Off Topic What is the rarest and most expensive wood?

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shqxk

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What is the rarest and most expensive wood that can be made into knife part? I'm not talking about aesthetic of the wood since it's different strokes for different folks. Just the the value and exotic factor.

In my opinion the contender would be

Snakewood
Ironwood Burl
Koa
Rosewood Burl
 
I think in general snakewood is the most expensive, but when you get into specific exhibition-grade pieces other woods, especially koa and various burls, can be even pricier. Also old & premium bog oak.
 
There are a lot of ways to answer it.

Snakewood is expensive, but not rare. If you want 5A snakewood i could have 10 logs of it in under a week. It will cost a lot, but its not hard to get.

Ambonya is honestly not too bad. The thing about ambonya is the burl is not very common, but the tree is increedibly common throughout south east asia. It is the burl of a kind of paduak.

The most expensive wood I have personally sold was some 5A cocobolo burl blocks. Those sold for 200 each.

Tulipwood, kingwood and Bois de rose burls are all ultra rare rosewood by themselves, the burls are incredibly rare can reach into the 250-350 a block price ranges.

The real answer is, if possible, a Zitan burl. Zitan is a member of the padauk family, but is incredibly important to the Chinese. Historically it was reserved for the emperor, and his pin pots, boxes and furniture would be formed from Zitan. With the rise of Chinese wealth, the demand for this wood destroyed its natural habitat. I am not aware of ANYONE commercially selling Zitan wood in any quantity. A supplier of mine told me he once found a Zitan burl that was part of a broken serving platter. He ended up selling the block, roughly (1.55 x 1 x 5.2) for 950 USD.

I think without a doubt that is the most expensive wood there has ever been.
 
I would try to get a piece of the Jurupa Oak. The oldest living tree in the world at an estimated 13000 years. I am sure sometimes, dead branches fall off, and I would try to get one of those, with a certification that it is from the Jurupa, from the people that maintain the tree.
 
Buloke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocasuarina_luehmannii
image.jpg

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5000 year old Gopherwood ( especially keel wood, which has great grain figure).
Deck boards off the titanic

In seriousness, of the woods we can get:
High grade pink ivory was usually considered the rarest knife handle wood.
High grade snakewood would be second.
High grade desert ironwood would probably be a good third.

I also like using historic wood. I received a single plank from the deck of the Battleship South Carolina ... BB26, which was built in 1908 and scrapped in 1924. I had it stabilized and it makes nice handles. I am willing to bet that the 15 good blocks I got from the plank are the only knife handle material in existence made from that ship. That would qualify as very rare.
 
I don't know about expensive, because you cant buy it. or rare, because it's not. but try to get manchineel.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
There are a lot of ways to answer it.

Snakewood is expensive, but not rare. If you want 5A snakewood i could have 10 logs of it in under a week. It will cost a lot, but its not hard to get.

Ambonya is honestly not too bad. The thing about ambonya is the burl is not very common, but the tree is increedibly common throughout south east asia. It is the burl of a kind of paduak.

The most expensive wood I have personally sold was some 5A cocobolo burl blocks. Those sold for 200 each.
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what is 5A?

how would you rate the quality of this piece of snakewood? be honest :-)

454vPGn.jpg


Ti8oks4.jpg
 
5A is exhibition grade. One of the things that makes wood 5A is that it has little difference from side to side, and all four sides show excellent pattern.

Your snakewood is very nice. What does the other side look like. If the other side looks the same, I would call it 5A.
 
Kingwood is pretty pricy. I saw it listed once at Windsor Plywood, and it was all gone when I got there. Locally, tulipwoid, cocobolo, and a few other ‘exotics” are going for $200.00/board foot. Crazy pricing. Wenge is $50.00/board foot. I think padauk was $80.00 or $100.00/board foot. Katalox at $100.00/board foot.

I seem to remember lacewood being quite expensive too, but can’t remember the price. Tasmanian Blackwood is more expensive than Koa. I have it on my short list of exotics to try. Black and White ebony is pricy, and it takes forever to cure to prevent it turning into abstract art.
 
Willie71 said:
Kingwood is pretty pricy. I saw it listed once at Windsor Plywood, and it was all gone when I got there. Locally, tulipwoid, cocobolo, and a few other ‘exotics” are going for $200.00/board foot. Crazy pricing. Wenge is $50.00/board foot. I think padauk was $80.00 or $100.00/board foot. Katalox at $100.00/board foot.

I seem to remember lacewood being quite expensive too, but can’t remember the price. Tasmanian Blackwood is more expensive than Koa. I have it on my short list of exotics to try. Black and White ebony is pricy, and it takes forever to cure to prevent it turning into abstract art.
Click to expand...

Wow never knew Tasmanian blackwood is even more expensive than Koa? I always thought exhibition grade Koa will be pricier from the same grade TB.

I may need to try some from Greenberg soon.
 
Willie71 said:
Kingwood is pretty pricy. I saw it listed once at Windsor Plywood, and it was all gone when I got there. Locally, tulipwoid, cocobolo, and a few other ‘exotics” are going for $200.00/board foot. Crazy pricing. Wenge is $50.00/board foot. I think padauk was $80.00 or $100.00/board foot. Katalox at $100.00/board foot.

I seem to remember lacewood being quite expensive too, but can’t remember the price. Tasmanian Blackwood is more expensive than Koa. I have it on my short list of exotics to try. Black and White ebony is pricy, and it takes forever to cure to prevent it turning into abstract art.
Click to expand...
if you ever need wood, let me know... I paid $20 per bf for katalox last time, everything else on your list similarly cheaper.
 
Geoff Flato said:
if you ever need wood, let me know... I paid $20 per bf for katalox last time, everything else on your list similarly cheaper.
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Will do. The guys at Windsor said it was because of changes in cites regulations. Those same woods were all under $50.00/bf last year.

I did my first order from you this morning. Nice selection. I’ll be doing a bigger order once I get paid for work I did in December (a bit over $4000.00). Being self employed is a feast or famine ordeal. We got confirmation on the payment this morning and should have it next week. We got by without that payment, but it was tight.
 
shqxk said:
Wow never knew Tasmanian blackwood is even more expensive than Koa? I always thought exhibition grade Koa will be pricier from the same grade TB.

I may need to try some from Greenberg soon.
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The figure is the same, but Tas has much better color. Shoot me a message if you are interested
 
Willie71 said:
Will do. The guys at Windsor said it was because of changes in cites regulations. Those same woods were all under $50.00/bf last year.

I did my first order from you this morning. Nice selection. I’ll be doing a bigger order once I get paid for work I did in December (a bit over $4000.00). Being self employed is a feast or famine ordeal. We got confirmation on the payment this morning and should have it next week. We got by without that payment, but it was tight.
Click to expand...

Let me know if you need any non cities woods. I just sent off a bunch if masur birch, tasmanian and 5A walnut to k&g
 
Ben, are all species of dalbergia now CITES listed or just the rosewoods?
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Let me know if you need any non cities woods. I just sent off a bunch if masur birch, tasmanian and 5A walnut to k&g
Click to expand...

I was going to say, wouldn't Cites regulated woods be rarest by the nature of the regulation?
 
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