The Framers Forum

I have been reviewing which mouldings I will plan to stock in my shop and have been looking at Koto mouldings. Koto is just about the nearest available replacement for Ramin, which is now in limited supply. I've obtained a very short sample from Wessex, just to get an idea what Koto is like and the natural finish ones from the Simons Cheshire range, which are not bare wood as they have a clear matt finish.

My initial interest was for bare wood Koto for hand finishing, but the Simons mouldings nicely fit my requirement for ready finished and durable general purpose mouldings, while the Wessex bare wood Koto mouldings will be very suitable for some of my hand finishing work. As many of you will have noticed with an earlier thread,

I've been looking for something of more consistent quality than much of the Obeche that has been coming my way, particularly as basic factory finished mouldings and my thinking is than although some of the Koto mouldings will be a bit of a step up in price, my reduced level of wastage due to less problems with consistent quality and wasted labour only to throw some bits into the bin will justify much of the difference in price.

So far this is looking like the right move for me, together with stocking the Wessex essentials range as recomended to me on the earlier thread. I am also planning to order coloured samples of the Simons Cheshire range to complete my display samples of this range. I suspect that these may be the only Koto mouldings currently available, but if anyone else know of any other suppliers, can you please let me know.

Koto is a new wood type to me, so Is anyone else using Koto, if so any comments, or feedback would be helpful.
Many thanks,
Mark

I refuse to have anything to do with Koto - she broke up the Beatles.

O no !!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

(And don't get me started on D-Ringo.)

Hi Mark -
I've used the Wessex Koto mouldings quite a few times and always found they cut and joined really well. I started using them as I found they joined well on a foot operated underpinner and took stains and waxes well. Definitely worth a go. I'm sure they'll send you some samples to try.
Good luck
Jonathan

Thanks Jonathon,

I was speaking to Wessex this morning to get some prices before deciding which moulding to get samples of, so I'm already on it. I'm quite impressed with what I have seen of Koto so far and can't quite believe that I have never tried Koto before. This is looking to me like a very good next move for me to get into Koto mouldings.

Didn't know anything about this wood so looked it up and found the following!

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is on the IUCN Red List. It is listed as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation.

My samples from Wessex arrived yesterday and I've been cutting and joining them as display chevrons. I'm well pleased Koto is such a lovely wood to work with and the mitres join really nicely.