A Word About Wood Rarity
Rarity is a slippery concept in wood because of how many factors can influence availability. Rarity can be addressed on a species-wide basis, but also on a per-piece of wood basis.
Species can be rare because of the scarcity of the tree in its natural habitat and its availability in the marketplace. The rarest species are nearly extinct in their habitat and were never a populous tree to begin with. When we acquire rare species of woods it is usually decades old material that was harvested long ago before modern protection measures, or when the species was more populous.
Figured wood, however, can make a specific block of wood much rarer beyond the rarity of its species. Certain figures are exhibited in only one in a thousand or ten thousand trees. Also, It is usually only the old, mature trees that have figured wood and usually only a small portion of a tree is ever figured. A rare form of high grade figure In a common species might make for a very special piece of wood.
Then of course the rarest woods in the world are the rarest species that exhibit the rarest and highest grade figure, a combination of both factors. We are constantly searching for these pieces of “once in a lifetime wood”.