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Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

chalmers.se

11–20 of 207 posts

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#12

It’s why you gotta burn ivory. When something is a luxury item for the wealthy rules don’t really matter you have to destroy the market.

Ivory isn’t only for the rich customers of intricate ivory carving but also the run of the mill guy and gal going to the Chinese medicine apothecary.

Not saying this exonerates the practice or anything --just that rich folk in Hong Kong/mainland CN aren’t the only ones propping the market.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#13
post #5

I got confused about the name "ipê" (first time I hear it, my Portuguese is basic at most), it's also known as "lapacho" in Argentina, "tajy" in Paraguay and "araguaney" in Venezuela.

Ipe is an indigenous word. Congress from Tupi languages probably.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#14

In my (albeit limited) experience, if you can’t get some sort of provenance documentation for exotic hardwoods from the lumberyard, it’s almost guaranteed to be unsustainably harvested, mostly outright illegally. Unfortunately it seems that most lumberyards open to the public and contractors are full of such wood because the legit stuff is even more expensive and sold mostly to high end furniture manufacturers and sp…

It's OT, and not meant to detract from your point or be pedantic in any way, just something I've seen and heard in software, too: > providence when what I am sure you meant to say was "provenance" . I've heard people talk and ask about the "providence of the data" too much not to leave a comment, I guess! It's not manna from heaven it's just some rows in a database somewhere ;)

> when what I am sure you meant to say was "provenance".

Without the documentation being in protective care of God, can it truly be trusted?

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#15

It’s why you gotta burn ivory. When something is a luxury item for the wealthy rules don’t really matter you have to destroy the market.

Or explain people that ivory won't treat their ED. Or spread the rumor that ivory makes you flaccid.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#16
Black locust is basically as good as ipe--competitive in characteristics like hardness and rot resistance, and I think slighly lower in price. It has been used for years for fence posts and now a lumber industry for it seems to be maturing. Apparently it grows like a weed and is even considered invasive in some places.

I used black locust for a large porch and am very pleased with it.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#18
post #16

Black locust is basically as good as ipe--competitive in characteristics like hardness and rot resistance, and I think slighly lower in price. It has been used for years for fence posts and now a lumber industry for it seems to be maturing. Apparently it grows like a weed and is even considered invasive in some places. I used black locust for a large porch and am very pleased with it.

I'm not sure about black locust rot resistance. That's pretty heavily informed on when you harvest it. If you harvest in the spring, it won't last five years. It's only good if harvested in the dead of winter when there is no sap.

Also, it doesn't grow large, often because it's so susceptible to disease. So there's that, too.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#19
post #16

Black locust is basically as good as ipe--competitive in characteristics like hardness and rot resistance, and I think slighly lower in price. It has been used for years for fence posts and now a lumber industry for it seems to be maturing. Apparently it grows like a weed and is even considered invasive in some places. I used black locust for a large porch and am very pleased with it.

I use Black Locust despite being illegal here for its invasive species. There is no record of it in the original survey of trees and that is how it got the invasive label.

The longer, clearer, and straighter you need tbe wood the worse black locusts becomes.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#20
post #16

Black locust is basically as good as ipe--competitive in characteristics like hardness and rot resistance, and I think slighly lower in price. It has been used for years for fence posts and now a lumber industry for it seems to be maturing. Apparently it grows like a weed and is even considered invasive in some places. I used black locust for a large porch and am very pleased with it.

I’ve never heard of Black Locust and I don’t recall it being an option when I built a deck a few years back (perhaps it was though!) but reading about it I wish I had. I ended up just using pressure treated pine (the exotics were 10’s of thousands more) but when it’s time to rebuild I’ll certainly consider Black locust. Apparently it takes stain well too.
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