Another Barehead Koa 110

muskrat man · Post by **muskrat man** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:14 pm

People just seem to go crazy over these bare-headed 110's with koa handles. I did a little vine filework, and went further via client's requests and filed completely around the liners, looks quite nice I think. the donor was a 2 dot 110 supplied by the client. the handles are actually darker, but my light setup was a little bright for this knife.

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:19 pm

Great looking work there MM. I think Koa attracts a lot of people and your fine work only helps.

There are a lot of restrictions on the harvesting of Koa. It is indingenous to only 2 islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Live trees cannot be cut, only dead falls can be harvested.
They are planting Koa in other places such as Australia and New Zealand to name a couple. But the prblem is that the commercially planted Koa will not have all the curly - birdseye pattern variations because they will be new trees. They think it will be over a century + before the wood developes curly characteristics, but no one knows for sure yet. I found this out at the Oregon knife show from a guy that was selling a lot of stabilized Koa.

Anyway, great looking knife!

MITCH RAPP · Post by **MITCH RAPP** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:49 pm

Muskrat; Top Notch file work!

gmusic · Post by **gmusic** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:14 pm

Great job MM!

I have a couple of Faux Pearl handled Bulldog Copperheads that need re-handling (and maybe some filework.) Do you take on new clients?

Answered my own question, found a link to your site.

Thanks............gary

sunburst · Post by **sunburst** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:18 pm

Very Nice MM

muskrat man · Post by **muskrat man** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 7:17 pm

Thanks guys.

Hukk, that's interesting. I knew it couldn't be harvested,but I wasn't aware they were growing it elsewhere now. I know the price is getting up there for highly figured stuff. I managed to get this set at a reasonable price, kind of bought it blind, turned out to have nicer figure than I expected.

Gary, Got your email and responded.

Thank you all for your kind words.

Classic Case · Post by **Classic Case** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:10 pm

very nice work

orvet · Post by **orvet** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:16 pm

Excellent work as always!

Dale

Hukk · Post by **Hukk** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:19 pm

muskrat man wrote:Thanks guys.

Hukk, that's interesting. I knew it couldn't be harvested,but I wasn't aware they were growing it elsewhere now. I know the price is getting up there for highly figured stuff. I managed to get this set at a reasonable price, kind of bought it blind, turned out to have nicer figure than I expected.

I thought so also, but it stands to reason because it is so desirable. They do use it for furniture (oh man, how many knives would that make) as well as many other items. It does grow extremely fast, up to 1 foot in diameter in a year in Hawaii

But how many years (or centuries) does it take for the wood to be well figured. I don't know what the deal is, plant it now and have your great, great, great, great gandchildren harvest it.

OR, is it a sustainable harvest where they just cut branches because it grows so fast, but will that have the desired figure that is fine enough for knives. Still a lot of unanswered questions.