Around Chicago there are a couple of Owl Hardwood Lumber outlets. I
visited one in a search for some 12" or wider walnut. Right by the
front door of the store
laid out on the floor so you could almost trip over them was a stack of
boards labeled Kwazinga (my spelling on this may be incorrect) The
boards were 1 1/4" thick, 30" wide and 16' long. The wood was highly
figured and very exotic looking, so I talked the manager into selling
me a piece for a dashboard I needed to make. As it was explained to
me, the wood is a variation of bubinga wood and almost identical to
some smaller pieces of rosewood I have. One very important thing I
discovered when working it is that it has no structural integrity as a
solid board. Consequently, anyone buying the stuff as sold, hoping to
make solid-wood projects out of it would be soreley disappointed; Soon
after being dimensioned, it will begin to warp in every direction. The
property of the wood that makes it so beautiful is the way the grain
runs out every few inches, but this makes it practically unusable as a
solid board. The dashboard worked only because it gets fastened down
securely to sheet metal. Another problem is that
it can't be planed - tearouts 1/8" or deeper develop inevitably. I
made a firewall for a car out of it but only after running a wide piece
down to 1/8" on a big sanding machine and laminating it to plywood. So
anyone who buys this wood should be aware that it's only good for small
pieces and veneering after being resawn and sanded.