#416

NOW SOLD Figured Hawaiian Koa and 24ct Gold Plated Fountain Pen

KOA - Acacia Koa

Koa's colour can be highly variable, but tends to be medium golden or reddish brown, similar to mahogany. There are usually contrasting bands of colour in the growth rings, and it is not uncommon to see boards with ribbon-like streaks of colour. Boards figured with wavy and/or curly grain are also not uncommon.

Although Koa is naturally quite abundant on the islands of Hawaii, most Koa forests have been cleared for grazing pastures; and since young Koa seedlings are edible for grazing animals, most new trees are prevented from growing to timber-harvestable size. As a result, mature Koa trees are either scarce, or in hard-to-access mountainous locations, and the price of Koa is likely to only increase further in the future. Australian Blackwood is considered to be a more sustainable, and visually/mechanically similar substitute.

Koa is widely considered to be the most beautiful and useful of Hawaii’s native hardwoods and this pen is made using AAA grade instrument quality timber.

After leaving our sheltered mooring at Gnosal we realised that the winds out on the open embankments were quite a bit stronger than we were expecting. A sixty foot long eighteen ton narrowboat it a tad unwieldy to say the least and the only way to battle a strong breeze is to increase the throttle and 'crab' down the canal at an angle to the wind. 

There does come a point though where navigating becomes dangerous and its time to find a safe-haven waiting for the wind to abate. The weather went past that though we were looking at the leading edge of storm Clodagh. The forecasts were for winds up to 50mph and gusts of 70+. Time to moor up on mooring rings, ideally away from trees. 

We had two days of Clodagh in Wheaton Aston before we were able to move on up a single lock and head through the cutting of Stretton Spoil Banks. We didn't get far. A little less than a mile and I could see something in the far distance that didn't look right on the towpath. I suspected a tree down and Deb confirmed after a check with the binoculars. The canopy was on the left hand bank so the tree must have come from somewhere on the right bank. We moored up and went to check what the damage and prognosis was. It didn't look good, the fallen tree covered about twenty feet of the towpath and did indeed come from the opposite bank. The Canal and River Trust had already been called out by another stranded boater the other side of the fallen tree but unfortunately it would take them and a team of specialist contractors three more days to clear a path through the fallen tree (and another day at least to remove the remaining wood). With nothing else to do apart from worry about all the other trees in the cutting coming down around us on December the 1st I set up the workshop, powered up the generator and set to work turning pen #416 and finishing off a few others.

This was going to change our cruising plan though as we were still about 130 lock miles away from Birmingham and running out of contingency days. More storms were forecast but we'd just have to work through them.