Andaman Padauk:

When I started building furniture in 1979 I bought a very small quantity of Andaman Padauk from which I made a reies of jewelry boxes. Unlike it'sa African namesake, this wood keeps it's rich red colour, a hue that gave it its once comercial name - vermillion. Shortly after, this wood became commercially unavailable. Last year a friend of mine bought a quantity from the estate sale of the deceased cabinet maker and designer Alan Peters. I have managed to acquire 5 sets of this incredible timber; if you want a truly unique Negra style ukulele then please email me for a discussion.

Brazilian Mahogany!

As you may well know, this standard timber for ukulele making recently went on the CITES list. This effectively stopped export of this valued instrument wood to the UK. I have recently increased my bank overdraft by purchasing some 'old' BM that has a lovely stripey figure. I am going to have a large billet resawn by my sawyer Andy Fellows to make for a limited edition one piece front and back collection of tenors, a few concerts and some sopranos. They will all be 'classic' ukulele a few steps away from ultimate bling, more a celebration of this now very rare wood which I will call the Sunset Collection. Available in 2012

I'm sure I will find more as joiners continue to retire and release their stashes onto the market. This particular pile (most of which is now being auctioned for guitar necks on eBay) was bought in Essex and still had the importer's stencil and stapled ticket on it - truly 'old mahogany'...