Sending a piece of wood to Australia

[sumu]

Hello,

I got a request from Australia from one friend of mine to send him a piece of finnish Carelian masur birch, just some for a couple of knife handles. He had spotted and recognized me in WWF, and suddenly got a bit homesick.

I would send the very best from my own stock, but I have heard that thereabouts are very strict import rules over any organic matter including plants and their parts. Could be the most strict regulations in the world, I've heard.

The wood is dried, one piece about 4 cm x 4 cm x 15 cm, makes one knife handle or pieces for intarsia, or so. Ends are painted and so on. I was thinking of sending half a dozen pieces or so.

Could anyone enlighten me in this matter, does the wood end up incinerated in the ovens of Australian Border Patrol, or will the pieces pass through the customs?

Thanks in advance .

kippis,

sumu

[DavidG]

I have brought wood in from Indonesia and all customs did was to take a look for borers etc.

If you declare it as wood and there are no insects attached, then it should be ok.

[Fuzzie]

Even if it has insects, I think the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (i.e. AQIS not Customs) will give the recipient the option of having it fumigated rather than destroyed.

[RufflyRustic]

In general - No borer holes, no insects, no bark, no seeds.

The AQIS web site for further details.

cheers
Wendy

[BobL]

. . . . . .Could be the most strict regulations in the world, I've heard.

Yes we do!

Declare it as "dry wood - no bark" and you should be OK.

Cheers

[Ivan in Oz]

This might help,
or give you a guide.

http://www.daffa.gov.au/aqis/import/timber

How about use the timber to pack something small..............

Like the PIECE of A4 Paper between ALL the Pieces of Timber.

Overkill,
I know
But perhaps that's what they want.

[sumu]

Thank You very much, that was really quick .

I visited the ICON link and that was quite an experience .

Like Ivan in Oz pointed out, how on earth they can check out and treat all those packages and pallets and other such stuff . Do the import goods like some expensive machinery under emergency factory delivery really stay put in the airport terminal just because it is laid on a suddenly suspicious wooden pallet? There must be some kind of protocol to overcome these situations.

There is no bark or borer holes involved. But now I'm worried, because natural grain figure of carelian masur birch may really look like it is full of borer holes, despite how much I try to assure it's ecologically inert nature.

I try to take a pic tomorrow, just to show it out how it looks like.

Thanks again!

kippis,

sumu

[pal]

Have it fumigated and certified before you send it and put a copy of the certificate and fumigation in with the timber. Declare it correctly and you will not have a problem even if it is opened and checked.

Regards

Pal

[Fuzzie]

The AQIS inspectors are a pretty good lot technically and morally. I wouldn't be worried. If you name the species etc on the customs declaration and they actually decide to open and inspect they will know what they are looking at.

[Ivan in Oz]

Perhaps,
send a copy of recognised and easily obtained Documentation
Together with a Photograph of the Timber,
Altogether, in the Parcel.

That is also with the Fumigation Cret.


Hmmmm...........
Perhaps it would end up being worth your time to send a larger quantity than you had wanted to

[HappyHammer]

I tell you what sumu send me a bit as a test and if it gets through you can send the rest to your friend

HH.

[sumu]

Hello,

These samples I have for birch. I decided to grab a chance and put some other birch samples in as well.

In the first pic (photoscanner capture), on the right hand is a piece of masur birch and on the left there is just plain birch, slightly flamed figure. I wonder whether the masur figure would look like some borer tracks to someone, they are not such marks. The figure in this piece is not of the densest. Looks like there is better in that piece of branch.

In the second pic, there is two samples of spalted birch. The samples come from the same trunk. Originally it was left outside unbarked for two years, in quite moist forest environment, under the shade. Then it was sawed into planks and oven dried. Oven drying leaves that reddish/pinkish tone in the colour. Spalting leaves those defined streaks and spots. If looked carefully at the right side piece, between the defined dark streaks and in some regions nearer to the edges, there can be seen some bluish gray shades. That is the blue rot often sometimes seen alone in also unspalted birch wood. I does not affect on the strength significantly, but makes a colour defect. It appears if the wood is kept in too moist conditions. Birch contains a lot of sugars, it is not very rot-resistant wood.

Air dried baltic birch is quite pale, kinda yellowish pale with a hint of silver gray. It's very peaceful in appearance. May have blue rot because of same reasons.

In the third pic there is a piece of masur birch branch I decided to send thereabouts. I have those kind of pieces in my custody, currently 4 more. They are in the middle of drying, but can be nuked as smaller pieces for turnery etc. I need to peel the bark off and wrap the wood in plastic film. There is also an old wooden plane, body made of air dried birch and pieces of red bubinga.

About fumigation, what kind of substances are used there? How volatile/preserving are those chemicals in desinfecting smokes? Do they leave odor or stains?

kippis,

sumu

[Fuzzie]

I actually carried a birch bark box with a birch cone handle back from Canada once. I declared it at Customs and the AQIS people inspected it and let it pass. The only thing they were concerned about was if there were any live insects living in the cone and they resolved that with a visual inspection.

I was not required to have the box fumigated. I don't think you will need to worry about fumigating yourself. It is a service AQIS offer IF required. It seems to be tropical timbers are more worrisome than cool climate timbers. We also have lots of ornamental birch trees in Australia already, so I don't think seeds are a worry either.

However do not put any food products in the package. Sausage, cured meats etc WILL go straight into the furnace.

[HappyHammer]

Hey Sumu did you make those planes?

HH.

[sumu]

Hello,

Fuzzie,

I was not required to have the box fumigated. I don't think you will need to worry about fumigating yourself. It is a service AQIS offer IF required. It seems to be tropical timbers are more worrisome than cool climate timbers. We also have lots of ornamental birch trees in Australia already, so I don't think seeds are a worry either.

However do not put any food products in the package. Sausage, cured meats etc WILL go straight into the furnace.

That's what I was thinking, too. I mean, if I was responsible on securing the ecology of my country, I would readily be prepared to judge the situation by myself and not to care a squat about any foreign desinfection certificates nor other such documents. Pretty straightforward actions based on common sense and awareness on what comes always first. Besides, there must be clear routines to perform such things, too. Must be everyday work.

Fuzzie, thanks about the reality check, I'm always cool with them .


HappyHammer,

I rebuilt the blondie smoother, others back there are old originals and only tuned up by me.

That 45 deg blondie was a complete wreck, missing iron and wedge, horn was loose and body was half splitted (it's a two piece factory-made plane). For some reason I picked it up and took home. I realized I can't open the glued seam in the middle of the body even in a heating cabinet, it would get overdried and anyway be impossible to put back together so that bed halves would meet again as levelled. So I took an injection syringe and stuffed all the accessible gaps with toughened epoxy compound.

Then I built a jig around it, picked up the router and made grooves on top side, to insert those mottle figured bubinga pieces. The same was done for sole side, there is cocobolo insert piece around the mouth. I made the wedge from scratch according to the birch-bubinga colour scheme, and designated a brand new Ulmia 48 mm wide carbon steel iron with a chipbreaker.

It has planed so far all softwoods and any straight grained wood except lignum vitae. In addition, it planes with ease birdseye maple and masur birch. Ulmia iron takes very good edge. This plane is with one refurbished #5 one of my most used planes for flat surfaces. I will replace the horn, I make it a bit bigger, better shaped and according to the colour scheme .

kippis,

sumu