61–70 of 110 posts
While the furniture is beautiful, (that cabinet is out of this world), do you really need bog oak to give it that beauty? Can't it be manufactured to the same beauty using wood from today's trees?
In New Zealand, there are old swamplands filled with swamp Kauri. Around a year ago, construction workers found a 16 m (52 ft) long log which had been buried underground for 40,000 years [1] They used to dig up $200 million worth of timber a year, mostly exported to China, until the government cracked down on exports. It's illegal to export unfinished native timber, so exporters exploited a loophole by cutting the tr…
The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all loopholes. That said, the added labor ensures a more finished product is exported. Was that the intent, or was the intent to force the wood to stay in NZ?
The concern is that a raw material export based economy is bad for the people who live in the country because most of the value is extracted from the country and only the most unskilled jobs are left.
This type of resource extraction was a hallmark of the colonial era, which is one reason governments are very wary of it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that's a bit misplaced, as millenials are in their 40's now, so they probably don't just throw things away like you assume. But also... I used to live out in the woods and had to haul my garbage to the dump every few months. (I didn't want to burn plastic, like some of my crazy neighbors did.) The city dump changes seasonally. After Christmas, there are piles of old toys that were replaced. After summer, ther…
yeah, spot-on, it's less IKEA and more the cheap assemble-it-yourself knock-offs you find at Target and Wal-Mart and the like that gives that kind of furniture its poor reputation. IKEA furniture I bought a decade or more ago is still in great shape.
IKEA absolutely sells cheap furniture made of laminated MDF, and it's often half the price of the quality stuff. And it's not fair to lambast IKEA for sacrificing quality to hit a price-point when they do allow people to pay more to better stuff.
The step up from the good IKEA tier is a big step. Even cheap hardwoods like oak are a lot more expensive than s/p/f. And that's not even getting into how much more wear hardwoods put on tooling or the weight difference.
In New Zealand, there are old swamplands filled with swamp Kauri. Around a year ago, construction workers found a 16 m (52 ft) long log which had been buried underground for 40,000 years [1] They used to dig up $200 million worth of timber a year, mostly exported to China, until the government cracked down on exports. It's illegal to export unfinished native timber, so exporters exploited a loophole by cutting the tr…
https://thestandard.org.nz/the-strange-case-of-oravida-and-t...
Lost Art Press is worth a follow in general. If you’re ever near Cincinnati, I highly recommend checking out their store front. They focus on keeping traditional woodworking books in print, but they also do a lot of woodworking (chair making especially) in their shop.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/07/07/updated-anarchists-...
They are my go-to for woodworking reading material.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all loopholes. That said, the added labor ensures a more finished product is exported. Was that the intent, or was the intent to force the wood to stay in NZ?
There is also an environmental aspect. Limits on the export of unfinished wood/logs ensures that the wood isn't being sold to become firewood. Firewood is a thing. Something like 8-10% of UK electricity (2017) came from firewood harvested in the US. https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-20/uk-s-move-away-coal-m...
It’s worth googling images of swamp kauri if woodworking is your thing, the logs are truely massive.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all loopholes. That said, the added labor ensures a more finished product is exported. Was that the intent, or was the intent to force the wood to stay in NZ?
Certainly the former, but clearly not in the spirit of it. However as long as the tax man got his share maybe that’s all that matters. Presumably the more finished product is taxed higher.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The limits of regulation. There is no way to plug all loopholes. That said, the added labor ensures a more finished product is exported. Was that the intent, or was the intent to force the wood to stay in NZ?
There is also an environmental aspect. Limits on the export of unfinished wood/logs ensures that the wood isn't being sold to become firewood. Firewood is a thing. Something like 8-10% of UK electricity (2017) came from firewood harvested in the US. https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-20/uk-s-move-away-coal-m...
Old growth woods like these are obviously unbelievably unique (and expensive). But even if you can't find or afford anything like that, if you are ever remodeling, it's worth reusing weathered but intact lumber from your house when possible. I pulled and reused about 50 ft of existing redwood 2x6 off my house recently as part of a remodel, refinished it with shou sugi ban (Japanese wood burning technique) and built a…
This advice should have a very large disclaimer. A majority of old finish lumber in the U.S. has been painted with lead based paint. Unfortunately the safest thing to do with this lumber is throw it away. Also in many homes floorboards have been covered with asbestos containing adhesives when newer floors were laid on top.