Monkeypod, grown & turned on Oʻahu.
The big shade tree of Oʻahu’s streets and parks, and the classic Hawaiian salad bowl wood.
What it looks like
Freshly cut, the heartwood is dark chocolate brown. It settles to a light or golden brown with darker streaks, set off by a thin pale rim of sapwood, and the grain is often curly or wild.
On the lathe
Hawaiʻi-grown monkeypod turns very well while it is green. It shrinks very little as it dries, so a bowl can be roughed out wet and dried afterward without much trouble, and the heartwood resists rot and termites. The dust can irritate the eyes.
As a bowl
Monkeypod is the wood Hawaiʻi’s carved bowl trade was built on, from 1946 on, and polished monkeypod bowls and plates have been in demand ever since. A US Forest Service handbook noted in 1989 that most of the monkeypod bowls sold in the islands were being made in the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia. Kaleb’s are turned in Kāneʻohe from Oʻahu trees.
On Oʻahu
The Hawaiian name is ʻōhai. Monkeypod came to Hawaiʻi in 1847, as two seeds; one grew into a tree at Bishop and Hotel Streets in Honolulu. It became the favorite shade tree of streets and parks, but on wet ground it grows a mat of shallow roots under a heavy crown, and storms can topple it. That is when Kaleb gets the call.
Nothing in monkeypod on the shelf right now.
Pieces come as the trees do. Ask, and Kaleb will tell you when the next one comes off the lathe.
Questions about monkeypod.
Not answered here? Call or text Kaleb on (808) 729-1560, or write to him.
Is monkeypod good for a salad bowl?
It’s the classic choice in Hawaiʻi. It shrinks very little, holds its shape and takes a good finish, which is why the islands’ bowl trade was built on it.
Are monkeypod bowls made in Hawaiʻi?
Not all of them. For decades many of the monkeypod bowls sold in the islands have been made overseas. Every piece Kaleb sells is turned in his Kāneʻohe shop from a tree that grew on Oʻahu, and its page says which tree.
Why do monkeypod trees fall over?
On wet ground they grow a mat of shallow roots under a very heavy crown. Wind, pavement or thin soil can tip them, and borers attack stressed trees.
Sources: Little & Skolmen, Common Forest Trees of Hawaii (USDA); USDA Forest Service silvics; The Wood Database; Pukui & Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary; Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry.
Turn a monkeypod bowl yourself.
When it’s on the rack, you can choose it for your bowl on a class day, with Kaleb beside you for every cut.