Feds cracking down on many exotic woods. How will it effect knives?

[Thomas Linton]

Several posts have made reference to bean-counters, beauracrats... as the enemy. Or, vote the politicians out. - While i cannot claim to know, i would guess the more strict enforcement of the Lacey Act must be result of long term abuses in the industry (furniture, or music) and trade of these exotic woods. - i doubt that "knifemaking" is or has ever been the biggest target of the regulations, but has fallen into the wider "net" cast, to enable the implementing of these laws. Meaning prosecuting those who have done the real damage, unchecked. People tend to want to squiggle out of a tight spot, or find loupeholes. For any unethical business it would profit them to exploit any avenue, defy the system.. It stands to reason the rules would need to be tight to catch the criminal element. But, as someone else has said it is unfortunate, if not unfair, the ethical people will suffer too. I dont see this as a fault of naive lawmakers, just a bad situation without clear directives. And those left to enforce, left to making their own judgements of what constitutes the contraband.
David

Yours is a thoughtful post and I know it's a bother to read through a thread. Let me help:

The average American probably does not fully understand that when you are bringing your carcass or any products into the US from abroad, all bets are off. Many things that are otherwise not illegal can be at the customs counter. You are subject to unwarranted searches of your person and belongings without any cause, probable or otherwise. If the Customs guys decide that they don't like you, they can confiscate your computer or smart phone and hold it for an extended period of time while they search it for naughty material. If they think that material is "contraband" or that you were not totally honest in your declaration, they will take it and you can fight about it later at your own expense. The first time that I went to Belgium, I declared my knives that I was taking to the show with Delta and TSA and they were given special handling like firearms, but I did not fill out some obscure customs form for "business samples" before leaving. The clerk in Atlanta wanted to confiscate or collect duty in them because he was sure that they came from outside the US even though they all had my name stamped on them. Cooler heads prevailed when he called his supervisor over. My dad had some dumb woman at Miami International Airport try to confiscate half of a box of MIAMI MADE La Gloria Cubana cigars when he came back from the Bahamas one time in the early 90's because she figured they had "Cubana" in the name, so they must be from Havana even though there was a US tax stamp on the box. LOL.

Truly a bad situation. Endangered cigars.

 

[2knife]

- this conversation brings to mind, there are flooring and decking companies that import Brazillian ironwood for large scale use in US and abroad. I was walking on someone's back deck (wealthy individual) a few years ago, in mild shock.. it was huge and covered with the stuff. It left me thinking this is what we must be doing with the rainforests..

 

[jdm61]

Ed, he can probably sell the narwhal knife, but it can never leave the US. I'm not sure about the rhino horn knife. A lot of the real high end Yemeni jambiyas used to have rhino horn handles and I am sure than some being made today still do. HIGHLY illegal. Most people think that all of the poached rhino horn goes to China for pills to make your winky hard, but a fair amount has been shipped the Arabic world for a long time.

I know a man who has three knives. Two of them are the old Wootz. One of them has what looked like a cheap white plastic handle on it, the wootz T backed blade has a gold inlay in it and it is a beautiful and historic knife. It was on a dealers table for years with a $65.00 price tag on it. He gave it to him as no one would buy it. It turns out that the handle is a Norwall spike. Neither had any idea what the handle material was.

One of the other knives has a Rhino horn handle. The knife is over 200 years old, made in Celon.

The third knife is old Wootz, handle material unknown.

Where does the owner stand legally? Can he sell them? Trade them off or keep them without being liable to prosecution? I honestly don't know, but as a maker I feel a strong obligation to those who purchase my knives and while I have used iron wood that came my way via garage sales and second hand stores. At the time I used it there was no concern, but today I worry about those knives with the iron wood, I love it dearly but as has been stated we never know what the mere possession of one of these knives can mean to owners years down the road. We are a minority and easy prey to future legislation about materials that are of little consequence today.

Simple traps that await the maker and the consumer.