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Thanks to everyone for their support. I only realised yesterday that I hadn't been accessing all my email accounts, and missed 618 replies to fabulous support last August. Many apologies. I've tried replying to as many as possible. I am getting a bit better, though improvement is so slow as to...

Thanks, everyone, particularly Sam. I am very gradually getting better, but sadly just wasn't up to editing another issue of British Woodworking in November. I find communication the most difficult part of the whole thing, but enjoy writing, so hope to find a way to resolve my magazine...

I've only just noticed this, Kev, and didn't have time to get it done for Westonbirt. Fantastic idea. I've only just spoken to the police accident report folk today, who have been amazing, and it turns out that I wasn't transferred by helicopter, just good old road ambulance. They weren't...

So sorry I haven't replied earlier to thank everyone for their support (and if I have replied, apologies for my poor memory). I have been working on the D&M Show Guide and the next issue of British Woodworking, which needs to be out by the end of September so that we can insider the Show...

Wow: what amazing feedback. Thanks everyone, and particularly Steve M for visiting. I am very much better, and am now in the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit at the old Frenchay centre, which has a remarkable collection of staff and patients, including a wonderful young woodworker called Ross...

I doubt you can buy Honduran mahogany, but I may be wrong. The information should be provided by people like me. That is what we are paid to do, and having raised the issue I will do my best to fulfil that promise. I will start with mahogany and go from there. There are so many species to cover...

I did wonder about that, and agree. Not sure where the parallel starts and stops. There are perhaps two issues: 1. How do you give teenagers/woodworkers alternative courses of action so that they never start smoking/using exotics? 2. How do you wean teenagers/woodworkers off smoking/exotics...

It strikes me, John, that fiddling with the market can work, but it can also end in tears. Ultimately the most powerful action is to change perceptions and demand, though legislation can have an influence. The parallel to smoking is quite interesting. In many quarters this is now considered as...

I certainly won't do it if it's of no value. The mahogany came from an old cabinet of my grandmother's so I wouldn't do it lightly, and unless I felt it was worth it. I'd do it as a combo of conscience and symbolism, but I'm not decided yet. It is an important step to take. I've burnt far more...

Too right. It is an amazing resource.

I understand, Lons, and yes I will take this as your response. I've had an amazing number of replies!! I agree about education and publication, but also think the time may sometimes come for more direct action. I hate wasting wood, but the smoke from my small stock might have a larger impact...

Well, yes and no. Actually you can breed elephants much more quickly than you can grow a mahogany tree, and mahogany trees don't get funding from tourism for the hundred or so years it takes to bring them to maturity. I think a small protest might actually win some support and raise awareness.

I wouldn't have time to moderate a forum that heavily!!!!! I'd only do it if I think there is potential for a forum that covers a wide swathe of topics, from forestry to workshop layouts. My instinct is that there is not, but you never know unless you try.

I had only thought of it as a conscience thing, to rid myself of something about which I have doubts and to clear the air in my workshop. But I am beginning to wonder if there might be some purpose in a radical protest. The responses have been fascinating.

But you could say that about lots of things. Heck, I just bought my first iPhone, made from heaven knows what by whom. I'd had my previous phone for seven years, but I'm still complicit in the whole thing. Perhaps it comes down to personal peace of mind, and those of us who naively think we can...

I guess it's being exported from Eastern Europe????

Good point, Kostello. Nothing's simple is it. Somebody once suggested I get the golf course carvings I produce made in China. You can imagine what I said!!!! No thanks. How can woodworkers compete with oak furniture made so cheaply?

Or, and here's a thought, we only buy complete items from other countries? That is the sort of thing Brian Boggs and Greenwood are doing in Central America, I think, encouraging locals to make things with their timber to sell on local or international markets, rather than just chopping down the...

Having made a gesture, I've been doing more research myself, and discovered that big leaf mahogany is not listed on Cites II for Fiji etc…, doubtless because it is being grown there in plantations. I will try to buy some FSC plantation-grown mahogany to see what it is like. That said I'm still...

Too right. And we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, responsible because we are all part of the market economy that has caused this. Very few people are truly innocent. I'm certainly not. So perhaps it's just my conscience at work, rather than the hope for any results of my actions. I...