81–90 of 207 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hardwood is always covered in a plastic finish. Yes it feels different, but it is still plastic.
I don't know where you got this from, but I can assure you that's not correct.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The technician that works on our piano reglued some of the ivory. He said that, in the worst case, he could give us a replacement, since he has a pile of antique ivory he got from the keys of ruined/rebuilt pianos. If we ever fully restore the keys, we’d opt for not-ivory.
Every pre-WW2 piano I've seen was crooked beyond repair and untunable. I bet there are far more donor instruments than functioning ones, considering that a lot can happen in 70 years.
I have a more than one hundred years old Austrian piano (made shortly before the start of the First WW), and it still works fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless it is a piano keyboard, because musicians are aware of this and so the only pianos with ivory keyboards have ivory from nearly 100 years ago. There would be interest in new ivory by a few (generally because they have an antique piano with one broken key), but they will demand proof that the ivory was sustainably harvested (There was a park a few years back overcrowd with elephants that was looking into providi…
>but they will demand proof that the ivory was sustainably harvested yes, i'm sure this is true for 100% of people buying fancy pianos, and "proof of sustainable harvest" isn't at all a loophole that gets used to sustain an illegal ivory trade.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hardwood floors can be re-sanded and refinished many times over, generating no waste. Vinyl floors get scratched and then thrown away. Wood is renewable, vinyl comes from oil wells. I'm not certain this is actually logical.
We may be an anomaly, but we have 13.5mm laminates[1] which I'd say were relatively high grade when we put them in. The product we used didn't come with stair kits so we had to do the staircase with oak stained to match. We have two full-size golden retrievers. Eight years later, the laminates look like the day we installed them -- literally. The oak is all scratched up and will take a lot of work to refinish. [2] I…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> look nearly indistinguishable maybe I'm top 1% neurotic about these things but I can tell from Zillow images alone. And definitely by feel of walking on them and the distinct noise they make. There's no comparison. I seriously doubt they are indistinguishable for most people, but I could be very wrong, especially since so many people go for them.
Most people just don't care or never knew the difference. Like keming, once you notice it, you will likely notice for the rest of your life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would argue there is zero point in using real hardwood on floors these days given vinyl planks are way cheaper, way more durable, and look nearly indistinguishable from real thing.
> look nearly indistinguishable maybe I'm top 1% neurotic about these things but I can tell from Zillow images alone. And definitely by feel of walking on them and the distinct noise they make. There's no comparison. I seriously doubt they are indistinguishable for most people, but I could be very wrong, especially since so many people go for them.
Natural gas fireplaces aren't real wood-burning, and I can tell, but I just appreciate that they are way cleaner.
Now, furniture is a different story. Wood is much better than the engineered crap. Try lifting a modern piece that looks like wood and maybe has a thin layer of wood (very heavy and easy to damage) and then try lifting something made of real wood (light and strong).
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.
This clonal tree is a menace, and should definitely be harvested for use. The amount of scars I have from their INSANE thorns when young is getting too much to count.
In 2020, the then president of Brazil said he would reveal which countries were the consumers of the illegally extracted wood from Amazonia. [0] No further news were heard about it. There were even a startup that would use DNA to certify the origin of the wood, allowing traceability. The "efforts to halt trade in illegal timber such as the EU Timber Regulation and the US Lacey Act" can greatly contribute to reduce th…
Years ago tracking lumber from harvesting through the supply chain was one of the few convincing cases I heard for blockchain applications, where you have a sequence of people who don't trust each other and buyers want verification that the group cutting the trees was really only cutting and selling the amount they were allowed to. Haven't heard any more on that recently.
EDIT - took a look for updates and I see the FSC has a "FSC Blockchain Beta pilot program"