As you can see from my second comment my post was mostly directed towards Bob, but if the shoe fits then might as well wear it.
Hinoki is a very polarizing material.
It's a love it or hate it thing. My job is certainly not to convince you and make you love it.
I guess if it benefits your game it will be very loved, if not it won't.
I guess it's basically a spinners thang.
I can agree. Despite it being very subjective, I still feel that it's overrated compared to similar species of wood.
But in fact your attitude towards 300 year old japanese cypress trees is very respectable and noble and at the same time a bit hypocritical and complacent, and carries a whole lot of that holier-than-thou attitude.
Next you'll try to tell me you've witnessed every plank of wood that you've used for your blades being cut from the tree logs you've seen grow, and no squirrels and birds were harmed when they were cut down.
[Emoji23]
C'mon dude, not only 300 year old trees are worth saving. Aren't the younger ones also worth it? How will it become 300 y.o. if it gets cut down after 10 or 20 years.
Nobody is without flaws and nobody has all the information. I'm not claiming that I do. I'm just expressing what I know and what I believe. If I can learn something new, i'm glad to.
The hipocrisy-claim, seems to become a standard go-to-argument in every discussion about durable living. Be it about public transport vs private transport, eating meat vs vegans, ... It really doesn't lead anywhere and just attacks the person instead of contributing something substantial to the argument. So I suggest we just leave that stuff behind.
To focus on the specific case of lumber. There are 2 ends of the spectrum : one being cutting down trees in a non-durable way like what is happening in parts of the amazon / africa, the other being a durable cycle of planting and cutting.
The first case is the easiests and financially most interesting. It's what's been going on for ages. The result : deforestation.
A system where we cut down trees faster then it takes for them to grow, will always lead to a dead end.
The second case is harder, but you can't disagree that this will be better in the long run. A tree that's 300 years old, doesn't fit well into the second model. It could, but due to the lifespan of the average human, it's quite hard to govern.
Also worth noting that the japanese know very well what kind of treasure they have and protect these trees and only allow a very small number being cut down.
Let's hope so...
If you're really serious with your attitude YOU SHOULDN'T BE USING WOOD AT ALL, INSTEAD WHY NOT USE THE FASTEST GROWING FIBRE: BAMBOO!!
Don't say it's impossible, it's been done before.
Even Kevin from Americanhinoki has experienced with bamboo... IMHO
Again, I don't claim to be holier then the pope (it's a saying here) and I'm not against using wood in general. Every material has its use. Wood can be grown and could be an infinite source of material (unless we use too much too fast).
I'm well aware of the possibilities of bamboo, but mostly in the field of construction. (-200 prejudice points for me hooray)
I've looked into it, but haven't been able to find veneers without paperbacks. So no actual TT-experiments with it yet.
Besides you're not the first that came up with the idea of 'organically' grown blades.
Ever heard of JOOLA Greenline??
[Emoji6]
No, but I'll be sure to check it out.