They have also provided a pdf you can save: http://www.crcwood.unimelb.edu.au/docs/factsheets/microwaves.pdf

Thus far I have contacted the Smithsonian Archives Department and the Peabody Collections at Yale.
If you should have any information that could assist locating the collection, please contact me through this blog.

Printed in The Woodworker, Vol XXX, January 1926, No386, pages 296 & 297:

Printed in The New York Times, Oct. 28, 1928:

Canes of Varied Woods In Exhibit
Rudolph Block’s Collection of Fourteen Hundred Walking Sticks Contains No Two Alike – Specimens From Many Lands by Samuel J. record, Professor of Forest Products, Yale University.

The United States National Museum in Washington recently placed on exhibition the Rudolph Block Collection of walking sticks. There are fourteen cases of them, each with 100 canes neatly arranged and accurately labeled. Fourteen hundred walking sticks and no two alike! The owner could carry a different stick every day for nearly four years. As a matter of fact, the collector never carried even one of them and never had an intention of doing so.

Since the National Museum contains so many objects of historical interest, one might suppose that these canes were remnants of such trees as the Charter Oak and the Washington Elm, or of famous old battleships and landmarks, or that the sticks themselves had been carried by illustriuous men. The collection contains no such momentoes. The only history concerned is natural history. Each cane at least it’s shank, is a specimen of the heartwood of a tree, shown in its true colors and at its best. This is the explanation for the fourteen cases in the section known by the rather formidable title of Wood Technology. The beauty imparted by the designer and artisans is only their tribute to the natural beauty and design of the woods.

Mr. Block, the collector and owner of this unique exhibit, is a New York newspaper man and short-story writer known to the reading world as Bruno Lessing. In assembling from the remote corners of the earth the raw woods for the sticks and the wide range of attractive substances for the handles and utilizing them as a painter uses pigments he found relaxation from his profession, contacts with a different world and a new outlet for his artistic ability. He came to know and love woods, not only the rare and fancy kinds, but also the ordinary utility ones, the “Marthas of the wood world”.

“There is a simple ash which I gloat over as much as I do over any ebony or rosewood,” he once wrote. “There is a Tennessee cedar of golden hue, with little dark brown knots in it, which looks fine to me as a flaming padouk. And there are pines and poplars and willows and gums that gleam in changing lights and suggest hidden beauties and allurements as much as any snakewood, pimento, goncalo alves, kingwood, or any of the “aristocracy” of woods. But are there really aristocrats and Marthas of the wood world? Or is it merely a matter of finding a wood at its best and shaping and polishing it in a way that brings out its beauties?”

The story of this collection is a story of a hobby that ran away with the collector and took him into strange places and along pathways he had no intention of treading when first he started. Though not a scientist and having a dislike for botonay dating back to college days, the collector became a student of botanical works, made a very wide acquaintance among foresters, wood technologists and botanists everywhere, and made a valuable addition to the knowledge of woods and to the literature on the subject. So generous were the contributions of specimens from official soures that the collection ceased to be a private affair exclusively and involved an obligation for a public display. Hence the loan to the National Museum and the international interest in the exhibit.

The collector’s own story was told by him in part in The Empire Forestry Journal, of London. “It all began with a hobby for collecting walking sticks,” he wrote. “You know how it is. You see attractive walking sticks,” in the shop windows of London, of Paris, Rome and other Continental cities, and you buy them. Gazing one day at the result of various shopping tours, this idea came: “Why not get a walking stick made of every wood in the world?”

“Well, it seemed to be a good idea and I decided to carry it out. I wrote letters to all parts of the world asking all sorts of people to send me sticks of wood. While I was waiting for replies to my letters it occured to me that it might be well t look up some books on woods and find our how many different varieities there were in the world. Collectors frequently think of such things – when it is too late! I discovered that, in the few remaining years of one lifetime, I had undertaken a task that could easily occupy a dozen lifetimes.

A Generous Response.
“I never had a chance to profit by these wise discoveries, because, just at the time when I began to realize the enormity of the task I had undertaken, my first impulsive acts bore fruit. Foresters, timber merchants, Goverment officials, missionaries, travelers, steamship companies, museums and collectors, to whom, in the first blush of my enthusiasm, I had written, responded so generously with sticks of wood of every color, marking, grain and figuring under the sun that I had no alternative but to concentrate upon the task of turning them all into walking sticks.

“Then it dawned upon me that I was less interested in walking sticks than in the varieties and beauties of woods. The walking stick became merely the vehicle through which the wood expressed itself. Some woods, by their very nature, are unfitted for any practical use as a walking stick, but, nevertheless, I had them made into that form.”

Then came a confusion of names – native names which meant nothing to civilized ears, and English ones which had lost their distinctiveness because of the widely different things to which they were loosely applied. It was at this stage of the proceedings that the present writer was called in. Every stick has been as carefully classified as the present status of science will permit. To this end foresters, botanists and specialists in wood identification in various parts of the world have contributed of their expert knowledge. The catalogue with its indexes to the common and Latin names has become a recognized reference volume entirely apart from the design as a guide to the collection.

