The latest Wood & Steel (86) magazine from Taylor Guitars has a few interesting articles relevant to the blackwood market.
https://www.taylorguitars.com/wood-and-steel
The first is Bob Taylor’s column Bobspeak, which outlines a major milestone in the tonewood market. Taylor Guitars are now promoting guitars made using deliberately grown, not “native” wood.
This year we will make thousands of guitars using wood that was planted by man rather than having grown naturally in a forest. As a player you won’t be able to easily target these guitars to either avoid them or to embrace them because they’re completely legitimate and blend in with the choices of other guitars made from traditional forest wood. There’s not enough of this kind of wood to make all the guitars from it yet, but this is a huge breakthrough and signals a way forward. We are now starting our own tree-planting projects.
A huge breakthrough is absolutely on the mark!
Congratulations to Bob Taylor and the team!!
I’m looking forward to the day when I read an article in Wood & Steel about a tonewood grower. Perhaps it will be an article about a Tasmanian blackwood grower.
I hope you’re willing to hear a wood report from me often, nearly every time I write, because it’s become one of the most important aspects of my contribution to the world of guitars.
- Bob Taylor, President
I think Bob Taylor is well on the way to having a significant wood supply and marketing advantage over his competitors.
The second article of note is the promotion of new Limited Edition baritone guitars on page 22 featuring mahogany tops and Tasmanian blackwood back and sides (see illustration above) as part of the 300 Series.
“A hardwood top like mahogany is really good, he says. “Blackwood is also a good fit — it’s responsive and keeps everything warm, yet has a clear focus to it. Together, the two woods are well suited for a baritone [guitar].”
https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/326e-baritone-6-ltd
https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/326e-baritone-8-ltd
The third article is a feature on bluegrass player Trey Hensley (p. 24). His latest CD collaboration with Dobro player Rob Ickes The Country Blues features a Taylor 510e Tasmanian blackwood guitar on every track.
“I’d never heard of blackwood,” he says. “It’s like mahogany on steroids!”
http://www.robandtrey.com/albums/the-country-blues/
“I brought a bunch of guitars into the studio — rosewood, mahogany — but that one [Taylor 510e] really cut through the mix better than all the rest. I used it on the whole thing.”
The Taylor 510e was a 2014 Fall Limited Edition dreadnought model.
https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/510e-fltd
https://blackwoodgrowers.com.au/2014/10/03/the-fall-limited-sweepstakes/
It is great to have such positive support for Tasmanian blackwood from Taylor Guitars, and their supplier Robert Mac Millan at Tasmanian Tonewoods.
http://tasmaniantonewoods.com/
Happy reading!
Tasmanian Blackwood Growers Cooperative 
Special Timbers Subsidised Charade Continues
Forestry Tasmania, the State government forest agency tasked with commercially managing the public native forests of Tasmania, has released its Annual Report for 2016. Forestry Tasmania is Australia’s largest grower and producer of Tasmanian blackwood timber.
http://www.forestrytas.com.au/news/2016/10/forestry-tasmania-s-annual-report-2015-16
A previous blog has focused on the insolvency of the organisation and its dismal future.
https://blackwoodgrowers.com.au/2016/10/31/forestry-tasmanias-insolvency-report/
Here I limit my comments specifically to blackwood and other so called special timbers. These are mostly reported on pages 25-26 of the Annual Report.
Since 1991 Forestry Tasmania has had a commitment to supply 10,000 cubic metres per year of millable blackwood sawlog (Category 4 and Utility) to market.
Forestry Tasmania also calculates a blackwood (millable) sawlog sustainable yield which it must abide by. Forestry Tasmania only calculates 2 sustainable yields: one for eucalypt sawlog and one for blackwood sawlog. The blackwood sawlog sustainable yield is 3,000 cubic metres per year.
http://cdn.forestrytasmania.com.au/uploads/File/pdf/pdf2014/review_sustainable_blackwood_supply_2013.pdf
Once again Forestry Tasmania refuses to tell us how much millable blackwood sawlog it produced during the year. Once again all we are told is total special timbers production that includes outspec and craftwood. We are told that 8,007 cubic metres of millable special timbers sawlog was produced.
Once again the report refuses to tell us what prices blackwood and other special timbers achieved. The Government has already admitted that Forestry Tasmania’s prices are ridiculously low give-away prices!!
http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/releases/ministerial_statement_-_forestry
Once again the report refuses to reconcile blackwood sawlog production with the sustainable yield. The overcutting of the public native forest blackwood resource continues unabated.
Once again the special timbers report on pages 25-26 refuses to openly and honestly tell us that special timbers production is managed as a non-profit, non-commercial, taxpayer funded activity. Is Forestry Tasmania being deliberately deceitful?
Once again the long suffering Tasmanian taxpayer has been forced to subsidise the special timbers industry directly to the tune of $0.91 million (p. 70).
That equates to a direct subsidy of $86.27 for every cubic metre of our highest quality, most valuable sawlog, veneer log and old stump and lump of craftwood that was harvested during the year.
Every $10,000 dining suite, every $8,000 bedroom suite on the showroom floor includes a few hundred dollars of taxpayer subsidy. It really is an outrage and a terrible waste of public money that should be spent on our schools and hospitals.
If anyone in the blackwood industry or the Tasmanian community believes this charade equates to open, honest, transparent reporting by our public forest manager they should think again.
When will Tasmania get a fully commercial profitable forest industry?
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Posted in Commentary, Forestry Tasmania