Ordering from Tools From Japan and CITES issues?

[Hasin Haroon]

Hi All

Wondering if anyone here has purchased tools from Tools from Japan with any exotic woods like Kokutan, Isonuki or Gumi recently, and if you had any issues at Customs related to CITES?

Cheers

Hasin

[Matt Lau]

If it's not on CITES, why would it be an issue?

Gumi in particular shouldn't be an issue. Same for ebony (which is why Mujingfang will *only* ship ebony tools and no longer rosewood).

Sadly, all rosewoods seem to be hit hard.
I can't find a good substitute for classical guitar.

[Hasin Haroon]

Thats encouraging Matt. When I look up Macassar Ebony, it seems to be listed on Appendix II of CITES. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Matt Lau]

I might be missing something.

I just know that there's no more Rosewood chinese style planes for sale on ebay anymore.
There's "Redwood" which may be rosewood, padauk, or some other wood.
There's also "ebony."

Thanks for the tip on Macassar Ebony, as I prefer that stuff over the Gaboon stuff.

Recently, I've been looking into alternative woods for guitar parts that are non-CITES.
However, it's harder to find pre-slotted fingerboards in woods like Mesquite, Persimmon, and others.