How hard is it to source wood from specific regions?

[Steampunk Jim]

In my never ending musings and daydreams about knife making as I'm waiting for my grinder to arrive, one thing I love the idea of doing is making knives for loved ones with wood from a particular region that they've lived in or had a connection to previously. Mexico, Brazil, Alaska, France, etc. In poking around various knife sellers, there's a lot of categorization by type of wood, but not a lot by region. For those of you that have a lot of experience with purchasing or selling knife scales, how difficult is it going to be to find wood that's imported from a specific country or region?

Thanks as always for the great help and discussion. I've quite enjoyed my time here so far

 

[Dopic1]

Try this.

http://www.wood-database.com/

 

[NJBillK]

Another idea would be to contact a local custom furniture, firearm, or knifemaker and see what they can source.
Having someone that is intimately knowledgeable of the area and has a genuine interest in crafting things with their own hands will likely be willing to lend an ear and a pointer if they can.

Just because you want to make knives, doesn't mean you have to be relegated to using the same resources as everyone else.
Big hunting population? call a local taxidermist and see what they can offer about vegetation knowledge. Call a local college that has a strong ecological program, try logging companies and lumber mills.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

As a general rule, the smaller the seller the better they know each piece. I can tell you where every block on my site comes from, I can even tell you the state for my domestic woods.

 

[NJBillK]

As a bonus, Ben is also a Great guy to deal with.