The appeal of the exhibit is by no means limited to the scientist, but extends to all who have a love for the beautiful. To the furniture and cabinet maker there are displayed as never before the choicest offerings of the forests near and remote. The manufacturer of canes and umbrella handles will find enough original ideas to last him a lifetime. The leather fancier will find all sorts of colors of leathers and skins wrought into the handles. There are also precious metals, semi-precious stones, ivory, tusks and burls, plain or ornate, and inlaid with a skill that taxed the abilities of the most skilled workman and artisans of both hemispheres. Whatever the avenue of approach, it is a collection as remarkable and interesting as it is unique. Its like does not exist.

This brings to mind that many wood lovers have a collection. It may be a simple and humble collection of a dozen items or so, or it may be vast and categorized in a volume of hundreds of samples identified with the botanical name. Or, you may not even own a piece, but have an interest in wood and wooden items. What ever your interest and status, I invite you to become a member of the International Wood Collectors Society (IWCS).

The International Wood Collectors Society publishes a journal, World of Wood which features articles, many from members about collecting, identifying, visiting sites, scientific data, and other interests dealing with wood. The membership is global so the contents of each journal can be quite varied. They have organized meetings around the globe so that maybe you can attend one to meet fellow wood people like yourself. There is an auction for fundraising and they are currently looking for donations of craft items to offer to sell or auction to members or the general public. They can also teach you how to start a formal collection and supply samples that you do not already have to add to your collection. This is a NON-PROFIT organization, and donations of wood, wood items or of monetary form are greatly appreciated.

So please visit: http://www.woodcollectors.org and become a member! Your membership will include 6 issues of World of Wood and a great connection to some interesting and knowlegable people. You can tell them member 9241 sent you.

When I receive wood, especially green, if I’m storing this indoors, I make sure to remove the bark and inspect for signs of wood boring insects. When I received a shipment of Texas Ebony, upon my request it was milled and had been liberally doused with an insecticide prior to shipment. I removed the bark and most of the sapwood to reveal grubs still alive. I removed as much tainted wood as possible and liberally applied rubbing alcohol several times before allowing to dry and store indoors.

A few months later, in the middle of winter, I had adult beetles (1.5” long x 1/4” wide, black w/ green spots) flying around the basement towards the lights for my indoor plants. I found wood dust at the base of one of the ebony slabs and re-applied the alcohol (which worked on a previous log). Fortunately I found most/all that evolved and destroyed them. I’m hoping they did not mate and re-establish in the ebony or other fancy woods I have stored.

I also have numerous glue traps on the floor and have dusted the crevices of the basement with boric acid to prevent crawling bugs. I have to make sure applications are not toxic to myself or pets, so the substance has to be applied carefully and out of the way.

I’d like to hear how you deal with this issue or any other practical solutions.

Thanks in advance (TIA),
Meilie Moy-Hodnett
http://www.bigstickcanes.com

This is in continuation of the blog started on the Timonium, MD show. The next one in the MD-DC-VA area will be held at the Expo Center in Chantilly, VA on March 27-29*

I hope to be there curousing the isles for new toys. If anyone from LJ’s happens to be there, it would be nice to meet up. There are reasonably priced eateries just outside of the Expo Center, across the parking lots, should we like to have lunch together, or just meet and wander, as there’s always lots to look at and drool over. Bring your own bibb.

Meilie Moy-Hodnett
http://www.bigstickcanes.com

I’m not sure what placement it is but I’m so excited! It will be featured in the Forbes Gallery in NYC! If only I can pack myself into the box and go with it!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wood_Lovers_Faberge_Egg/

I have a load of maple under my porch from a year and a half ago. The logs range from 80-600 lbs. each. My husband and I spotted 3 large logs on the curb and asked the owner of the house if we could have them. They had been there for 3-6 months and the wife said her husband would be delighted to have them removed. Their 2 adult sons took all day to get them there. My husband and I got them in his pick-up truck in 5 minutes. The wife frantically called the husband on the phone and he ran home to show us MORE logs on the side and back of the house. We loaded 10 more pieces while the family watched us in awe. (The truck was parked down hill and we used ramps so it wasn’t that hard to roll them up a few feet, although we did get some help on the final up-push into the truck.)

We drove back to our house, 2 blocks away and unloaded most of them without mishap. My husband continued to unload the truck while I made lunch and I heard a lot of LOUD THUMPS in the driveway. The last log to tango with was not the largest, maybe 400 lbs., but it was the crotch piece, so it didn’t roll very easily. With an iron rod and a square rock/brick underneath, we managed to roll it halfway to it’s designated spot until we were too tired and gave up. Meanwhile I kicked the rock so many times to wedge it underneath to prevent it from rolling backwards, that I kicked my right hip out of alignment. My chiropractor calls it “Frog Leg Syndrome”. I call it Logitis.

This is not the first nor the last log haul but I’d like to hear some of your stories.

Alas, here is the cullprit as it sits on a concrete paver riddled with lichen. (The garden spade is 39” tall, 7.5” wide blade.)