Shipping country

News

Even as an old hand in the timber trade with over 40 years of experience, I am always amazed and delighted at the incredible beauty that nature can produce in trees. One of these special beauties is certainly burl growth, the causes of which have still not been fully researched and for which, in my opinion, there is a whole range of causes and aggravating factors, just as there are many different forms of growth abnormalities that are often referred to in layman's terms as burl growth. For me, true burl growth is something that grows above ground on trees, forming new, very fine shoots with small leaves every year, usually in the form of a hemisphere or other round shape, which then die off again and whose remains, the small pointed so-called eyes, are overgrown again by new layers of growing wood. In this way, beautiful, dense and gapless sections of wood are created, the 'eyes' of which form the fine and very fine dot-shaped grains so sought-after in wood.
All these features are present in the thick slabs of wood that were revealed after sawing a yew burl and I must say that I am always amazed by so much beauty, fine grain, swirled and intertwined finest growth rings in this wood. The thick branch on the 5th photo gives an idea of how many annual rings this branch alone has; it has probably been growing for almost 100 years. Take a look at the pictures and I hope you can share my enthusiasm for this special precious wood!
The last photos show in detail the fine shoots under the thin bark of the yew and their appearance in the wood on the planed surfaces.
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9 Galerie - Bild 10 Galerie - Bild 11 Galerie - Bild 12 Galerie - Bild 13 Galerie - Bild 14

Sometimes purchases can take a whole year ... that's about how long it took until we were finally able to buy this rare batch of really old grenadilla or African blackwood scantlings for woodwind instruments.
For some years now, this wood has been very difficult to obtain and has long delivery times, and it needs to dry carefully for at least 5 - 10 years before it can be further processed into components for clarinets, oboes, flutes or bassoons.
This wood has been on the Cites list since 2017 and since then may only be traded with certificates of origin that serve to protect this valuable wood. As this wood only grows endemically in northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania, there are no alternative areas with these trees. In addition, violent clashes between the army and armed fighters have been taking place in this region for years, making legal exports even more problematic. Export ports were temporarily occupied by jihadists, all of which makes the procurement of good tonewood scantlings from Mozambique almost impossible, and instrument makers are forced to use substitute woods, which many musicians and instrument makers do not consider to be of equal quality.
After a long period of preparation and negotiations, we have now been able to purchase this small batch of old tonewood scantlings, CITES permits have been issued for them and our customers can now buy grenadilla that was imported around 8 years ago and has been stored in warehouse conditions ever since.
There are scantlings for piccolo flutes, clarinets, oboes and bassoons, many barrels, bells, upper and lower joints, tops and bottoms are amongst and there are certainly also formats for uilleann pipes and other bagpipes. You will find these offers in our Grenadilla or African blackwood category!

 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6
Even after more than 35 years in the wood business, the bizarre beauty of so-called special grain growth forms, such as this mahogany pommelé, never ceases to amaze.
In France, the term pommelé has become firmly established, which can only be inadequately translated as tufted. In France, as in England, there are many very descriptive terms for such growth abnormalities, which are very rare and therefore traded at a high price. This mahogany from Africa is Sapeli (Entandophragma cylindricum) and it has a really stunningly beautiful special grain that looks three-dimensional and very haptic.
We are delighted to be able to offer our customers something from this special wood and individual pieces will gradually be added to our webshop!
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9
New in stock: We have some really big Australian burls in stock again and will soon be able to offer the whole range of Aussieburls as penblanks, knife scales and knife blocks in our webshop.
These include:  Goldfield, red Mallee, yellow Box, brown Mallee, red Morrel and others.
The saws are already moaning quietly, as they know what kind of rock-hard wood is coming their way. But so far, our carpenters and the special saws have managed every cut successfully.
And up close, the spiky beasts also look beautiful, you just have to get close enough to see the bizarre beauty of nature!
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9 Galerie - Bild 10 Galerie - Bild 11 Galerie - Bild 12 Galerie - Bild 13 Galerie - Bild 14
During the past ten years, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain Thuya burl wood of good quality. The tubers excavated in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco became smaller and smaller, which meant that the ratio of well-grained wood to plain wood developed very negatively. At the same time, because of the constantly high demand, even the purchase price for this wood increased sharply, and although the prices were sometimes outrageously high, we continued to have this wood in our assortment. For about one to two years, hardly any items were available in our shop made of this wood, simply because the supply at the same time was getting worse and less well grained. Fortunately, we were able to buy a huge thuja burl that is about 50 years old, which was dug up in Morocco mountains at a time when such huge burls still existed.
But as it is almost always the case when you buy such tubers: either they are cut open so that you can examine the quality and grain inside, and then the price is also determined. The other possibility is to buy such a tuber in salvage condition, i.e. not cut open at all, and thus take the high risk of pulling a long face after the first cut, because the inside of the burl may be rotten, full of holes, bumpy, cracked or poorly grained. Then, unfortunately, one has grabbed the sh..t deep for a lot of money.
In this case, however, the whole thing turned out well, the large tuber weighing approx. 120 kg was flawless through and through, perfectly grained and free of cracks. The even distribution of the fine eye grain is really very beautiful, there are hardly any ungrained areas, and as a result we are once again able to supply you with first-class thuja burl wood at fair prices at fair prices!
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9 Galerie - Bild 10 Galerie - Bild 11 Galerie - Bild 12 Galerie - Bild 13 Galerie - Bild 14 Galerie - Bild 15 Galerie - Bild 16 Galerie - Bild 17 Galerie - Bild 18 Galerie - Bild 19 Galerie - Bild 20

