Birdsville wattle ( A. peuce) IWCS Sample
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Hell freaking yes 
Curious what you would do with such a piece of wood. Is it just for a collection?Hell freaking yes
Yes. IWCS = international wood collectors society, of which i am a member. Though admittedly i haven't made much effort at securing or producing IWCS samples lol. I bought 80 samples from member Gary Green upon signing up and bought a sample of dalbergia nigra from Mark, but beyond that i haven't gotten any more IWCS samples. I've purchased wood with dimensions sufficient to cut my own IWCS samples. I just haven't cut any yet. As it relates to peuce, id take anything - IWCS sample or not. It's so hard to find.
I just did the math on that piece of wood. If it was a bdft, it would come out to $640. Is any wood that much in demand to be commanding prices like that? What does that do to have it in your possession?
I still in the process of building that Hickory job, and one day I did a cost per square foot of a 3/4" x 4 x 8 sheet of 2 sided Pro Core Hickory. I was shocked at $4 per square foot = 128 per sheet. Needless to say, I now have a WHOLE lot of 3/4" hickory plywood pieces over 1 square foot I can not force myself to toss even though the customer paid for it. The lumber I use for smoking when I outdoor cook, so not too much of an issue, plus the wood is usually fairly small and that cost is not an issue.
I'm done ranting. ............ Nubs
I still in the process of building that Hickory job, and one day I did a cost per square foot of a 3/4" x 4 x 8 sheet of 2 sided Pro Core Hickory. I was shocked at $4 per square foot = 128 per sheet. Needless to say, I now have a WHOLE lot of 3/4" hickory plywood pieces over 1 square foot I can not force myself to toss even though the customer paid for it. The lumber I use for smoking when I outdoor cook, so not too much of an issue, plus the wood is usually fairly small and that cost is not an issue.
I'm done ranting. ............ Nubs
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Acacia peuce only grows in the remote fringes of a few deserts in Australia. It's extremely slow growing due to the harsh arid climate. It can live up to 500 years and only typically reaches 50-60ft high at most. Depending on the source, it's the hardest or top 5 hardest woods in the world at 4,630lbf. It's highly protected by the Australian government. Even harvesting dead trees is illegal.
So having said that, this is obviously not a wood that you can buy to build with. It's not for sale anywhere in the world. Even finding IWCS samples is incredibly difficult. There's no market for it because there's no supply and it's incredibly niche being as hard as it is. Peuce is nearly impossible to find. I've only been searching about a year, but others have searched much longer. This is a wood that is intended for collecting or (maybe) use for inlay or other detail work on a sentimental project. You could never find enough volume to build anything substantial out of it.
If you think peuce is expensive, how about the $42 i just spent on a 3/4" pen blank of Hawaiian sandalwood? That makes this peuce look like pocket change.
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Ok, I’ll get the shipping quote lolHell freaking yes
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I paid $60 for my higher quality peuce sample. And got a small chunk of a log I had to trade a large curly spiderwebbed piece of Brazilian rosewood for. As my good Australian friend says “this is proper rare”. There is estimated to be perhaps 75,000 trees left alive. A majority being smaller trees. Its population is also in decline. The seeds have a low sprouting rate. Invasive species namely rabbits eat many saplings if they do sprouts. Another major issue for other desert acacia such as purple wattle and dozens of others. Like @Big Ry said. It’s heavily protected. Collected dead wood on a preserve can get you a multi hundred thousand dollar fine if I recall. Cutting a live tree brings harsh legal repercussions. It’s sacred to some groups of aboriginal people. Adding to its protected status. Researchers can get access to small amounts of long dead material which then may be sold at extremely high prices. It’s a miracle to find in Australia. Outside of a Australia it’s practically a unicorn
I found this video recently and thought it was a nice intro to the species. I like the label of Dr. Seuss Tree
Danged,. Just got through reading 3 World of Wood magazines,and was gonna ask if anyone had any they"d like to get rid of!
There was an Acacia Peuce article by Nelis Mourik in one of the issues a few months back. And in that article it was noted that there were a few samples of Peuce available for purchase. I emailed about getting a sample the same day I received the magazine in the mail, and Henk Bakker responded immediately and informed me the samples were already long gone lol. Ironically, this sample Fred is selling to me is also from the Henk/Nelis collection of samples.