start to get in the hands of the middle man that's when prices get inflated, I mean, everybody has the right to make a bit of money out of what they deal with but some folks don't work on anything less than 100 to 500% of cost price and more hands the wood goes through the higher the price in the end and that is just the way it is, regardless if I agree with it or not.

Now in relation to your second post, do you mean that this "market" is for people swapping woods only..? if that is the case, imagine the load I would be taking with me and the load I would bring back home...!

Thank you for sharing your experiences...!

Cheers
George

Thanks, George

You always entertain us with your great stories, so I am happy to be able to return the favor.

Elmer gets most of his wood from tree removal companies. He doesn't do much cutting himself any longer but he does work with them to teach them proper techniques and how to get the best sod from the trees. He also accepts logs from anyone who wants to drop them off at his place.

He said that a lot of people don't understand what that means though. A lot of people cut logs into small pieces a foot or two long so they can carry it by hand. Of course he has no use for that.

One fellow came in with a truck load of little pieces like that and wanted Elmer to mill it so he could have someone build him an amoire. Elmer told him to take his logs somewhere else and next time call him first to get a proper tree cutter if he wants wood to make furniture from.

The swap meet is a big flea market - most booths sell things like shirts, caps, jewelry, carvings, food, trinkets, toys, and all sorts of souvenir things. Some things personally made by the people selling them, but mostly imports from Philippines and other places.

As far as I know, there is only this one vendor who sells Koa off cuts. His son makes things from Koa and these are from him. They used to mainly sell their son's things in the booth and the off cuts were just an extra thing.

His prices are the same as when I first saw him 4 years ago, but apparently the Koa sales are doing well, because that was the main thing in his booth this time. He didn't even have any of his son's products -apparently he now has deals with some of the regular stores in town to sell his stuff. Besides the off cuts, he only had some T-shirts for sale.

They used to just have a box of off cuts sitting on the ground near the entrance to the booth. Now they have multiple boxes sitting on a table and better organized for rummaging through.

His booth is never in the same location, so you never know where to look - you just have to walk until you find him. There is a double ring of booths around the entire perimeter of a large football stadium, and it's about 50 yards from the actual stadium, so it's a long hike to walk all the way around.

 

[Cwalker935]

We were in Hawaii before I got into pen turning and we saw a guy making a dugout canoe. On a whim, I asked if I could have some of the larger chunks that he had dug out. I had no idea what I would do with the pieces but put them in my suitcase and carried them home. Sometime after getting into pen making, I ran across those pieces in my shop and made a couple of pens. The wood was not the prettiest but I did have some pens with a story.

 

[Alan Morrison]

Thanks for these postings Edgar.
Really interesting
Alan

 

[southernclay]

Awesome, Edgar, thanks for posting!

 

[WarEagle90]

Great stories, Edgar. Really enjoyed listening ..... eh ...... reading of your adventures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[MRDucks2]

Thanks, Edgar. Enjoyed the stories and photos.

 

[ecrouse]

Very cool stuff! Haven't been to Hawaii in 10 years and never thought to go wood hunting while there. The wife and I scuba dive so we spend a good amount of time on, in, and under the water when we are there.,

 

[Edgar]

One more wood hunting story....

I finished work early today, so I decided to head up to Waialua on the north side of the island to see if I could find Hawaiian Lumber.

Hawaiian Lumber is run by Dan Moore who started out as a surfer and evolved from making surf boards & furniture into running a saw mill. His business was located at the Old Sugar Mill near Waialua and was doing quite well. He had two mills and had a third one on order because the first two couldn't keep up with his orders. Last March, before the 3rd mill arrived, and while he was on vacation with his family, a massive fire destroyed his business, mills, and most of his tools. Altogether over a $1M loss, and of course, insurance never covers everything.

Dan restarted his business in a small space across the street from his old business. That 3rd mill was his major asset for getting his business back up & running.

I had read about Dan's misadventures on line, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I got there. His sign is still on the fence outside his old location and there's no sign for his new location. I had to ask a couple of people exactly where it was - it's about 100 yards off the road, down a dirt driveway next to a surf board shop.

When I got there, Dan & another fellow were sawing up some Eucalyptus. Dan came out to greet me & I introduced myself, told him where I was from and that I just enjoyed visiting saw mills. He gave me a little tour of his place and explained a little about his business. I didn't want to take up too much of his time because I could see they were busy, but I asked him if he had any small boards for sale that would fit into a suitcase.

He said that they didn't really do any small stuff, but there was a trailer of scrap wood right outside his fence and I could go through that to see if I could find anything I could use. I thanked him and asked how much he wanted for that wood & he said to help myself, it was just going to the dump anyway. He said they accept donations for that. So, off I went to see what I could find.

The trailer was full of Eucalyptus scrap. I managed to find a dozen pieces 1.5" thick and various widths & length that I could fit into a suitcase. After a bit, Dan came to see how I was doing & asked what I was going to use it for. After I told him what I make, he said "let's go see if I can find you some Monkey Pod". So we went back over to his mill area and he found 3 nice chunks of MP that were 3.5x3.5x4.5.

I only had 2 pens with me - a slimline made from TX Mesquite and a Sierra made from Koa. I offered those to him and he seemed pleased to get them. I asked if that was a fair trade and he said "absolutely".

I later measured the pieces of Eucalyptus and it was about 5.5 bd ft and pretty much filled a LFRB.

Another great side trip!

 

[MrPukaShell]

Score can never have enough Koa, or Mango, or Pheasant, or Monkey Pod. Any of the Hawaiian woods if you ask me. Thanks for sharing

 

[MDWine]

What a delightful read.... thanks for the share and the PICTURES... love'm!!

 

[Edgar]

One more Oahu wood hunting story - although this one didn't start out that way.

I'm flying back home tonight, so I had about 6 hours to kill after checking out this morning, so I decided to head to the North Shore to watch some surfers & do a little beach combing.

First stop was Haleiwa Beach. Not much surfing today, but nice walking along the beach & I did find a few nice little pieces of coral. After an hour or so, I decided to drive to another beach. The main parking spot at the next beach down the road was full, but just past the loading/pickup area, there was an area beside the road where you could park, so I pulled in.

As soon as I did, I realized that a long swath of Koa brush had been freshly cut. To heck with beachcombing, I went wood hunting. There wasn't much left lying around, but I found enough to fill an LFRB plus a couple that I crammed into my tool bag.

I found some pieces 4 to 5 inches in diameter and 6 to 12 inches long. Some with real nice heart wood, even one crotch piece about 6" long. I didn't get pictures of the pieces I picked up, but here's what the area looked like.

Next trip I'm gonna have to bring a grubbing hoe along.

 

[Edgar]

I did some more research on that brush Koa after returning from my trip. I knew it wasn't the same as the acacia Koa which is what we normally think of as Koa, but I didn't know how it might be related.

Turns out it's actually Leucaena leucocephala, a member of the mimosa family. It has many similarities to actual acacia Koa, including the appearance of its heart wood. It's not native to Hawaii, but it grows like weeds and is all over Oahu.

It's commonly called brush Koa, bush Koa, haole Koa, koa haole, and false Koa. It is rarely harvested for wood because it's a small tree, generally not getting more than 4-6" in diameter. That makes its wood difficult to find commercially, much like our own prickly ash, yaupon, and other such brush trees.