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There is an organization that you may have heard of called the "International Wood Collector's Society", or IWCS.
They set the standard for formal wood samples at 3"x6"x1/2". Years ago many of their members made up samples of this size from trees they had personally felled, or at least positively identified, and they traded them amongst themselves and some sold them to other members and to non-members (like me) who wanted them.
Some members accumulated thousands of species this way and many more collected hundreds.
Today there are only a handful of IWCS members in the USA who actively create and sell samples and they have relatively few species compared to what was available say 10 years ago because they are not as active (most are retirement age) and they have fewer other members to trade with. Outside the US, there are even fewer IWCS members, by country, that create and sell samples and in total they also add up to only a handful around the world.
My friend David Clark from Australia (Timbers in Australia in Colour --- yeah, he can't spell :icon_smile: ) is buying up, on behalf of a couple of Chinese wood scientists, all the samples he can get his hands on, up to a current limit of 4 of each species that a collector has for sale. Many collectors only have a few of each species for sale except for the most common ones so David is seriously decimating their sample sets.
Personally, I have no beef with this, and I'm very appreciative of the fact that David is funneling many of these samples through me so that I can take pics of them for my site before forwarding them on to him. Those he buys outside the USA he has sent directly to Australia.
BUT ... I am mixed about the fact that China is buying up all (well, most) of the samples currently available and IWCS members are producing fewer and fewer new ones. David currently plans to buy at least 7,000 samples, including 2,000 or so already purchased, from no more than 10 or so IWCS members (that's all he can find to buy from) and this will come close to wiping out all of their stock for some of them.
Comments? Thoughts?
They set the standard for formal wood samples at 3"x6"x1/2". Years ago many of their members made up samples of this size from trees they had personally felled, or at least positively identified, and they traded them amongst themselves and some sold them to other members and to non-members (like me) who wanted them.
Some members accumulated thousands of species this way and many more collected hundreds.
Today there are only a handful of IWCS members in the USA who actively create and sell samples and they have relatively few species compared to what was available say 10 years ago because they are not as active (most are retirement age) and they have fewer other members to trade with. Outside the US, there are even fewer IWCS members, by country, that create and sell samples and in total they also add up to only a handful around the world.
My friend David Clark from Australia (Timbers in Australia in Colour --- yeah, he can't spell :icon_smile: ) is buying up, on behalf of a couple of Chinese wood scientists, all the samples he can get his hands on, up to a current limit of 4 of each species that a collector has for sale. Many collectors only have a few of each species for sale except for the most common ones so David is seriously decimating their sample sets.
Personally, I have no beef with this, and I'm very appreciative of the fact that David is funneling many of these samples through me so that I can take pics of them for my site before forwarding them on to him. Those he buys outside the USA he has sent directly to Australia.
BUT ... I am mixed about the fact that China is buying up all (well, most) of the samples currently available and IWCS members are producing fewer and fewer new ones. David currently plans to buy at least 7,000 samples, including 2,000 or so already purchased, from no more than 10 or so IWCS members (that's all he can find to buy from) and this will come close to wiping out all of their stock for some of them.
Comments? Thoughts?