Avoiding Poached Wood

[Mike1950]

Grrrrrr

 

[CMStewart]

I think Mike was simply responding to your curiosity comment.

Ah.... that makes it all SOO much clearer. Thank you for that :)

 

[SENC]

Ah.... that makes it all SOO much clearer. Thank you for that :)

No problem. It took me a long time to figure how to understand crotchety language, but happy to translate anytime.

 

[CMStewart]

Playing that much amount with all the different permutations of wood components is valuable edge at your end. To me that is 50% of the battle. The other 50% is to get close and personal for each species by evaluating each at every level in raw form, formulating data, difference in density and workability, mechanical properties, physical properties, tap tone, pairings, eq., different aroma, etc. It took me awhile to understand the whole density spectrum where there is low, medium and high that how important those are depending on your voicing goal. You see a lot of acoustics made out of East Indian rosewood and Brazilian rosewood with a common denominator they have is that they sit at the middle of that density spectrum. That is about 4-1/2 pounds per board foot. That is my own personal observation.

Yeah, you are right that there are aspects I am unfamiliar with to-date. It will just take time working with them to learn those finer details.

With regard to tone, I really do believe I have a leg up on most people, even guitar players. I do have some woods I will always gravitate towards based on the consistent tone they lend themselves to... and others that I love just for the look, smell, etc. These will always draw me in when I see good deals on them. Now, that doesn't mean I can make those woods sound as great myself (yet). For instance, I know there is a particular thickness that mahogany will need as a back/side wood where a very dense wood like Camatillo RW would need to be thinner in comparison, or else it will be so stiff it won't resonate or have all the qualities I will expect out of it. What that thickness is, so far I couldn't say... since I'm a novice. But I do know what it's capable of in the hands of a skilled luthier, having studied these woods as a player. Most of my life I have been obsessed with wood, hoping to one day have a custom guitar built for me with some of the most exotic and beautiful woods out there, and have been trying to discern which ones will acheive the tone I want. I never thought I would end up trying to build that guitar myself. But I just studied wood to help decide which ones I would choose if I had the chance to commission someone to build it for me. Now that I've made it my pursuit to do it myself though, I am going to need to develop those skills.

With respect to what I'm looking to buy... I think I am a little paranoid about RW since they are becoming so hard to find, it feels like if I don't take what I can get now, I will regret it later. Who really knows what the future holds, right? I'm still trying to be wise, but that reality adds a lot of temptation to purchase, even if I don't need the wood right away.

 

[Ken Martin]

Agreed that CITES doesn’t work well - especially in the world of wood. (You could argue that it has its place in exotic animal parts.) serious question, though…

What can be done to improve CITES or how would you design a whole new program that would work better?

 

[Mike1950]

Agreed that CITES doesn’t work well - especially in the world of wood. (You could argue that it has its place in exotic animal parts.) serious question, though…

What can be done to improve CITES or how would you design a whole new program that would work better?

Find a way to make China follow the rules... I know someone that goes to Laos to buy wood. He goes during Chinese holiday. He says they follow no rules, buy the authorities. Own the railroad that goes to China. Mozambique, I have read that up to 90% of the wood cut there is not legal. Where does most go. China. Thailand has some of the strictest rules. The military shoots people stealing wood. A lot of woods goes through border there.solutions will be difficult to impossible

 

[Chemistry Fan]

Hi All,
My few cents on the topic as I recently imported (to US) hundreds of bf of CITES woods from Europe.
For that to happen I had to get a license to import lumber, license to import endangered plant species. Vendor got the CITES certificate for the species, including the exact weight and scientific name of the wood.
Certificate of origin and fumigation certificate required.
It took me quite a while before closing this deal.
That’s the legal way to do it. If someone sell’s internationally e.g Dalbergia on Ebay it needs to provide CITES certification, otherwise is not legal.

Thank you for reading
Jarek

 

[SubVet10]

Not only do the dodos at CBP enforce it they tend to go overboard every now and then. Big name luthiers get whole shipments of fretboard and body blanks pilfered as "finished woods."