For a long time we have been selling cedro from south America and especially Brazil, better known to most users as Spanish cedar. The name is a reflection of the timber trade from the New World to Europe: Spanish vessels were the first to import this pleasant-smelling wood to Europe at the end of the 17th century. The wood, which despite its lightness has a high strength and at the same time smells so beguilingly good, was called cedar because of its fragrance, and since it was Spanish ships that imported the wood, yet the name Spanish cedar was established.
We sell Spanish cedar mostly for humidors in various shapes and sizes, from small humidors for only a few cigars to entire walk-in humidor rooms, often containing thousands of valuable cigars from the most diverse countries. In order to give these precious cigars the best possible protection against loss of aroma, drying out and thus loss of value, genuine Spanish cedar is the acknowledged best wood for storage with particularly good moisture management. But cedro is also the wood of choice for the neck of sophisticated guitars, especially for handcrafted one-off acoustic concert guitars: lightness combined with high bending stiffness and resonance make this wood an indispensable quality feature.
Now, due to a larger order, our stocks were running low and we were glad to be able to take a lot of Cedro of the very best and flawless quality into our tempered warehouse: Such quality is not always available, especially since for some time now this wood has been on the Cites list, meaning that only legal, certified wood with proof of origin may be traded.
Also for guitar builders we have again very beautiful Cedro blanks for guitar necks in stock, often with perfectly standing annual rings and in flawless quality.
Our stock is well filled again and we will gladly supply you with precise blanks in desired thicknesses, lengths and widths. You can find our cerdo items as always in this category, feel free to write us an email for a quote if we do not have your desired dimension in the webshop.

 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7

Anyone who has ever dealt with snakewood knows the challenge that this wood presents: It is probably the most expensive and difficult wood to work with because of its unpredictable characteristics.
A log that looks beautiful from the outside can turn into an expensive disaster after the first cut, usually through the heart of the log in the middle: It is never possible to predict whether the mottling that is visible from the outside, which the wood must have, can also be found on the inside. If you were lucky and the fine grain is also found inside, it is far from certain that the distribution of the specks is also reasonably uniform. Often there are very nicely grained areas that are next to almost no grained parts at all, and that greatly detracts from the appeal.
And then there's the matter of the legendary cracks: snakewood is particularly prone to cracking due to its extreme density and hardness (it weighs about 1300 kg/m3), and it's a real art to make the cuts so that these cracks don't affect the finished product. Since the price is so exorbitantly high, offcuts and waste must be avoided as much as possible.
The log shown here is one half of a whole log weighing over 100 kilos, and although someone was in Suriname to inspect the log, the first cut was not made until after the purchase, which is a high risk.
In this case, however, all was well and this particularly thick trunk exceeded my expectations: I haven't had a log of snakewood that is so beautifully and evenly grained with few cracks (yet) in certainly 10 years, but that can still change at any time during its further drying.

