US Customs Regulations Regarding Wood

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dctune

Part of the Furniture Now
We've still got houses in our neighborhood covered in tarps from the tornado that came through last summer. They were insured.... but... in-sur-ance... compan-ies... move... as... fast... as...
Indeed they do.
And that’s crazy it’s taking that long.

i own a window replacement biz. Supply and turn-around times on manufacturing has been nuts. (And materials prices too.) I was telling my wife these folks aren’t looking at a 3-6 month rebuild. It’ll likely be more like 12-24 months. Just awful.
 

Servant King

Lifer
Nov 27, 2020
4,192
22,925
38
Frazier Park, CA
www.thechembow.com
I know for a fact that Australia will not accept anything with any wood content. They will even open packages and inspect them if the description on the customs form is too vague (this actually happened to me). This was before Australia stopped allowing non-letter mail entirely, of course.

Strange times. Orwell, Kubrick and Kafka must be turning in their graves...
 

jhowell

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 25, 2019
636
1,022
70
Phoenix, Arizona
Lousy G’damned Bulls
The bulls are everywhere.

15 points to whoever identifies the source of that quote.

As for wood imports:
Every Ash tree east of the Rockies will be dead within 5 years because of a parasitic insect (the Emerald Ash Borer) that came in from Asia in some improperly treated pallets. That’s 75% of the trees on my 5 acre wooded property.
It's a mad mad mad mad world?
 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
My bucket list had scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I would never give them my tourist dollars now.
I had already dove most of best paces so I am not going to bother about it. Especially in my physical condition. I would be able to do anything I wanted in the water, it is getting in the back of the boat. Maybe they have scuba diving for old bastards.

I got certified in 1988 on Bon Airre. That place was amazing. We stayed at Captain Don's Habitat and they had a 120 ft wall dive right off their property. You could grab a tank and go.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,459
I'd like to hear the rational on this. I'd like to see examples of pocket knives with wooden handles that are infested with beetle larva. I could be educated, but it just sounds hopelessly far-fetched on the face of it. Raw wood I can understand. And large shipments of wooden furniture. But really small pieces treated with stain, oil, varnish and what have you seem fanciful as vectors of destructive insects, fungus, etc. Does this make any sense to those better versed in forestry than I? People must bring in wooden souvenirs of various kinds all the time, bundled under sweaters and underwear in their check-in luggage. One of my souvenirs from France is a wooden-handled folding knife. Hmmm. How about all those Sheffield pipe knives?
 
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Reactions: JOHN72
Jul 17, 2017
1,712
6,334
NV
pencilandpipe.home.blog
BINGO!
And the Bonus Round:
In what year did what person in what country declare what to whom that set the wheels in motion for what historical event?
In 1820 in Kentucky, USA, Abraham Lincoln was fishing with his friend Sam Jones. Abe said "The theater is dumb." to which Sam replied "Nuh uh, I saw a show last week. It was neato." Surprised that a tough guy like Sam actually liked the theater, he said "Well shucks, maybe I'll check it out sometime."
 
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Reactions: woodsroad

DanWil84

Lifer
Mar 8, 2021
1,691
12,642
39
The Netherlands (Europe)
I'd like to hear the rational on this. I'd like to see examples of pocket knives with wooden handles that are infested with beetle larva. I could be educated, but it just sounds hopelessly far-fetched on the face of it. Raw wood I can understand. And large shipments of wooden furniture. But really small pieces treated with stain, oil, varnish and what have you seem fanciful as vectors of destructive insects, fungus, etc. Does this make any sense to those better versed in forestry than I? People must bring in wooden souvenirs of various kinds all the time, bundled under sweaters and underwear in their check-in luggage. One of my souvenirs from France is a wooden-handled folding knife. Hmmm. How about all those Sheffield pipe knives?
Beetles are hard as nails. My workplace receives shipments on our shipping container yard of a whole forest that's cut down in Western Germany by train, 100+ of them a week. In Germany these containers are fumigated with toxic gases for killing beetles, while the forest was perfectly healthy during continues sampling. Then these containers are dropped at a closed lot where they are fumigated again, sampled and certified for shipment to China. Still some of them are rejected and destroyed instantly. Those shipping companies are even afraid to use the container again as the floorboards are wood.

Cigar beetles are the worst. Even deep freezing the heck out of them doesn't assure you they don't hatch and eat your stash in a heartbeat.

So does it make sense? Heck no, but you never can be sure enough. I think in due time the whole world will be afraid of the anything coming from any country without the right certificates and even small companies will have to comply to it how small their contribution to the problem is. Welcome in the world where we want to regulate everything to death.
 
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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,788
29,615
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
That is very weird. I have a buddy who imports shells, bones, antlers and such used in jewelry, and he has to deal with constantly shifting import regs, not only with customs but Fish and Wildlife. This is not only at the border points, but if he gets pulled over for traffic stops, he has to produce papers and sometimes get inspected again. But, he has a big modified bread truck that he sleeps in while traveling from jeweler to bead shop to jeweler, so he kind of raises eyebrows.

I guess there may be issues with timber diseases at the moment or something. That sucks. I hope it gets panned out.
huge issues actually.
 

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,602
41,063
Iowa
BINGO!
And the Bonus Round:
In what year did what person in what country declare what to whom that set the wheels in motion for what historical event?
1987 Ronald Reagan

or

1968 George Jones declares his love for Tammy Wynette (I guess hysterical events followed that one)
 
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Reactions: woodsroad

HawkeyeLinus

Lifer
Oct 16, 2020
5,602
41,063
Iowa
On the pipes question - if something did change that hasn't been publicized, I just found out it didn't affect my pipe from Dublin. After a few days of hearing nothing since Heathrow, the update now says processed through Jamaica, NY and on the way! Guessing it sat there a few days either because of customs or busy or both, but it made it. Just a small sample, but pipe > bug eaten British knife I guess.