Pieces by Dean Moore

A few more pieces by Dean Moore:

Here is a nice cutting board made out of a bunch of different woods-Purpleheart, Yellowheart, Jatoba, Padouk, Bloodwood and more.


Here is a little box out of Leopardwood and Maple.

This is our favorite, Quilted Maple and Flame Koa.

Do you have "Koa" Goggles???

(at roughly a 1/5 (and sometimes even more) of the price of koa , parota is the call for large slabs)


It amazes us how many times every week we get customers asking for Hawaiian Koa in almost impossible-to-find dimensions at bargain prices.

Don't get us wrong, we are also big fans of nice true koa, but the fact of the matter is unless your willing to pay a king's ransom, good looking koa in large dimensions just doesn't really exist anymore.

There are plenty of other species that yield the same great "koa" look at much more realistic prices.

(just because it looks like koa, doesn't mean it has to be koa)


It's as if some people have their "koa" goggles on and all they are looking for all the time is koa...koa...koa...if it isn't koa they don't want it. Even if they fall in love with a piece of wood thinking it is koa, the moment they find out its another less-expensive species-they don;t wnat it anymore.

For example-we get people coming in all the time asking us how much they just love our large "koa" slabs ( such as the one above and below) and need to have one.

Once we tell them it's not koa but in fact Parota, which is roughly a 1/5 of the price of what koa would go for, it's as if the "koa" goggles go back on and the parota slabs are no longer the gorgeous, perfect slabs they saw at first glance.

This happens time and time again, every single week, its amazing.

(By finally taking the "koa"-goggles off, this lucky customer finally found his impossible-to-find "koa" slab at a great bargain price...)

(although we could easily fool you, Tasmanian Black Acacia is not true Hawaiian Koa but probably 4 out of 5 customers can not tell the difference)


Even when we offer Tasmanian Black Acacia, which is pretty much the same species as Koa growing in Australia, those "koa" goggles go back on- nice and tight.

The two species look the same, smell the same, feel the same...but there is one little catch...Black Acacia much less expensive and much more plentiful than true Hawaiian Koa.

A lot of customers have taken the leap into the unknown and tried the Black Acacia only to come back and say that they should have been buying the stuff all along rather than paying the insane koa prices for true lesser quality "Hawaiian koa".

(This isn't some cruel joke...yes its that less expensive than Hawaiian Koa)


True Story:

Recently we had a customer pick up both these pieces of Black Acacia (above and below) before they were labeled along with the ugliest piece of Hawaiian Koa that we have ever seen , walk up to our counter and say, "I'll take all of these, they are just too beautiful".

As I measured them, figured out the prices and wrote it down on an invoice, the customer stopped me and said, "...wow, that cheap for these two?"

I started to break down the pricing thinking he was well aware they were Tasmanian Black Acacia and not Koa, like the ugly little chunk he also wanted, when he stopped me again and said, "...you mean they aren't koa?"

He then said he was going to hold off on the Black Acacia and just get the cracked up, un-figured piece of expensive koa.

Again this happens all the time...its crazy, we don't get it.

If you think you may be one of these un-fortunate souls with this -"koa" goggles- syndrome, do not worry...we are here to help.

Just give us a call at 760-434-3030 and we can tell you what we have in some of these other species, and hopefully help you save alot of time and money in the process.

Before and After- Bubinga Slab

-Another Before and After-

Nice "little" Bubinga Slab

Some of you may remember this one sitting towards the back of the shop. Its kind of hard to visualize what a piece will look like when its done, especially when it is in the rough and has not even been sanded.

We tried convincing many customers that the slab would look amazing once it was finished, all it needed was to be sanded correctly and a couple coats of oil to bring out out all the figure.

The best part was for about $700 you had a solid slab of wood all the way from Africa.

I think 3 of the 4 that inquired about it ended up playing it safe and going with some of our thicker maple slabs that cost about twice as much.

One lucky customer ended up taking our advice and picking this little gem of a slab.

Here is the same slab after Mike Wells at Tassajara Designs, which is located next door to us, sanded and finished it.

Yup...no figure at all, that thing looks soooo boring...

Just joking, we think this slab turned out great! Can you imagine having this thing in your dining room? Talk about a conversation starter!

In case you were wondering...YES we can arrange to have your slab sanded and/or finished next door at Tassajara Designs.

They can handle any of the slabs that we carry and offer a wide range of services.

Many of our clients have saved alot of money in the past by having them work on our Slabs, since they are located right next door.

Pick-out your 3' wide x 14' slab, have Tassajara sand it, and have us ship it directly to you.

