Exotic wood shortage.

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KenB259

KenB259

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I went over to my local woodworking store and was totally amazed at the lack of wood. I'm thinking it, like everything else, is COVID related. I literally have more variety in my basement than they have. General question what's it like in your neck of the woods?


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Can't even get marine grade plywood here in NE Mississippi; cabinet grade is impossible in anything except 3/4". Exotic wood - fugetaboutit.
 
You have a couple things contributing to that. One is the covid thing and materials are in short supply in all aspects of construction due to the many people who decided to use this down time to beautify their homes or just to expand their woodworking and other hobbies. The other thing is many of the exotic woods are being put on the endangered list and are no longer being made available and if they are they come with a high price tag. Thus vendors do not stock as much any more. I use to get all my exotics from a small lumber vendor close by. He had a devastating fire some 6 or 7 years ago that took out his entire shop and warehouses and he never reopened the doors. That was a huge loss for many because he had such faithful customers and I being one. Use to get premium and I mean premium stock for good pricing because he bought in bulk and passed the savings onto us. He was known for this. I do have another source but not as well stocked as the other guy and wind up buying wood on line and that becomes a crap shoot because you can not cherry pick.
 
I ran into the same problem so I decided to stop making from exotic woods. No shortage of palm trees where I live so I am experimenting with drying, stabilizing and casting my own palm blanks. When things get back to "normal" I might switch back but I am really getting into this process.
 
jttheclockman said:
You have a couple things contributing to that. One is the covid thing and materials are in short supply in all aspects of construction due to the many people who decided to use this down time to beautify their homes or just to expand their woodworking and other hobbies. The other thing is many of the exotic woods are being put on the endangered list and are no longer being made available and if they are they come with a high price tag. Thus vendors do not stock as much any more. I use to get all my exotics from a small lumber vendor close by. He had a devastating fire some 6 or 7 years ago that took out his entire shop and warehouses and he never reopened the doors. That was a huge loss for many because he had such faithful customers and I being one. Use to get premium and I mean premium stock for good pricing because he bought in bulk and passed the savings onto us. He was known for this. I do have another source but not as well stocked as the other guy and wind up buying wood on line and that becomes a crap shoot because you can not cherry pick.
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My local wood store also buys in bulk. I went out into their warehouse and that is pretty well depleted. I buy once in awhile online, mainly for stuff I've never seen locally.


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Worldwide shortages on everything...I've been waiting for a new washing machine since October...

The people that pick the tree to fell, cut the trees, process the wood, ship it to North America, etc- are usually from poorer areas of the world, and consequently would be more disproportionately affected by covid as well - so it's a compounding effect.
 
Amanap said:
I ran into the same problem so I decided to stop making from exotic woods. No shortage of palm trees where I live so I am experimenting with drying, stabilizing and casting my own palm blanks. When things get back to "normal" I might switch back but I am really getting into this process.
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'exotic' is relative - to me, palm blanks would be very exotic! :)
 
i went into macbeths lumber yesterday. its the lowest in exotic woods in at least 10 years, thank goodness i kept all my stash of exotics, no doubt i could now bank of it;)
 
KenB259 said:
The place I go is even short on non exotic, maple, oak, cherry etc.


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I am finding for non-exotics the smaller folks still have decent inventory. I am talking the wood-mizer type guys who may have another job, farmers, etc. oh, and the Amish. Getting used to the new area I live in but if you have Amish/Mennonite communities nearby figure out how to get ingrained with them.
 
KenB259 said:
I went over to my local woodworking store and was totally amazed at the lack of wood. I'm thinking it, like everything else, is COVID related. I literally have more variety in my basement than they have. General question what's it like in your neck of the woods?


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Click to expand...
In upstate NY where I am, the supply of exotic stock has always been lousy. I can't even get baltic birch plywood locally expect by special order. I have always purchased my exotic woods online.
 
We have a few places here in Rochester, NY that still have decent supply. I was just in Lakeshore Hardwoods the other day and picked up some Chechen, Wenge, Red heart and Monkeypod. They had quite a few others in stock also.
 
I still have some Australian blanks brought over by a friend last year so not short as yet. If you get bored try spalting some of the blanks you already have Ken? It's not hard just needs a bit of time.

I am too busy playing with the jig for celtic you inspired me to build Ken. Then there's incorporating aluminium ( not convinced yet but worth a try I figure ). Also playing with my Sorby ring tool ( after 15 years building up courage ) to hollow some vessels, enjoyed it so much I've started 2 more.
 
There's no shortage of "exotics" over here, have you seen my woodpiles and lolly-shop...? ;) 🤣
In all seriousness, many of the forest woods exported all over the world does come from illegal logging from 3rd world countries and from very "shaded" governments, however, extremely difficult to control due to high-level financial interests from "shady" operators/exporters/importers but in recent years things start to tighten considerably, corvid19 has closed borders, closed/stopped movement of logs and their export/import, my hope is that governments use this opportunity to put strict control on the problem from its base (forest).

Another interesting but certainly sad news I/we received quite recently about one of the oldest exotic wood business based not far from me (Adelaide) that close its doors for good last Wednesday after 80 years of business/service, some of the exotic woods I sold here by special request were from that place that was huge in size, the type that log the logs the size of tankers and process them all there, what a shame losing such place...!

Cheers
George
 
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