# KOA...what a PIA!



## Florida Marine (Sep 5, 2011)

Anyone ever turn it?

Used a nicely figured piece for the top of a cartridge pen at the request of a friend at work...what a pain to finish!

I couldn't recreat what I did tonight, it was sand, CA, sand more, more CA, CA, CA, CA...sand and polish finally.

Got it acceptable, but not as good as I normally can with other woods.

Is this typical?


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## hunter-27 (Sep 5, 2011)

I have had a different experience.  One of the easiest, nicest woods to use.  You must have got a "lemon"


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## its_virgil (Sep 5, 2011)

There have only been a few woods on which I could not get CA to work as a finish....and KOA is not one of them. I too agree....a very nice wood.
Do a good turn daily!
Don


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## Lenny (Sep 5, 2011)

Usually it's the oily woods like cocobolo that can cause fits!

Was the Koa good and dry? If there was even a little moisture it could cause some problems. 

In what way exactly did it fight you?


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## bitshird (Sep 5, 2011)

I've had wonderful results with Koa, Curly Koa and using CA on them, it's a pleasure to work and finish.


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## mredburn (Sep 5, 2011)

I really like working with Koa. I have a lot of it in the shop. In factr i used it to make a simple wooden sierra pen.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=81467&highlight=simple+sierra


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## hunter-27 (Sep 5, 2011)

I think you get the idea.  You have some "funky" koa.  I suspect it is to soft due to dry rot or similar.  I suggest you toss it to the trash and get some new pieces.


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## SteveG (Sep 5, 2011)

I turn and CA-finish Koa pens all the time. All the koa I use is fully air dried, which means about 13% MC here in Hawaii (for wood stored in non-humidity controlled spaces such as my shop). Some times there will be a piece that refuses to finish up properly until the CA is built up VERY thick. I don't know why, I just know THAT  So if you have the problem, you can fix it with more layers of CA. This is a rare occurrence, maybe one out of every 100 koa pens.


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## Florida Marine (Sep 6, 2011)

Figures I got the 100th on the first try!  I ended up just layering on thin CA, and more and more...

It came out ok- took pics but they are worse them my normal horrible.  

I have 5 1/2 other pieces that he gave me, so I will try one of them out to see.  Seems my experience is not the norm!  

This is the first time I have had issues with a CA finish.

Thanks for the responses!


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## elody21 (Sep 11, 2011)

I just had the same problem yesterday! It must be how dry the wood is? Mine was VERY dry.
Alice




Florida Marine said:


> Anyone ever turn it?
> 
> Used a nicely figured piece for the top of a cartridge pen at the request of a friend at work...what a pain to finish!
> 
> ...


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## Florida Marine (Sep 11, 2011)

elody21 said:


> I just had the same problem yesterday! It must be how dry the wood is? Mine was VERY dry.
> Alice
> 
> 
> ...



Yes, it was pretty dry also...

I have 5 and 1/2 more pieces of it, will have to see if this piece was just an anomaly.


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## cwolfs69 (Sep 11, 2011)

never had a problem with KOA. just turned a civil war pen on friday with KOA and it turned out great. CA has always worked just fine.


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## patsikes (Sep 11, 2011)

My favorite wood!  10 coats medium CA with accelerator between each coat.  MicoMesh to 12k.


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## rkimery (Sep 12, 2011)

I think the wood must have been miss-labeled when you received it!  
It is a beautiful wood indeed!


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