Makes life alot easier, especially once these slabs get up there in size


Here is a run down of what they offer, feel free to contact us for more 760-434-3030, or you can contact Mike directly to see what he can offer:


Milling Services
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Straight Line Rip and Crosscut - Up to 3" thick, up to 14' length
Wide Belt Sanding - Up to 38" width and 14' length

***NEW*** We offer computer-controlled "fly-cutting" on a CNC machine to surface/flatten large slabs up to 5' wide and 12' long. Can also shape, contour, etc. on same machine.

Fabrication Services
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Panel glue ups up to 48" wide and 14' length

Finishing Services
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Stain, seal and topcoat finishing in our fully-enclosed/filtered & heated spray booth. We can handle slabs up to 14' long
We use a variety of solvent finishes: catalyzed varnish and pre-cat lacquers
We use water-based finishes: stains, hybrid varnish, lacquer, catalyzed polyurethane for tables, bars, desks, etc.

Complete Design and Fabrication Services
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From simple pencil sketch designs, to complex 3-D CAD designs and full color renderings.
Wood, metal, glass, stone and other materials integrated into basic wood designs.
We specialize in large slabs of natural edge exotic woods

Michael Wells
Tassajara Designs, Inc.
2270 Camino Vida Roble, Suite C
Carlsbad, CA 92011
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Lic. #876149
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(p) 760-602-7818
(f) 760-454-2318
(c) 760-822-7238
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mike@tassajaradesigns.com
http://www.tassajaradesigns.com

Design in Wood '09

The "Design in Wood" exhibit just opened up the San Diego County Fair last week.

Its always fun heading down to the show to see what some of our customers have been up to with some of our woods. Year after year we are always amazed with the work that is on display. With everything from intarsia to furniture there is a little bit of everything at the display.

Here is Dean Moore's entry for this year-"Jewelry Armoire" out of Cocobolo and Curly Koa. Our pictures do not do it justice, this Jewelry box is pretty incredible-

To see Dean's box from last year Click here

19 year old Kyle Toth had one of his bats on display out of Bloodwood and Maple

Check out his Purpleheart bat by Clicking here, very nice work.

Here are a couple sculptures by Kenneth Glaze out of Pink Ivory and Mexican Kingwood

Here is a chest by Local Woodworker Terry Hansen. The Cherry and Walnut didn't come from us but we are pretty sure most of the woods on the top came out of our shop.

It easy to get lost checking out all the different woods in his designs, a little bit of everything-Cocobolo, Bocote, yellowheart, bloodwood, wenge, black palm, goncalo alves, marblwood and more-Its seems as though he has every type of exotic in his boxes.

Del Cover is one of the most highly respected woodworkers in our area. Here we see a floating seat rocker out of wenge and some figured Bubinga.

Check out the massive Cluster Maple Table he made a while back by clicking here

We are almost positive this is one of our 1.5" thick Bubinga Slabs in a table by Rick Moen. Check out the figure in this piece! We still have a couple of these slabs left as of 6-21-09

Here is a Cabinet by local woodworker Jose Eguez out of some of our Wenge and a nice figured piece of Black & White Ebony-that stuff sure is pretty.

Here are some other nice pieces at the show. Can't remember who they are by but we remember having a similar piece of zebrawood in our shop with that sap line-it wouldn't surprise us if it was indeed our wood, either way its a pretty piece.

Look at this piece out of Padouk, it reminds us of a bar that was constructed down in Little Italy in Downtown San Diego in a high end restaurant out of our Padouk with a similar design, very nice.

Another piece by Terry Hanson, we love that design.

Looks like some tulipwood and some curly euc. What else do you see?

Look at this desk out of Ziricote by Jerry Beaudry. Looks like solid Ziricote throughout no Veneers!

Everywhere you look different pieces of all shapes and sizes-

Several turned objects at the show as well, we tried taking some pictures but its kind of tricky taking pictures of objects behind glass-sorry...

Here is another amazing piece by Del Cover that won the Woodcraft Magazine "Award for Excellence in Design".

Its is titled "Balboa Park Bench" and is modeled after the historic Balboa park area here in San Diego.

Tons of different woods in this piece-Check out the wenge in those seats...


Jason Lane actually stoped by the shop earlier in the day and mentioned he had this piece in the show.

This piece is titled "Bow-Tie Lectern" and is constructed out of some of our Ziricote.

There was also a very nice display at the front of the exhibit honoring the late Sam Maloof.

Two of his rockers were also on display which was a nice to see.

The show is going on through the first week of July- we recommend checking it out if your in the area.