Woodcrafters carving out pieces of art, way of life

• Brief description of some Hawai'i woods

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

Larry Nitz and his daughter Masako show off a wood screen that took Masako more than 80 hours to make. Masako learned how to work with wood from her father. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Today Nitz, 28, is a professional woodworker, furniture maker, painter and chairwoman of this year's Na La'au O Hawai'i, the annual showcase of the state's best handcrafted wood products, which opens tomorrow at Aloha Tower Marketplace.

Her father, Larry, will be among those entering pieces in the show's first novice category.

"It's really neat that he's involved," Masako Nitz said. "We added a novice category this year just to encourage people like my dad to show what they can do."

The show, sponsored by the Hawai'i Forest Industry Association, is a once-a-year-opportunity for the state's best professional and amateur woodworkers to strut their stuff before the public and one another.

"For a lot of them, it's a real thrill to see their stuff on display, and it's really inspiring to see all the other work at the same time," Masako Nitz said.

Many of the professionals work in near-obscurity, sometimes taking months to fashion just one or two pieces that can sell, if they're lucky, for $10,000 or more. This year, Masako Nitz's entry in the show is a large room screen made of monkeypod, avocado, jacaranda and chocolate heart albizia woods; it took more than 80 hours to finish.

Far more woodworkers, though, are hobbyists like Larry Nitz, a political science professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, who spends much of his spare time in his garage/workshop doing practical woodworking for his Maunawili home, the same one in which Masako grew up. He's among the estimated 17.6 million wood-loving amateurs nationwide who spend more than $14 billion a year on material, equipment and supplies, making woodworking second only to gardening as the nation's favorite home-related pastime.

Larry Nitz had to help his own father build houses as a youngster and didn't want to make a career out of construction. But once he was married and established as a professor, he found out how much he still enjoyed building things for himself and his family.

Masako Nitz, a Punahou graduate, didn't immediately follow in his footsteps, though.

"My first love was painting," she said. "It wasn't until I went to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology that I really got into woodworking."

At first she approached woodworking as a design problem, a functional counterpoint to her more abstract paintings. Along the way in woodworking classes, though, she encountered those magical, almost mystical, moments that many woodworkers talk dreamily about: the smell of the sawdust, the powerful feel of the tools, the ability to stare at a piece wood for hours imagining what it could become.

"Definitely it hit me," she said.

Returning to Hawai'i, she found a job and work space on the Big Island, the home to many of the state's professional woodworkers and the best source of locally grown wood. She saw her first Hawai'i Woodshow in 1997 and decided to enter her own work the next year.

Meanwhile, Larry Nitz, 57, was getting involved with the marketing side of the show's sponsor, the Hawai'i Forest Industry Association, a nonprofit organization with 270 members interested in managing and maintaining the health and sustainability of the state's forests. The group estimates the local forest industry generates an estimated $29 million in annual revenues and more than 1,000 jobs a year.

"There's a lot more that could be done if we develop the industry and manage our resources properly," said Larry Nitz, who helped produce a directory of local forestry resources for the group. "There's definitely room for improvement, but it takes a lot of foresight and long-range planning."

That type of marketing support, and the exposure of the popular woodworking show, directly supports those growing and harvesting trees, as well as artisans like Masako, who sometimes find it difficult to sell new or unusual pieces in Hawai'i, where koa is still king.

"I knew that being in woodworking was not going to be particularly profitable," Masako Nitz said. "Sometimes, it's a toss-up between making things that you know will sell and making the things that I really want to make."

Larry Nitz, who had been making things in his garage all along, entered two pieces, a lamp and table, built from mango, kamani and robusta eucalyptus wood scraps left over from his daughter's entry in last year's show.

Brief description of some Hawai'i woods
Source: Hawai'i Forest Industry Association

Kamani Calophyllum inophyllum Kamani heartwood is reddish brown and moderately dense. It traditionally was used for bowls. The wood is lustrous, and the interlocking grain shows a dramatic braided ribbon stripe on the quarter-sawed face. It is relatively difficult to work because of the interlocked grain, but fine cabinetry has been made from it. The doors on the main floor of 'Iolani Palace have kamani veneer panels.

Koa Acacia koa Colors range from light brown to deep red/brown hues. Koa was historically the material of choice for carved ocean-going canoes. Highly figured koa is sought after for use in fine furniture, musical instruments, crafts, gunstocks and knife handles. It is a moderately heavy wood, stable, works well and takes an exceptionally rich, deeply reflective glow when finished with oils and varnish or lacquer.

Mango Mangifera indica Mango wood is lustrous blond, frequently showing mottled color variation acquired during drying. Some trees may have dark brown heartwood. The grain is often wavy and has a pronounced curly or "fiddleback" figure. Mango wood has been used for carved and turned bowls and furniture. Though tough, mango wood is perishable and is, therefore, tricky to season without degradation.

Norfolk Island pine, Cook Island pine Arucaria heterophylla, A. columnaris The wood from these Pacific island trees has a characteristic pine color. It is lightweight and has strength characteristics of Rocky Mountain Douglas fir. The most stunning modern use of these closely related species is for bowl-turning when it can take on a brilliant translucence very difficult to replicate.

Robusta eucalyptus Eucalyptus robusta Robusta is the most commonly planted of more than 100 eucalyptus species introduced to Hawai'i. The wood is light red in younger specimens, and runs to a deep, dark mahogany red in older trees. The mature wood is very hard. In fine furniture applications, Robusta is extremely durable and typically finishes with a deeply reflected glow and ages over time to a rich mahogany color.