I do not know what we get til it gets here. The real trippy stuff is rare, especially considering there often is a flaw in it somewhere. All those fancy grain patterns put extra stress on the wood as it drys.
As far as the no subtle jab comment, I am the way I described. Simple, no technical stuff, not so much HOW something works as DOES it work. Yes, I have to figure out how it works to fix it if it doesn't work. That is one of the many reasons Tom did what he did. He wanted more technical, more sureness of safety, etc, etc so after much trial and error came the PD. As I have said before, that is free market capitalism at work to fill needs that are not met by what is out there. His current supply/demand situation is a testament to how important the technical part of a product is in todays world. He is growing and we are fading. That is a good thing in my book.
As far as my customer service comment, we are proud of that. We went through periods of hundreds of units a month and still kept the customer connection here. That is why we eventually went to only US sales. Sell less but keep up the customer service. When you get busy, something has to give. Selling wholesale never appealed to us. We did try it and had a good relationship with the wholesaler but we just got too busy for two people like us.
As far as wood density, I would have to agree that too dense a wood would be a problem just as too soft a wood. Same rules, just applied in reverse. We even tried Western Red Cedar once. ughhhh.
R