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Anybody know of any FSC certified tonewood suppliers? I know of LMI, but their selection is small. In particular material for necks. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks

I don't know this for sure but I am guessing that you have to pay to be able to use the FSC certification logo. I suspect tht most independent tonewood dealers can't afford tht expence. I know that the certification Idenifies the wood as being of FSC species and being grown on FSC certified plantations. the truth is almost all the species listed are grown on plantations the bigger tonewood dealers will put up the funding to be FSC certified because they can afford it and it keeps the enviromentalists of their backs. So I suspect you have to be paying more for the same wood from the same platation to get the certification. An example is Narra. It is a FSC renewable species LMI sells it a certified FSC. Other tonewood vendors sell equal grades of Narra for far less but without the certification. Does this mean it came for wild stands? Not likely. Does this mean the platation that grew it was not FSC certified? I don't know.

Me personally the Whole FSC certification thing seems like another usage tax. Or as my granfather would say "a get in my pocket tax"

A lot of Narra comes from the Solomon Islands, it's FSC certified. How it got to be certified is anyones guess, it's all old growth rain forrest timber, the logging operations are not sustainable. They are ripping out pristine rain forrest at an alarming rate, but hey, it's FSC certified, right? It must be okay.

Hi Arie,

As far as neck woods go, I have seen FSC walnut and cherry in lumberyards/online.

As luthiers it is tempting to think of sustainability in terms of single species, but FSC also looks at ecosystems as a whole as well as the indigineous forest communities. I know next to nothing about Narra harvesting, but this type concern is precisely the consumer mentality, though, that FSC requires in order to be effective as a market-based solution.

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Evan McCartney

I am pretty sure I had the smallest and one of the first exotic wood stores in the US (about 17 years ago) that sold only Rainforest Alliance Certified Smartwood. That program is now under the umbrella of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC.)

I can tell you that they do try to make sure that their rules are followed, and there is chain of custody documentation that follows the lumber. Similar to "Fair Trade" standards, FSC certification means that the locals made a fair wage on the wood extraction. Clearcutting is not allowed - the wood comes from managed forests (which may be surrounded by clearcutting idiots, but they can't control that), and tree farms. The purpose of the program is to show the locals that the forest is more valuable in the long term as a managed forest than by allowing clearcutting or slash-and-burn. The FSC rules may be a bit different than the Smartwood certification rules, but what I can remember was that they were not allowed to create logging roads, no trees could be cut within 30 meters of a stream, no trees could be cut on hillsides that had a slope greater than 30°, the land had to be owned by locals, and the locals had to make a living wage from the timber extraction and milling. Before cutting started, the forest was assessed by wildlife biologists and foresters, and specific trees were marked for cutting, keeping the biodiversity of the area intact. Once the cutting was complete, the parcel of land was "locked" from further timber extraction for 25 years.

I know it is hard not to be cynical, and I am sure that some wood finds its way to market marked as FSC certified that should not be - as I'm sure happens with food marked "organic." But, it is a worthy program, and it is a difficult paradigm shift in the local economies that requires extended support over many years to be effective. I know there are a number of "green" furniture companies that are sourcing the certified wood, and I'm pleased that LMI is at least offering some FSC certified wood. In fact, if you ask your tonewood vendors to source FSC certified lumber, they will do it if they can see that there is a demand. I'm not sure about the cost of FSC certification for small businesses such as one-man tonewood vendors, but the Rainforest Alliance was extremely understanding when I had a tiny business, and the fee was quite reasonable.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thank you for all your replies. I'm interested in building guitars that are more resource responsable and want to reduce my wood cutting impact to trees that can grow back quickly. I have noticed that as with local recycling programs concerning oil and household chemicals, actually getting it done is not easy.

Arie, I would have to agree about trying to do things with responsibility in mind. The guitar is such a beautiful thing and I hate to think that any form of destruction could be associated with it. In the future I want to start going through routes more like FSC, if it is actually better.

One idea I don't hear much about here is salvaged/reclaimed wood. There are companies that sell nothing but reclaimed timber - walnut, maple, oak etc.. that is 80 -200years old (we don't mind that too much, do we?) These come in the form of beams from old trusses in buildings that were torn down and such. It's hard to find spectacular grain configurations but they are there. I have some quarter sawn walnut in the shop that came from the floor joists of a 200 year old church. It has great color and real creamy straight grain. I can't wait to build with it.

Quite the contrary. a very good portion of the old growth BRW, Walnut and other hardwoods are coming from reclaimed sources like century and 2 century old barn frame timber and other reclaimed venues.

Wood fingerboard and bridge options from North America could include Persimmon (our only native member of the Ebony family), Osage Orange, Black Locust, Hard Maple, and Yellow Birch.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

You know, using old growth wood is not an unacceptable practice. It is the irresponsible harvest of these woods that is an issue. There is a program that Greenpeace has spearheaded to help address this issue in North America. You can read about it here:

http://www.musicwood.org/index.htm

Spruce and Cedar used in tops, in my opinion, are the most "at risk" woods we use. Why? Because they are ALL old. Minimum 300 years. We can grow new Brazilian Rosewood trees in 80 to 120 years (and less) that wood make very decent guitars, but the softwood tops need very specific growing conditions to get the structure we need, that includes typically closed canopy forests where ecology has a progressive of vegetation that lead to these apex species becoming dominant. I am not saying that that is not the case with hardwood forests as well but it is just that we need and expect so much more from our top woods than we do from our back and side woods. I also know that more and more company's are seeking FSC to help market their woods but it is really the laws and the morals of society that will make a difference. In my area there has been a big change from older forest practices, moving from large clear cuts to much smaller clear cuts (mostly for efficiency and for worker protection) that include very strict environmental prescriptions (riparian protection and the like) to variable retention and single stem heli harvesting. But still, as a tonewood producer, it is difficult finding logs, from any harvest prescription, before they are exported or sawn into simple lumber. Our industry on the whole uses a very small portion of any forests total cut yet it has, by far, the highest value.

Don't know if this was on point or not but read through the website link and you will see where some environmental movements see our industry. I have spoken with Greenpeace on this issue so may be able to fill in any blanks that remain.

Shane

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Canada

Great post Shane,

Another environmentally friendly option is High Lead Logging. My cousin runs an outfit out of Golden BC that does selective logging using cables - greatly reducing the environmental impact from logging roads and harvesting only the select timber...

Rob