Wood blank availability

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MelbournePhill

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2026
Messages
10
Location
Melbourne, Australia
What kinds of wooden blanks available to you in your local area, not special order just our local store? Being Australian I have a couple of species of Gum available to me and a couple of foreign types. Maybe we could get an indigenous wood blank swap going.
 
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We have lots of wood locally available in Colorado.
Silver maple
Honey locust
Aspen
Cottonwood
Box elder and flame box elder (it has red streaks running through it)

A blank swap is a great idea, but I think shipping would make it too expensive for most.
 
That sounds wonderful, however, as John (Woodchipper) noted, such an exchange would probably be more difficult (and likely expensive) than we would expect due to customs, tariffs, and shipping costs.

There are some awesome timbers in your part of the world that I would love to get my hands on though. Hairy Oak is one of my favorites, especially when it is diagonal or cross cut. Like the one in this linked post by one of your fellow Australians, Casey Giddins (CjG78). The grain is simply amazing. There are a lot of other unique timbers in Australia and New Zealand that we rarely have access to here in the USA.

Here in the USA, most of the woods that are indigenous are quite unremarkable, however there are a few that can be stunning such as Claro Walnut, Sonoran Desert Ironwood and the curly and burls from Koa, Redwood, Madrone, Maple, and Chittum (American Smoketree).

Dave
 
When I lived in Australia someone from the UK posted a wooden object to me, which was stopped by Australian Post. I had to pay $40 to get it gamma rayed.
That will be the issue getting blanks into Australia....no issue getting them sent from there.

Any Beaufort Ink kits that you would like for a swap???? 😁
 
Being a young bloke, who hasn't tried this before and doesn't know how difficult it may be I'm still game to try it. I'll check out the supply at my local shop tomorrow, report back and let you know what is available.
 
Woodchipper said:
Customs would get involved regarding invasive critters, etc.
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I'm pretty sure you're fine as long as there is no soil, bark, or active infestations on the wood. I import a lot of milled wood from overseas and have had packages inspected by Fish & Wildlife and DHS every so often without any concern shared by them.
 
MelbournePhill said:
Being a young bloke, who hasn't tried this before and doesn't know how difficult it may be I'm still game to try it. I'll check out the supply at my local shop tomorrow, report back and let you know what is available.
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I would be interested in giving it a try...I used to get stuff from George's Bits o' Timber, and I don't remember it being too big a pain. I have a lot of walnut, oak, and red cedar readily available
 
hokie said:
I'm pretty sure you're fine as long as there is no soil, bark, or active infestations on the wood. I import a lot of milled wood from overseas and have had packages inspected by Fish & Wildlife and DHS every so often without any concern shared by them.
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Csteck00 said:
I would be interested in giving it a try...I used to get stuff from George's Bits o' Timber, and I don't remember it being too big a pain. I have a lot of walnut, oak, and red cedar readily available
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As I indicated above.....the issue is not getting material from Australia, but getting it into Australia.
 
Just out of curiosity, I asked google AI a bunch of questions WRT mailing to Australia and specifically about pen blanks from Native American trees such as black cherry, black walnut, ironwood, cypress, heart pine and osage orange.
The response is so long as they are bark free, completely clean and devoid of any signs of bugs, it's not a problem.
And, the recommended language for the customs declaration is:
Clean, bark-free timber pen blanks for woodworking (Non-commercial, Personal Use).

This doesn't seem all that difficult.
 
Wood doesn't necessarily have to have bark to hide unfriendly critters. I see firewood that has no bark but us heated to a certain temperature for a certain time to make sure nothing gets out and spreads. Bundles are labeled as such.
 
GaryMGg said:
Just out of curiosity, I asked google AI a bunch of questions WRT mailing to Australia and specifically about pen blanks from Native American trees such as black cherry, black walnut, ironwood, cypress, heart pine and osage orange.
The response is so long as they are bark free, completely clean and devoid of any signs of bugs, it's not a problem.
And, the recommended language for the customs declaration is:
Clean, bark-free timber pen blanks for woodworking (Non-commercial, Personal Use).

This doesn't seem all that difficult.
Click to expand...
That's what I was thinking anyway. As long as it is clearly documented and not passed as something else, clean milled wood should be ok. As long as it doesn't have any bug holes in it. Even then, if it picked up by customs it's just them doing their job and safeguarding our wood supply.
Making it only the shipping costs that become an issue and trying to make it fair across the countries.
 
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