Rarest wood in the world?

[LSCG]

wasn't sure were to post this question so if the mods want to move it that's fine.

a few years back I read somewhere that black and white Ebony is the rarest wood in the world. is that true? if so then does that mean black and white ebony burl is the rarest burl in the world?

if it's not true then what is the rarest wood in the world? can there even be a rarest?

just curious.

 

[Herb G.]

I heard the same thing about Pink Ivory, Snakewood, and certain members of the rosewood family.

 

[Blueglass]

I guess that would depend on the rarest tree.

 

[Tom Smart]

It's the one you really want but don't have.

 

[Mike1950]

Probably what they are trying to sell....

 

[rocky1]

Sales pitch!

 

[Sprung]

With how readily available B&W Ebony is, I would have a hard time believing it to be the rarest wood in the world - it certainly isn't priced like I would imagine the rarest wood in the world to be.

It is interesting to see that there have been some burls that have previously been dubbed extremely rare or hard to find - such as Chittum Burl and Yellow Cedar Burl - become more readily available. The stuff is definitely out there. But there are some burls you don't see much (or any) of and are seeing less of, it seems.

 

[rocky1]

If it were so rare, would it not be CITES listed as well?

 

[Mike1950]

And to add when something gets rare and valuable, it seems supply grows. Either through more people looking for it, chittum or ycb for example. Or coco burl in which supply has grown with a sharpie. Ya see ya take the sharpie and scribble out HRB and write Coco. Double the price and supply has increased....., PS. Not a buyer nor a seller of coco burl. Just observer....

 

[LSCG]

I kind of figured it probably wasn't true lol.

 

[Mike1950]

Rarest i have is LV burl. Cool stuff. I had a black and white ebony burl but $$$$ lured it away. I really did not like it. Hickorg seems rare but i know someone with a forest full of it. Big leaf burl is the best- cause it is easy for me to get.....

 

[rocky1]

It's easy for the rest of us to get if you'd get busy sawing!

 

[bench1holio]

Rarity really comes down to how hard it is to get hold of. Some of the outback timbers here in Australia are most plentiful in they're bioregion but not many people are willing to cut, dry, process and bring to the market. Which makes them extremely rare.

 

[NeilYeag]

Here you have it! Assuming you have a few hundred board feet of this in your stash, should be the rarest in the world. And if you got a burl or two of this well...........


The tree species known only as Pennantia baylisiana could be the rarest plant on Earth. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records once called it that. Just a single tree exists in the wild, on one of the Three Kings Islands off the coast of New Zealand, where it has sat, alone, since 1945

 

[Arn213]

To the best of my knowledge, the rarest figured tree that was historically documented was "The Tree". It was discovered in the jungle of Honduras (now Belize) circa 1965. It was reportedly to be about 100 foot tall, 10' diameter at the base, had a spiral bark. However, when it was felled it fell into a ravine and they run into diffuclty extracting it. It wasn't till circa 1981 that an American Importer named Novak came back to that region to successfully extract the wood, chainsawn on site, dragged, trucked and a loader was used to push it along the Chiquibul river and milled with the use of an ancient power sawmill. About 12,000 board feet (another source states 13,000 bd. ft.) came from this rare tree- reportedly about a quarter had a "tortoiseshell pattern" with veining (and bait) and the rest had a quilted pattern ranging from sausage, blister, wavy figuring- about 5 to 6 patterns.

The couple of timbers I had the fortunate of handling had the toroishell pattern and the other had a rolling blister pattern. It is a really dense genuine mahogany (swietenia macrophylla) hardwood with the small sample in hand it was roughly 3 pounds, 8 ounces per board foot. It had a deep caramelized orange-brown heartwood when finished and the figuring on and color was kind of "holographic" to the best I can describe it. It had this "inner glow" when light hits it and a "water color effect" when you move the board to and fro. Most luthier that had the fortunate of using it has commented that it had fundamental tone closer to rosewood than genuine mahogany! Probably the most expensive per board foot that I know off. I read somewhere that mid range cost is about $ 1500 per bd. ft. and there are reportedly several conference size slabs that had asking price of five figures!

Full disclosure, photo's are not mine and from the web......

 

[Steve Smith]

The Aug/Sept (?) 1985 Fine Woodworking magazine had a good article on that tree and a chest of drawers that the authors made from it.

Several years back a member of sawmillcreek was selling boards claimed to be from that tree. He offered it for $100 bd/ft, IIRC. If I had the kind of money I now can throw around at investments like that......

 

[Arn213]

The Aug/Sept (?) 1985 Fine Woodworking magazine had a good article on that tree and a chest of drawers that the authors made from it.

Several years back a member of sawmillcreek was selling boards claimed to be from that tree. He offered it for $100 bd/ft, IIRC. If I had the kind of money I now can throw around at investments like that......

Steve you are correct it was written by a Luthier Mark Berry in a 1985 Fine Woodworking, September/October issue. Reportedly at that time he had about 250 board feet. Around that time it started selling in the neighborhood of $ 10-30 per bd. foot.

The story of "The Tree" is intriguing and fascinating- the challenging way they solve to slice it up in sections to get it out of the ravine, then dragged about 100 miles trough the jungle, then floated through the river and then milled on site was quite a journey. When it got here in the US it went to the south east to get kiln dried longer than usually (30 day) due to its density and was "carefully stored and sold there". Another well known lumber channel out in the west coast sold the material from this tree as well.

 

[NeilYeag]

Yeah OK, but my tree is the rarest on the entire planet, and maybe including the solar system, Nah Nah Na Nah na.

 

[Arn213]

Yeah OK, but my tree is the rarest on the entire planet, and maybe including the solar system, Nah Nah Na Nah na.

......ding, ding, ding- ladies and gentlemen we now have a new champion after 5 rounds by the way of "TKO".Loser @Arn213 demands a rematch in which the winner take home purse is a bunch of fire wood, wood scraps, saw dust from the losers woodshop.

But, technically the "goats" won making "your tree" possibly the rarest tree in the whole wide world- at least humans were not to blame this time for making another specie come close to being extinct........or maybe we are......ahem.......guilty according to the article, because humans introduced goats to the island, in return the goats ate off these trees