Shipping Padauk Internationally, in light of CITES

[David Mary]

I placed a wood order with a USA supplier yesterday, but to my surprise had to edit my cart because Padauk was "restricted". I called them and customer service explained CITES, which I had not heard of before, and said that if they were to ship Padauk without "a CITES" - permit, I guess - it would be considered serious enough to include jailtime. So of course I accepted that they couldn't ship it to me. But I love working with it though, so I found some in stock in Canada and grabbed it up.

Then someone offered by PM to send me some Padauk, and I said well that could land you in jail, but thanks anyway. And he made my jaw hit the floor when he then asked: Well what about you if you ship a Padauk handled knife to the States?

Okay... great question? I'm assuming that there is some kind of provision built into CITES that protects craftsmen who already have a certain item in stock. Like, just because Padauk is added to CITES, doesn't just suddenly freeze all existing inventory out of eligibility for international trade, does it? Am I going to be labeled a criminal if I sell a Padauk handled knife to someone outside of Canada???

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

David,
Padouak is an appendix-II listed species. this is what the ruling is:
".....As a reminder, international trade in specimens of Appendix II species may be permitted and must be covered by an export permit or re-export certificate. CITES does not require an import permit for these species (although a permit is required in some countries that have taken stricter measures than those provided for by the Convention)....."

Inquire here - https://cites.org/eng/parties/country-profiles/national-authorities - to find out the details on getting it in and out of Canada.

 

[AbLonewolf]

Holy smokes! Here (Alberta, Canada), I go to the local hardwood store 85 kms from my place, and can buy as many board feet of Padauk as I want! Already got lots of it. Go figure...

 

[Fixall]

You just reminded me about my seized shipment, David! I meant to update this thread awhile back, and completely spaced it.

I had a shipment of stabilized redwood burl seized that was heading to Europe under suspicion of being CITES restricted wood back in January. The first letter came from the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Department of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and sounded scary as all hell. Yikes!

I filed an appeal with the invoice from when I originally purchased the slab, as well as a copy of the invoice when I sold the material (all the proof I had considering redwood is a domestic, non CITES protected species). I finally received a letter regarding the situation about a month ago (from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife of all departments...) saying the shipment had been destroyed.

 

[J. Hoffman]

This is a reason I don't ship wood handle knives outside the US.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

You just reminded me about my seized shipment, David! I meant to update this thread awhile back, and completely spaced it.

I had a shipment of stabilized redwood burl seized that was heading to Europe under suspicion of being CITES restricted wood back in January. The first letter came from the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures Department of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and sounded scary as all hell. Yikes!

I filed an appeal with the invoice from when I originally purchased the slab, as well as a copy of the invoice when I sold the material (all the proof I had considering redwood is a domestic, non CITES protected species). I finally received a letter regarding the situation about a month ago (from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife of all departments...) saying the shipment had been destroyed.

Had similar happening to me in the past by knives handles with exotic fossils and such like mammoth molar.

Customs locked some of my parcels up to 8 GOD DAMN MONTHS.

 

[Francisco Vaz]

I placed a wood order with a USA supplier yesterday, but to my surprise had to edit my cart because Padauk was "restricted". I called them and customer service explained CITES, which I had not heard of before, and said that if they were to ship Padauk without "a CITES" - permit, I guess - it would be considered serious enough to include jailtime. So of course I accepted that they couldn't ship it to me. But I love working with it though, so I found some in stock in Canada and grabbed it up.

Then someone offered by PM to send me some Padauk, and I said well that could land you in jail, but thanks anyway. And he made my jaw hit the floor when he then asked: Well what about you if you ship a Padauk handled knife to the States?

Okay... great question? I'm assuming that there is some kind of provision built into CITES that protects craftsmen who already have a certain item in stock. Like, just because Padauk is added to CITES, doesn't just suddenly freeze all existing inventory out of eligibility for international trade, does it? Am I going to be labeled a criminal if I sell a Padauk handled knife to someone outside of Canada???

I have shipped earlier this year a piece of kingwood cutting board (those that chefs uses).

It was locked for a few days under manual inspection and after it was released. I might be wrong, but i think that CITES does only applies when the material has over 10kg of weight - so in this case the cutting board had only 4 i guess they passed it.

Kingwood is listed on CITES II. Honestly, i believe this is totally up to their own interpretation over the facts.