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oldgrowth mahogany body blanks source

B

Banker

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Bill Hicklin said:
Furniture is a great source for oldgrowth material but the shipping from UK or Europe to the US would be the killer.

Actually CITES would be the killer- it's no longer legal to import Brazilian rosewood into the US.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's entirely legal to import/export pre-CITES certified wood. The certification process in the UK is relatively straightforward.
 
B

Bill Hicklin

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Banker said:
Actually, it's entirely legal to import/export pre-CITES certified wood. The certification process in the UK is relatively straightforward.
Click to expand...

That changed here in 2009- total import ban on CITES materials including BRW and ivory. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/bagpipes-new-hampshire-canada-customs-seized-ivory Before then, it was still possible to bring in certified pre-'92 BRW, and even new-cut wood from dead stumps.

You can get around it IF you have complete provenance documentation-- sometimes. Or Customs might just confiscate your instrument anyway. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2...p=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=2

But that narrow exemption only goes for "finished items" which contain Forbidden Stuff. Raw unworked BRW and ivory are simply banned, period. In fact, the government is considering a regulation which would bar them from interstate commerce as well as import- which would put a *serious* hurt on vintage guitar dealers.
 
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J

JIMI55LP

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But I'm looking for Mahogany and I think it would be shipable but unlikely to be found in regular homesize furniture. The thickness we'd need to cut a single cut one piece LP body is so thick, I think the table would have had to be in a castle or very big board room. Then the shipping even with in the continent would be high unless it was cut down and then I'd think customs would become interested?
 
Tonefiend

Tonefiend

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There are people going deep in the forest in Belize and Guatemala and pulling out old growth trees that have been marked as acceptable to cut and dragging them out with mule teams and processing them into lumber. So yeah it's still available out there. The proble, is getting folks to hike for days deep into the jungle to process and drag enormous trees out.

Other than "Cuban" which was previously mentioned there is no magic mahogany.

Just find some good old growth <the right> stuff from central America and call it a day or buy it from someone who's attached a story to it and get that warm, fuzzy feeling.
 
J

JIMI55LP

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Would any of you like to travel to Belize for an adventure that could possibly change your life?
 
Tonefiend

Tonefiend

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Yes! as long as it doesn't involve parasites, some sort of tropical disease, stds, or any other unpleasantness.
 
J

JIMI55LP

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I had a guy from Ebay tell me that his reclaimed mahogany was "stripped and not sanded" which most probably removed all of the oldgrowth? Wow, from the mouths of babes?
 
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