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Default Exotic Wood Supplier in St. Louis

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/bus...+a+Latin+beat+

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

In his heavy boots, Levi's, long-sleeved work shirt and wide suspenders,
Bill Hibdon looks every inch the third-generation woodsman he is.

By age 10, he was shoveling sawdust at his grandfather's mill in Iron
County. As a teenager, he trimmed logs and learned to operate his father's
mills around Chillicothe and Boonville, in north-central Missouri.

"By the time I was 18, I could do everything in the woods," said Hibdon, 61.

And when he was in his mid-30s, he founded Hibdon Hardwood Inc. to import
and distribute exotic woods, such as Honduras mahogany, Honduras rosewood,
African blackwood, cocobolo and Ziricote.

"We offer solid woods in 30 different species," Hibdon said.

Hibdon is well-known to customers, mainly stringed instrument makers on both
coasts, but virtually unknown in the St. Louis area.

In a three-story brick building a few blocks north of the Edward Jones Dome,
he and a staff of seven employees cut, dry, package and handle the paperwork
for woods that will be shipped to customers throughout North America. The
plant, at 1410 North Broadway, covers 45,000 square feet. It's an oasis in
the former industrial area of mostly neglected brick buildings.

Inside, the contrasts with the surrounding neighborhood are even sharper.
The office and boardroom at the top of a steep stairway are finished in
elegant Honduras mahogany. The wood comes from Quintana Roo, a state in
southern Mexico. A bookcase holds polished bowls and other items turned out
of some of the imported woods.

The day after Thanksgiving, he's starting a new venture next door: a retail
store to sell select boards, blocks and burls to woodworkers. For several
years, wood turners and other craftsmen have been knocking on Hibdon's door,
wanting to look over his woods and buy what they could for turning,
furniture or paneling. It's not an insignificant part of his business. This
year, sales from the walk-in customers have hit $20,000.

The International Wood Products Association of Alexandria, Va., a trade
group, has 180 members. Hibdon said he's the only dealer of exotic hardwood
in the St. Louis area.

Through mid-November, total sales to Hibdon's several hundred customers are
$1.7 million, nearly the total for all of last year.

That compares with a Department of Agriculture estimate of $40 million worth
of hardwood logs imported in 2002, out of the $15.9 billion for all imported
wood products last year.

Such demand for exotic wood could be an excuse to cut corners, but Hibdon is
emphatic that he won't buy wood from endangered trees or without the proper
papers.

And, he said, "We don't pay bribes" to officials in other countries. "If we
start, we'll always have to do it. It's a slippery slope once you start
paying bribes" to ease exports through customs.

Hibdon walked by his inventory of stripped and cut logs from Mexico, Belize
and Guatemala, and ticked off their common and Latin names.

He stopped at an array of 10-foot mahogany logs sitting side-by-side behind
his building.

"There are 30 logs here," he said. "I looked at 1,000 to get these."

He travels several times a year to select the wood he buys.

Hibdon pointed out imperfections in almost every mahogany log. Some had
twists in the grain. Others had worm holes or a separation in the growth
rings, called a shake. Each log had been the trunk of a tree that was 60 to
80 years old.

Hibdon estimated that a log with a fiddleback grain, one of the most
desirable, was worth $2,500 before his employees cut it into pieces and
shipped them to buyers.

Hibdon's main market is craftsmen and companies throughout the United States
that turn the woods in his storage rooms and two drying kilns into acoustic
stringed instruments, mainly guitars.

Workmen saw logs into blocks that become the necks of guitars. Other pieces
will become backs and sides.

Hibdon said his big-name customers include C.F. Martin & Co., Gibson and
Taylor - all established acoustic-guitar makers.

"We have 2,000 sets (of matched-grain boards) for guitar backs at any one
time," he said.

The small pieces of wood, arranged in neat stacks on the second floor, wait
to be transformed into polished instruments. A second-quality piece that
could go into a guitar back will sell for $25 and up.

The jump in value is great for the finished products. For example, according
to Martin's Web site, its guitars run from about $1,500 to $45,000 - more
for custom-made models.

Todd Taggart of Allied Lutherie Ltd., a company in Healdsburg, Calif., that
buys from Hibdon and also supplies guitar makers, said some of the wood
Hibdon imports ends up in guitars played by stars.

Hibdon is quick to note that he never deals directly with famous musicians.

Still, Taggart said, "We sell to the makers that sell to the stars, so
Bill's wood is going to be in there."

Taggart said there's a natural tension between many wood importers and
suppliers and the companies that turn the raw wood into exquisite musical
instruments.

"There are not many people in the timber industry that want to supply
instrument makers," Taggart said. "They think we're prima donnas."

That's because guitar makers always want the center of the log, the best
cut, from which to fashion the neck, he said.

"They want the heart of the melon," he said. "Not everyone can have that."

Hibdon "knows how to do everything" when it comes to handling and shipping
exotic hardwoods, said Taggart, who has visited the plant in St. Louis.

Documenting the wood

Hibdon likes to say he has made three boats: a canoe, a rowboat and a
23-foot sloop.

He sailed the latter through the Caribbean in 1986 and discovered the first
country that would supply him with hardwood.

He was sailing alone - "at best, it's boring; at worst it's dangerous" - and
got blown off course from his destination, Costa Rica, and wound up in
Belize.

As it turns out, Costa Rica was tightening up on hardwood exports at the
time.

On the other hand, Belize, formerly British Honduras, was receptive to
Hibdon's efforts to establish contacts and begin selecting, buying and
shipping hardwoods.

Then, he expanded his range to Guatemala and Mexico.

Hibdon is well-aware that he's on sensitive territory regarding hardwoods
and rain forests. Yet he scoffs at the tactics of environmental groups to
drum up members and money. "If Green Peace is in Guatemala, (getting) your
money depends on scaring people," he said.

Every shipment of logs or cut lumber comes with five documents to establish
that it complies with local laws and international treaties, Hibdon said.

Nonetheless, U.S. Customs agents sometimes drill holes in his logs, looking
for drugs.

"There's nothing we can do," he said. "If it's a veneer log, it's ruined."

Hibdon said he works with long-time contacts in Mexico and the two Central
American countries.

To help the local economy and the environment, he established two sawmills
in Guatemala.

"I felt I operated ethically," he said. "On the other hand, we were
responsible for several hundred jobs. They had been slash-and-burn farmers."

Hibdon Hardwood Inc.

Address: 1410 North Broadway, St. Louis
President: W.T. "Bill" Hibdon
Business: Importing as well as wholesale and retail sales of exotic
hardwoods from Africa, Central America and Mexico.
Primary customers: Makers of guitars and other musical instruments,
furniture, pool cues and cabinets.
Sales: $1.8 million in 2002
Employees: 8


Reporter Repps Hudson:
E-mail:
Phone: 314-340-8208


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