 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9

We have carried this mostly difficult species since the beginning of our lumber trade, but there was always frustration and disappointment involved when this beautiful wood had to be cut into articles. I can remember many an outburst of rage when a plank of Ziricote lay on the saw, looking very good and almost crack-free from the outside, but then after the first cuts it turned out to be so cracked on the inside that most of it either ended up in the firewood box, or at most penblanks or with a bit of luck some knife blocks resulted.
I have a particularly bad memory of a batch of Ziricote that I bought as logs, then had them cut up into planks to be dried down to workable moisture content in a kiln. At first, everything looked good, the planks had little to no cracks, and you look forward to the expected cuts you can make from the beautiful planks.
Reality then caught up with me at the sliding table saw where the wide planks were to be rough cut. When the longitudinal edges were trimmed, the world was still fine, but the first cross-sections for cutting to length revealed the whole catastrophe: the planks were crisscrossed on the inside with several cracks that severely limited their usability. There was real frustration, including a rather desperate outburst of anger...all the work, the money, the long wait, the patience until the wood was dry - all for nothing. Since then, my relationship with Ziricote has been very split. I still love the wood, there is perhaps no other wood besides Brazilian rosewood that can have such crazy, bizarre and psychedelic grain patterns, the dark brown color with the black sharply defined lines is something very special. However, my experience with the severe cracking of this wood has greatly dampened my enthusiasm and rarely led me to buy this expensive wood again in any appreciable quantity.
But as it often goes in life, many a disappointed love can flare up again when circumstances are favorable. And that is now the case with us, I was able to buy a nice batch of this wood, and this time, amazingly, all went well between me and the bitchy wood: rarely have I seen such beautiful, crack-free and best grained Ziricote, it is simply a great pleasure to cut this wood. There are some spectacular scantlings and boards with stunning grain posted in the store now (2023-02), and surely there will be far more in the future. I am pleased to be able to offer you such beautiful wood as this Zirikote!
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9 Galerie - Bild 10 Galerie - Bild 11 Galerie - Bild 12 Galerie - Bild 13 Galerie - Bild 14 Galerie - Bild 15 Galerie - Bild 16 Galerie - Bild 17 Galerie - Bild 18
With a bit of luck and unfortunately a lot of money we were able to buy a nice lot of old Makassar ebony. We were at the right place at the right time and despite the high price we did not hesitate. In all likelihood, it will hardly ever be possible to buy something like this on the market again, because Indonesia banned the export of all unprocessed wood years ago. For this reason, well-grained Makassar has been very difficult to obtain on the wood market for a long time, and often it is only very narrow boards that can be bought at high prices.
Large blocks with almost 20 - 30 cm diameter are an absolute exception, they have veneer quality and are simply beautiful. Coming soon to this webshop!

 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4
Recently, several tons of ebony have moved into our warehouse, and as beautiful and promising as this wood is, we will have to forget about this lot after carefully cleaning and sealing the end grain, because the wood will take quite a few years to dry. Ebony is expensive, scarce and bitchy when fresh, so hard and dense that even in thinner thicknesses it takes years to release the water it contains slowly enough to prevent cracking.
Technical drying in kiln works with ebony, but it is very slow, highly energy-intensive and not always as successful as the old-fashioned way of slow air drying.
We have been taking the slow and expensive route of air drying here since 2007, which ultimately produces the best quality wood, and for that you have to have a great deal of patience and money.
Any business economist will explain that warehouses must turn over as quickly as possible in order to make the maximum profit. What a nonsense that does not apply to the trade with expensive precious woods!
For our customers this means that they can always rely on air-dried woods that are unproblematic to work with, do not crack, hardly warp and thus represent the highest quality class.
In our storage rooms, temperatures of approx. 17 - 23 degrees with approx. 50-60 % relative humidity prevail in summer and winter, the warehouse is heated very moderately in winter and due to the meter-thick walls of the former cold storage room, the course of climate is very constant with little changes. This, of course, greatly benefits the drying of such valuable woods as ebony, rosewood and olive, and you, the customer, benefit from the owner's more than 30 years of experience in the wood trade.
We usually track the drying of woods by regularly weighing individual marked pieces from a lot. From the course of this weighing data, it is then easy to see when the weight loss becomes slower and slower and thus a balance moisture content with the environment is reached. As an example, we show here a small slab from a lot of ebony purchased in 2018 from Nigeria.  This piece still weighed 15.48 kg when it entered the warehouse, then after just under a year it weighed 13.78 kg, in April 2020 it was still 12.58 kg, then in 2021 in October it was still 12.10 kilos, and now in July 2022 it is still 11.70 kg. An overall weight loss of approx. 3.8 kg. The Gann Hydromette indicates 10.6%, and thus the wood from 2018 can now be processed without any problem.
 Galerie - Bild 1 Galerie - Bild 2 Galerie - Bild 3 Galerie - Bild 4 Galerie - Bild 5 Galerie - Bild 6 Galerie - Bild 7 Galerie - Bild 8 Galerie - Bild 9 Galerie - Bild 10 Galerie - Bild 11 Galerie - Bild 12