FYI bringing wood carvings back to Canada!

[poolguywindsor]

Ok so when I just got back to YYZ the customs dude asked what we were bringing back, "just some rum and a couple souveniers"
So he asked if we had anything made from wood?
So beins that we did , i said yeah a carving
So then he asks is it finished?
I ask why?
So any way I wasnt sure how to answer and was curious why he asked this, so anyway I said yes it was finished.
He asked "on all sides?"
I wasnt sure but said yeah.
So he wrote on our card wood than put finished?
Anyway we collect our luggage and go to exit, well the dude forgot to put some code on our customs card so we were sent down to the next exit, anyway that guy asked, so whats this all about? I told him we had a wood carving a, but it was finished.
Any way he said your good to go, man. He really said that,lol
So I asked him what was the deal about wood,
He said no unfinished wood procts are allowed into Canada,and must be finished on all sides, I asked if it had to be like a laquer, or what if it was just like shoe polish?
He said as of now it doesnt matter as long as its finished on all sides, shoe polish is fine?
So if your bringing wood back to Canada you might wanna make sure its finished on all sides, FYI.

[Flipadelphia26]

That rasta mon is finished.

[Negril1990]

same happened to us but customs was kinda rude about it

[Boogzy]

They are a bunch of rude SOB'S. One time they held me up for an hour trying to find a kings ransom in dope inside my pool cue. Missed my already paid for ride home and cost me a C note to get home. This is just one of the many run ins I've had with these SOB's. YYZ not a good place to bring in wood.

[Tawnee2]

Not sure what the deal is with the wood being finished. ????
Hubby and I brought back a couple of decorative (finished) wooden Red Stripe beer mugs one year. Set them on a stereo speaker at home and forgot about them. Then one day I notice this fine powdery dust at the base of one of them. When I inspected the mug closely, I could see tiny little bore holes. Something was eating it's way OUT of the mug. AHHHHHHHHH I freaked out - I wanted to move!!! lol I figured that our apartment was now infested with some termite type creature. We burned the mugs and luckily nothing more happened.

[Katho]

I've known about the wood needing to be finished for a long time but...a few years back while I wasn't paying attention my hungover (still a little drunk) husband mumbles "I don't know, I guess" to the wood question, damn it, lol! We had to go to the right, room full of armed officers! They were super nice, asked me to dig through my own luggage for the carvings, then made jokes about keeping the shark we had purchased for my son! That was it and we were on our way! Like Tawnee said, they just don't want us bringing home non native bugs!

[poolguywindsor]

Tawnee I had that happen with some bamboo mugs, bugs atarted crawling out!
They were not really rude but were not really clear at first about being finished, I did my best to be clear about whats allowed and not allowed.

[Craig123]

We bought a rasta carving in the craft area at Waves near Niah's kitchen. Michael was the guy's name. When he found out we were from Canada, he quickly put some finishing oil on the back of the piece. Obviously he knew Canadian rules regarding wood products.

On an earlier trip I bought an unfinished piece from Rasta Roy (RIP) down near Barry's Rooms (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil). Anyway I unknowingly imported it unfinished without any incident. Not sure what the consequences would have been had it been dicovered. They probably would have simply taken it from me.

[Lady Jane]

Poolguy, did you buy the BIG rasta head from Waves? ?

[rjonsun]

In December when returning with some wood carvings (see this link for photos) http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...-friend-Markie we were ranbomly picked for a secondary inspection. They inspected the walking stick and thought it was finished because it was so dark in color. Actually it was Lignum Vitae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignum_vitae and that was the natural color. But the second carving was not finished and it looked raw. I convinced them that it was cedar and their check on the computer indicated that cedar was okay to bring into the States. BTW, this happened in Philly.
On a side note about 5 or 6 years ago I brought back a beautiful carved mask from Mexico. It was completly finished off, front and back. There was no way to tell what kind of wood it was. About 6 months later pin holes and saw dust started to appear. I scraped the back and what I was told was cedar was actually pine.
I'll digress even father: I was an exterminator for a dozen years and have some understanding of the problem. While I am only familiar with powder post beetles and old house borers, what you are seeing is probably in that family of wood boring beetles. Yes, they are in the wood when it is harvested. They can eat their way out many years later. And it is important to keep any new species from getting a foothold in the US. But 2 different methods would probably work to kill off the bugs without destroying the objest. I don't remember the exact % anymore (maybe in the range of 7 ot 10 %) of moisture in the wood and the bugs will die off naturally. So by exposing the object to heat for a few weeks should dry it to a moisture content that wouldn't support life. I put my stuff on a radiator in the kitchen for the winter and th eproblem is solved. You anly have to do this one season. However, this will split some woods (or bamboo as I found out), so you can try method two, which doesn't work as well. Keep and eye on the piece and everytime you see a nee hole put a small drop of 3 in 1 oil on the hole. The oil will penetrate into exposed hole and kill off the beetle. This may have to be repeated many, many times untill you are able to cill them all off. In the 1970 chlorinated hydrocarbons were used to exterminate many pests, and you are basically using a hydrocarbon to penitrate and kill the beetle.

Regards,

Bob