Where have all the experts gone? Why do people end up in the timber trade today – chance or design? Knowledge is key to both questions. Getting to know the markets, end uses, shipping, conversion, sawmilling, drying, moulding, tallying, measuring, and conversion – does anyone really bother now? It took a long time to be competent in our industry but gaining knowledge was itself a real fascination; an opportunity to see and handle (most important) some of the world’s most wonderful timbers and meet many of the timber trading characters, which were many. Unfortunately today these people are few and far between.
There were of course whole chapters of the trade which contained real experts on buying both native species and logs from around the world. Twenty years ago logs for veneers sliced and peeled, were available commercially in over 600 species. From the aesthetic to the constructional, from the joinery trade to musical instruments makers, from furniture to flooring, now we seem to trade in only a handful of species – sapele, European oak, black walnut, poplar, cedar, Douglas fir and larch. I’m avoiding the general run of the mill softwoods for first and second fix applications. Note too I have avoided sheet material traders, skilled in their own right. It’s hard for me personally to get enthusiastic over something 2440×1220 or even 1220×2440!
Imports of sawn timber have fallen by over 40% in the past 10 years and we’ve lost our manufacturing base to the Far East, from where we see the arrival of hundreds of containers of timber products each week. Is this the real reason the trade has lost its edge and thirst for knowledge? Can we compete now, or have we lost the skills of handling timber and converting it?
Through & through or waney-edged timbers are in the minority now. English ash for example is valuable for burning because it can be burnt from green. Its shock absorption properties, its amazing steam-bending properties or its ability to stain, finish, glue and machine seem to have been forgotten; now burning takes priority.
There are few traders left who know "how too…" but as a dose of reality kicks in, perhaps there is no need to. So now we have to make trading simple and easy. For example, lump sum prices and waste factors what are they for? Or my pet hate at the moment: "Fifty shades of oak grading" where, for the most complex of reasons, the best European oak is sold as Super prime, Prime FAS, joinery grade 1st quality – all names for the same thing! Oak trading was a ‘Black Art’, the reason for our skills, not now.
Some have really made it simple just to sell on price alone. Since October 15, 2008 when the recession started, the trade moved or slipped again ever closer to the abyss. Is the customer faced with no alternative but to go for the cheapest price? Doesn’t knowledge count for anything?
Do not get me started on sapele! We are selling this species at prices less than we were at in the late 1980s!
The idiom "Keep it simple stupid" really comes to the fore. It seems there is now no need for the Institute of Wood Science as a stand-alone course or opportunities to learn from others at branch meetings. They are now long gone, or rather amalgamated with mining because experts in timber science and technology are no longer needed.
So now what attracts bright young people into the trade? Answers on the back of a stamp.
