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Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

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Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#191

Post by badosu »

pvaldes wrote: post #156
jdietrich wrote: post #147

This article was obsolete before it was written. The species commercially traded as Ipe (Handroanthus spp., Roseodendron spp. and Tabebuia spp.) were submitted by Columbia and Panama last year for inclusion in CITES Appendix II. This submission was accepted, meaning that the international trade in these woods will be subject to strict controls as of 25 November 2024. Any international trade must be accompanied by an…

As botanical footnote: All this trees called lapachos are in the Bignoniaceae family. Lapachos have huge ornamental value and hold the equivalent place as the cherry trees in the northern hemisphere. They are cultured in all the big cities that have the correct climate; by their fantastic bloom in bright yellow, pink or pure white and their role as a cultural symbol. This means that some lapacho wood can have legal o…

Ipê trees are great to see in your city (I live in Brazil), I always get a big smile when my mom keeps getting amazed at them.

You can have yellow, purple, white, a whole lot of colors.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#192

Post by dhx »

Fatnino wrote: post #164
wlesieutre wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly not in the volume for people to be using it for all their decks and flooring. Actual sustainable harvesting would probably price out everything but musical instruments and maybe some expensive outdoor furniture.

The formula seems pretty straightforward. Take the area of land we're willing to give over to lumber farming, divide by how long it takes to grow a tree to harvest and that's how much lumber demand can be met. Adjust price to make demand meet that limit.

It's not quite that easy. Soil under plantations is easy to deplete at a non-renewable rate. Harvest causes soil compaction and erosion. Post-harvest, herbicides are used extensively to kill weeds that would otherwise fill the void before replacement trees are mature enough to keep weeds out. Is the herbicide being used at a renewable rate? etc etc

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#193

Post by remus »

frumper wrote: post #189
remus wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Realistically no-one will tell you that the thing you want to buy is illegally harvested wood. They might tell you if it has been harvested legally though, as that is often a selling point. And if they don't know and can't find out then you could move on to a different supplier.

If no one will tell you it’s illegally harvested, they’ll always be happy to tell you it’s legally harvested.

In which case they'd be lying and selling you something under false pretences. Obviously it can happen, but it's a risky thing and something a lot of businesses would want to avoid.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#194

Post by devonkim »

bhandziuk wrote: post #172
devonkim wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardwax oils are also used but oftentimes have quite bad VOCs. However, I’m familiar with at least one manufacturer that has low/no VOC oils which certainly shows it’s possible but perhaps there’s a good technical explanation for why VOCs are so common in these oil treatments.

I've not used any hard wax oil finish. I'm surprised reading this [1] though that it offers "Great wear-, water- and heat resistance". But I guess that's from the company also claiming that Monocoat only takes one coat. But, what I'm understanding from that link is also that maybe the curing accelerators have VOCs so maybe the hard wax oils without accelerators don't have the VOC content (?) [1]: https://www.rubiomon…

What I was looking at was a different manufacturer’s product which talks about how they use vegetable oil which seems intriguing. I’m going to use the espresso wax / stain and see how it turns out with different numbers of coats https://www.interbuild.shop/route/product/product?product_id...

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#195

Post by bhandziuk »

devonkim wrote: post #194
bhandziuk wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not used any hard wax oil finish. I'm surprised reading this [1] though that it offers "Great wear-, water- and heat resistance". But I guess that's from the company also claiming that Monocoat only takes one coat. But, what I'm understanding from that link is also that maybe the curing accelerators have VOCs so maybe the hard wax oils without accelerators don't have the VOC content (?) [1]: https://www.rubiomon…

What I was looking at was a different manufacturer’s product which talks about how they use vegetable oil which seems intriguing. I’m going to use the espresso wax / stain and see how it turns out with different numbers of coats https://www.interbuild.shop/route/product/product?product_id...

The vegetable oil stood out to me too. That Bob Flexner book emphasizes that oils other than tung and BLO don't cure but instead go rancid which is why they're not used. (Which is also why BLO is boiled because straight linseed oil doesn't cure) I wonder what that process of heating the vegetable oil with the wax does that just heating vegetable oil alone doesn't?

As a side note, I like the low VOC aspect. I've used pure tung oil from Woodcraft before and it doesn't have a strong smell but it give me the absolute worst headache I've ever had. Worse than any exposure to a varnish or paste wax or something I know has VOCs in it.

Good luck with that product, it looks very interesting!

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#196

Post by frozenlettuce »

dylan604 wrote: post #131
frozenlettuce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently I was watching Property Brothers and saw two episodes where both houses had Brazilian Hardwood flooring. The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring - the bureaucracy and costs associated make it very expensive - but that might not be the case if the customer is Canadian

> The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring Does Brazilian Hardwood flooring actually mean the type of flooring Brazilians have or just simply that the hardwood being used as flooring is from Brazil?

It refers to it being from Brazil. Wood is not a popular building material here.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#197

Post by spandextwins »

c0pium wrote: post #183
spandextwins wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go plant where you can. No excuses. Do it today.

I’m really confused by this new trend of people being super aggressive about things that won’t matter at all. Why not spend the energy somewhere it might make a difference?

I'm confused about all the endless complacency and complaining. And the unwillingness to do anything positive.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#198

Post by harimau777 »

wlesieutre wrote: post #110
whyenot wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that in many cases tropical hardwoods are so slow growing and so intertwined with other species (both physically and metaphorically) that there isn't a way to harvest them sustainably. As a planet, we need to decide how much of these forests we are going to save, and then actually protect them. That may sound idealistic, but as someone who has spent a significant portion of my adult life working and st…

Certainly not in the volume for people to be using it for all their decks and flooring. Actual sustainable harvesting would probably price out everything but musical instruments and maybe some expensive outdoor furniture.

Finding better trees to farm might help. It might be easier to get people to choose something other than cutting down old growth forests if the alternative wasn't white pine.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#199

Post by harimau777 »

bastardoperator wrote: post #37
frozenlettuce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently I was watching Property Brothers and saw two episodes where both houses had Brazilian Hardwood flooring. The funny thing is that I live in Brazil and it is quite rare to find houses with that type of flooring - the bureaucracy and costs associated make it very expensive - but that might not be the case if the customer is Canadian

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.

Personally I don't trust vinyl flooring not to outgas toxic chemicals or produce toxic dust as it wears down.

Re: Exclusive hardwood may be illegally harvested

#200

Post by Dylan16807 »

spandextwins wrote: post #197
c0pium wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m really confused by this new trend of people being super aggressive about things that won’t matter at all. Why not spend the energy somewhere it might make a difference?

I'm confused about all the endless complacency and complaining. And the unwillingness to do anything positive.

Unwillingness to do this arbitrary action you've chosen isn't unwillingness to do anything positive.

As for complaining, you started it. (Unless you're claiming the article itself is useless complaining when they could do something to help the problem, but "plant a tree" is not something that could help this problem.)

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