Acquiring wood on European vacation

[CandorLush]

I have 9 days in Northern France coming up soon and was thinking about trying to get some harder to get species while I'm there. Has anyone here done this before? How would I go about finding places to go?

We're not taking a ton of luggage but I would assume there are good ones like olive that work well in sizes for pens/knifes/peppermills etc

Am I crazy? 

Thanks! 

[Coop]

Olive wood in the overhead, I like the idea

[Brendon_t]

I don't know about crazy but I don't know about any woods available in France that I want and can't get here.. it seems like more trouble than its worth, to me at least. 

[CandorLush]

All good points, many hardwood trees we have were brought from Europe so I figured there wouldn't be much that would be worth the effort. However, just in case there is......... I wanted to be able to activate my wood hoarder powers.

 

[TerryMcK]

French oak is very sought after as is English oak especially the highly figured stuff. However if I were visiting the USA or Canada sourcing wood to take back in luggage to England it would be the last thing I would do. If you like whisky's or brandies take back a bottle or two instead.

Iroko is very heavy BTW but I'm sure you can get it in North America. It is also known as African Teak even though it's not related to real teak.

[Eric.]

Even if you did find some "lumber" small enough to lug back with you, you might have trouble getting it through customs.  There's all kinds of regulations on taking natural materials across borders like that.  You can't even bring sand back from Mexico to the USA.

[Tpt life]

I brought all kinds of "curios" from Zim that are wooden products. If they ever break apart, I have mahogany, teak, and mopane that I could make accents or pulls out of. As it was carvings etc, I had no problems in customs. YMMV. 

[CandorLush]

2 hours ago, Eric. said:

Even if you did find some "lumber" small enough to lug back with you, you might have trouble getting it through customs.  There's all kinds of regulations on taking natural materials across borders like that.  You can't even bring sand back from Mexico to the USA.

I checked with USCBP and they are really only concerned with bark and endangered species. I appreciate the reminder on sand, I will be visiting the Normandy beaches and wanted to check if I could bring sand from there. 

[CandorLush]

21 hours ago, Mike. said:

Customs officers are finnacky.  If you don't declare it on the form, they probably wouldn't notice a few small kiln dried pieces of lumber or turning blocks.  That being said, the Lacey act is kind of a big deal and you don't want to accidentally bring a restricted species. 

I tried to bring a sealed box of Frosted Flakes from the states to an expat friend in Tokyo.  The customs officers in Sydney, where I was staying for a weekend en route, confiscated the cereal.  Their dogs sniffed it out.  I think customs guys had the munchies.  

Believe it or not, I have had more issues getting into Canada than any other country.  

Singapore has a different approach.  Their customs people are hands off, they just give you a list of items that are punishable by death.  It says right on the customs card "DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW" 

Thanks, good point, to be more accurate I should have said that they are more likely to have issue with barked woods but I certainly would expect some, hopefully minor, increased level of scrutiny. 

Ugh, and now I am thinking about looking for antique hand tools while there as well.......

[TerryMcK]

Best looking in a hardware store for tools - in France this is not the same as a big box store but is an old shop, stacked floor to ceiling with stuff. It will be located in a back street run by a guy who speaks no English. He is normally a short guy who is longsighted and balances his glasses on the end of his nose while looking at you over the top of them. He will no doubt have old tools in original boxes that have been on a top shelf for about 70 years gathering dust still in as new condition. He'll want 10 Euros for it (whatever it will be) and you'll go off with a handsome new (old) tool. The rest of the shop will sell everything you could ever think of having items from candles, empty wine bottles, old buckets, new brooms, hinges, screws, watering cans, oil cans, traffic lights, army surplus laser range finders, clothes pins, farming implements, horse shoes etc etc - you get the idea. These places are to us what earring and jewelry stores are like to the ladies. 

These shops do exist and I have found a few while travelling through France. Post photos of what you see and buy.

[Rex Edgar]

On 10/2/2016 at 11:45 AM, CandorLush said:

I checked with USCBP and they are really only concerned with bark and endangered species. I appreciate the reminder on sand, I will be visiting the Normandy beaches and wanted to check if I could bring sand from there. 

In 2009, we visited all the D-Day beaches, during 3-6JUN. Before we left I bought four small Gerber baby food servings in glass jars. My dad came ashore at Utah on 6/6/44. I scooped two jars full of each of the American landing beaches. On the return flight,my wife filled out the Custom&Immigration form. When it came time for the signature, she handed me the form. I signed and was nervous as I did not declare the "foreign" soil. If challenged, I was going to argue like a mad man that that soil is American, bought and paid for in blood. The jars display very different composition and sit proudly in my home office. Not encouraging illegal behavior, though........

[Eric.]

That's cool, Rex.  You should figure out a classier way to display those...you are a woodworker, after all.