Senin, 15 Desember 2008

Min Koide- 11-02-1926 - 11-23-2008


Sadly, our good friend and longtime customer Min Koide passed away last month. As far as Mitch can remember, Min was one of our very first customers and can remember selling wood to him when Tropical Exotic Hardwoods was nothing more than a few pallets of wood in a storage shed.

Min was a very special person and a remarkable woodworker to say the least.
Yesterday we visited a memorial at his exhibit in Balboa Park here in San Diego, California. Before falling ill, one of Min's last requests was that no matter what happened, his exhibit would go on and his artwork would be enjoyed by the many visitors to the Japanese Friendship Garden located in Balboa Park.

Below is a sampling of some of his pieces that are on display until Feb. of next year.

We encourage anyone who is interested in woodworking to visit his exhibit and enjoy the works of this incredible woodturner.

"Wood Bowls of Min Koide"
November 2, 2008- February 27, 2009
Japanese Friendship Garden
Balboa Park
San Diego, California










Gorgeous pieces out of Masur Birch

This was possibly one of Min's last pieces. We remember Min purchasing this piece of Black and White Ebony in July of this year.

A couple pieces made out of Cocobolo. The larger one is of a Cocobolo Crotch.


Turning a piece like this is amazing. The skill and experience needed is just mind boggling. Min was a true master.



Here is a set of three hollow forms out of Mexican Kingwood.
When most look at Mexican Kingwood logs they are too scared to try and work with it. All they point out is the cracks, sapwood, bark inclusions, and any other excuse that keeps them from turning this exceptional wood.
Min was able to recognize the beauty in each piece and realized that certain flaws were just part of the nature of certain woods. Here he incorporates the sapwood and voids in vertical bands around the piece and does it in such a beautiful way that it is almost impossible to capture in a picture.




This is a one many Macassar Ebony Bowls that Min created out of a large log that he purchased years ago. Mitch remembers delivering the piece to his residence and according to Min's son Gary, whats left of the log is still sitting in his workshop waiting to be turned.



This is another late piece by Min. He purchased this Ribboned Purpleheart from us this summer and might easily be the last piece he did.


This is done out of a solid Pink Ivory Log section.



Just one of the Numerous Cocobolo bowls Min has turned throughout the years.


Spalted Maple Bowls


This piece is incredible . A chest of drawers Min made for his mother when he was sixteen out of scrap redwood and pine that he found. This was made while he and his family were placed in a Japanese Internment camp during World War II.

Senin, 08 Desember 2008

Before And After- Steve Polizzi's Mountain Teak Table

Here is a couple pictures sent to us by Customer Steve Polizzi. He purchased the 3" Mountain Teak Slab pictured above. Natural Edged roughly 40" wide. We still have a 10 foot Mountain Teak Slab still available from the same batch.

Kamis, 04 Desember 2008

Tasmanian Rose Myrtle Before & After

Sometimes its hard to visualize what the figure will look like an certain specific pieces.

These small #B Rose Myrtle Slabs continue to amaze us everytime we start to surface one

As you can see below this is what slab #B5 looked like straight out of the 40 foot container from Australia.

This is what it looks like after the edges have been trimmed & its been sanded to 60 grit using a Wide Belt Sander.


Look at all the different figure throughout the piece.

The dark streaks were barely noticeable before and look at all the curly figure down the right side of the board.


Here is a shot of the piece with a little denatured alcohol to emulate a finish.

Please keep in mind this is just to 60 grit. all the figure will continue to jump out even more as the piece is sanded thoroughly.


If you like this piece we still have a handful from the same batch remaining

Senin, 01 Desember 2008

Goncalo Alves Crotch Slabs

We recieved a few Goncalo Alves crotch Slabs with the Jotaba Shipment.

Also known as "Tiger wood" this wood has a gorgeous dark streaking figure on top of a Honey Gold colored heartwood.

Since these pieces are crotch slabs there will be some really interesting stuff going on as well












Jatoba Crotch Slabs

These are some nice Jatoba Crotch Slabs that are coffee table sized.

They are however 4-5" thick which maybe a little much for some people.

If you want thinner stock - check out-

Jatoba Crotch Slabs #1-3 or

Goncalo Alves Slabs #10 & 11











"Smaller" Jatoba Crotch Slabs

These are the smallest Jatoba Crotch slabs that we have in terms of thickness.

They are unsurfaced but you can still see the figure in most of them. They are too wide for our planer and belt sanding them all would take forever.

For examples of what the crotch figure looks like please refer to the pictures on our "slabs" page on our website.

Dimensions are on each picture.












Rabu, 26 November 2008

Snakewood Bow by Doug Ross

Archery Bow by Customer Doug Ross.


Speaking of Snakewood we just pulled out a bunch of old Snakewood stock and cleaned a whole bunch for the showroom. Really nice squares, logs, penblanks, thin stock, bow staves, etc..
And most of the stuff is nice and Dry!!!

These squares are nice and long & Dry


Little thin stock and pen blanks for inlay and other small intricate work


Freshly milled blanks being sealed out of a larger log.
If the full logs are what your after we have a couple of them as well.


Click here to go to our Online Store to see what we have in stock

Kamis, 20 November 2008

Alert! Alert! Piece of Pommele Cocobolo Found!

Remember these Guys???
We found a half dozen pieces of the most highly figured Pommele figure we had ever seen in Cocobolo in our last load.
The pieces sold almost immediatly but we figured there had to be more from the same log somewhere amongst the rest of the 5000 BF of stock that we recieved.


After pulling apart a couple pallet loads and not coming across any we began to think maybe that was the last of that crazy looking Cocobolo until...


We found this guy today!

2"x2"x48" Turning Square of the same stuff.

Its hard to show the amazing figure in pictures since it not very wide, but hopefully they give you an idea.


Give us call if you want this guy.
PIECE HAS BEEN SOLD, SORRY



We'll post again if we come across more...