I’m referring to aluminum, anodized black after working.

I disagree. The woodworker does very little imho. I have visited some ultra rich houses, literaly and virtually. They are filled to the brim with all sorts of exotic woods. Its not that different…actually its not different at all from ancient times. The more rare something is the more the uber rich seek it out. This is the same as poaching. The average joe doesn’t really care about ivory or a tigers liver . But the super rich especially ones that subscribe to the new age and old age crap that a powedered rhino horn will make you some sort of sex god do. Same for wood. Many of these exotic woods have a strange mythos attached to them. Lately i even heard that ebony has some sort of magic protection powers from “dark arts” (thanks Harry Potter). Im not kidding the wand makers in Disney actually use ebony among many other. Alivans is the name of the wand maker.

Hi Bjorn, yes, I like your comment about learning to code lol. can you post a reference to the Greenpeace episode?

Regarding domestic woods, I think the term is relative. You may not need to restrict yourself only to TX. I’d recommend to anyone in the US or Canada to look into some highly figured walnut. In my opinion, it can be every bit as stunning as exotic imported woods — and usually just as expensive as well!

I do love my interesting species of wood, will I stop using what my local supplier offers? No I won’t. To do so, will eventually take the food out of some persons children’s mouths. It does those people no good. It is also nothing but virtue signaling to your friends. What I will do though is only buy enough for what I need at that time. I will also start planning my projects so that they showcase what is available in a given region while providing some sort of documentation which may help educate all involved. For example, I am currently building two guitars. One I am using nothing but all hardwoods native to Texas where I live. The other was to be built solely from two pieces of Bloodwood I purchased 13 years ago and the color floored me. Well I see how that wood ages now and it is a perfect natural match to the Cherry finish Gibson used to use. Which started the project. While going through more planning and gathering materials for that build, I wanted to break up the red a little so I was looking at something to use as some small stringers. I didn’t have to look further than the Bloodwood entry on this site. I’m going to use the other neat looking wood that is of the same genus as bloodwood. Snakewood. My supplier had a piece that will be used in its entirety for this build. It then hit me to plan my builds to be themed to showcase a regions hardwood offerings. This is the type of conservation I can do and also feel good about it. I don’t build many instruments. Maybe one or two a year. I’m the only one who seems to pick exotic wood for my personal builds.

I do not like native hardwood that grows in the United States that I have access to where I am able to hold a piece in my hand. Maple is like working in a coal mine while wearing white and trying to not get dirty, Oak I love, but refuse to use it because the tannins and my skin composition do not like each other(not fun walking around with black stains all over your hands and arms for a week after working with any oak), I would like to see what Elm is like, Cherry is nice but we don’t get much here in south Texas and what we do get isn’t visually appealing and priced like it is.
mom liking the mesquite I am using on this Texas build. It’s the first time I’ve worked with mesquite aside from barbecuing with it. This is the first wood I have worked with that has actually dulled a saw blade in one cut to where I had to replace it. Including Ipe and African Ironwood. The blade wasn’t new, but was very sharp.

Just for info, Bob Taylor now co owns a company in Cameroon that handles between 50-75%+ of the ebony trade there (only country where it’s still really legal). They are concerned with conservation and are in fact cultivating new ebony forests. He’s doing a similar thing in Hawai’i with Koa.

“Since 2006 Ebony Forest has worked to reverse the impacts of habitat degradation and invasive species to create a sanctuary for the island’s unique and rich biodiversity.”

It could be ebony, though it might also be a very dark and aged piece of rosewood. Some older pieces of rosewood, when left unfinished (particularly Brazilian rosewood and Bois de Rose) can turn very dark, basically black. If you have worked with either ebony or rosewoods, the scent of the wood can be helpful to compare.

Our pear wood in the U.K. is getting harder to source due to demand, there’s an old orchard up the road for me that had hundreds of pear trees and apple trees, it used to be owned by an old cider company that went under in the last finical crisis and the receivers called in the tree surgeons and all of it was chipped the whole orchard. I tried my hardest to buy some pear trees, it took them around a month and a half to butcher this beautiful pear wood. It was worth potentially millions. I tried to tell them but they said were payed to do a job here and that’s it, I even tried to bribe them but nope all gone. Turns out that the land was worth more than the trees and is now being built on by the real estate companies. Sad sad world we live in.

Yes I live in the U.K. and encounter Bog oak all of the time. It’s cheap here because of its relatively Easy to get in fact burr oak or Oak Burl for our American friends is actually harder to get because all of the big motor and furniture companies buy it up before any can trickle down to us, companies such as Rolls Royce or Bentley, Astin Marten and various cabinet factories. Bog oak is not a hard wearing wood especially compared to any ebony species also because it’s an oak it has tiny imperfections due to the pores which black ebony does not so they need filling and the finish is no where as decent as as black ebony because of this. Bog oak is not a good stand in for black ebony. Lead wood may be a better alternative because it does get very dark and it’s as hard or harder than black ebony and widely available and because of the hardness can take a beautiful polish.

Don’t give it up. Use it wisely.

Example 2: in America ornamental pear trees are being cut and chipped because of weak limbs and being called an invasive species. I asked the arborist to save the trunk when he removed one from my property due to crowding of other trees as it grew faster and larger than expected. The wood is identical to the best European pear lumber and veneer I have purchased. All these trees go into the chippet, hundreds every day. We only had to look inside. Local wood merchant thought I was ridiculous and laughed when I told him this and shiwed photos of both woods sude by side. Yet he sells holly for top dollar, most expensive under ebony and a few exotics. People just don’t think much. Last time I asked him if he coukd get European oear wood. He could not. Pearwood, when you can get it, is priced above purpleheart, mahogany and padauk, and if larger than usual and figured rises to match Indian Rosewood. It is extremely common today, growing in planned landscaoes, parking lot dividers, and along streets by the millions. But instead of selling it they are determined to chip it. At the least it surpasses cherry as firewood. We should be smarter than this. This is a business opportunity for someone willing to get on to thus. Did I mention that stained pearwood has been the best ebony substitute in Europe for hundreds of years.

I’m with you here. I think there is also joy to be had in using old furniture that has been thrown out for Guitars. Not just furniture but anything old that is otherwise for the fire. Where I get a bit out of kilter is the retrospectively applied logic, if something was built years ago, when times were so different its plain daft to make it illegal. At least instruments have purpose, they are not meant to be trophies. Well to some they are I suppose. Numpty collectors.