see http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337795/title/Boxwood_blight_invades_North_America
Uh-oh.
One word, Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.
Had two elm trees removed this year due to Dutch elm disease. It is a bit odd to think that something that has survived for a century of storms and snowfall, its roots choked by asphalt and construction, and bits hacked off to make way for power lines, how a dusting of fungus can simply kill it.
No plastics for me. Too toxic to work and I would have to separate the waste chain. Plus plastics are hard on tooling - these rapidly dull cutting edges.
Wood turning chips from blackwood, boxwood and mopane decompose nicely as mulch in my garden. If I was turning delrin or some other plastic as well, that, along with any wood chips mixed in, would have to all go into the trash.
Aesthetically, I prefer wood. I have a lovely handmade guitar for Gypsy Jazz made from Indian Rosewood, Sitka Spruce and Mahogany. I also have some lovely blackwood and boxwood bagpipes from Spain (3 of them). I can’t imagine any of these instruments made in plastic.
As for boxwood, this will maybe affect makers 50-100 years from now, long after I am done making flutes. Maybe cocus will be abundant then instead - as well as the new crop of mopane. I do have enough boxwood on hand to make boxwood flutes for maybe the next decade. This includes some moderately figured boxwood. There is probably enough boxwood on the market for makers well into the future. I’m wondering if the wood itself is affected by this fungus, or only the outer cambium. Its possible that the wood itself could be harvested.
Casey
Harvested maybe, even so I wonder if it could be transported. Locally we have a group that collects the removed elm trees and makes things from them because the concern is more about the bark. I don’t know if they could ship it any real distances within the state though. I don’t think you can even do that with oak trees that succumb to oak wilt.