So the recent release of an oil proclaiming to be 22% kinam by ASO has got me thinking. There seems to be a plethora of 'kinam' oils coming out recently. This new oil, Taha's Khmer special K, Vietnam Special K, Ensar' Nha Trang and older oils like Brunei Kinam, Kynam No. 1, Kyara LTD, etc..
This wave has created quite a bit of confusion in my mind. Are some of these oils just crafted to comprise of a kinam scent (i believe Taha's oils are such) or are they named Kinam because they contain some?, how much?, what grade?, etc???? And what actually constitutes Kinam as included in these oils?
Disclosure: I do not have any first hand experience with Kinam wood at all. I have however been doing some research into its availability and costs. It appears that 1gm of kinam wood runs about $400 on the Chinese market these days. So if you wanted to make an oil with say 20% Kinam, and planned on making a couple of tolas, you would need roughly 2kg of wood, of which 400gm were Kinam. So, doing the math, that would take $160,000.00 of Kinam, not to mention the cost of the rest of the 80% of the wood. Throw in the amount lost doing the various trials during the production. So I guess I do not understand how that can be done for $3500 a bottle. I mean, just to break even, we are talking like $20,000 for 2.5gm!
I guess a possible explanation is to have procured the kinam several decades ago and stored it until now. Out of passion and benevolence, despite knowing the true value, use it to make oil and sell it based on wood values back then. I believe Brunei Kinam which is approaching a five figure price, is based on this explanation??
Anyway, just wanted to put this out here. If anybody has any info, please enlighten.
And for the record, the ASO Kinam oil sounds like an awesome oil!
This wave has created quite a bit of confusion in my mind. Are some of these oils just crafted to comprise of a kinam scent (i believe Taha's oils are such) or are they named Kinam because they contain some?, how much?, what grade?, etc???? And what actually constitutes Kinam as included in these oils?
Disclosure: I do not have any first hand experience with Kinam wood at all. I have however been doing some research into its availability and costs. It appears that 1gm of kinam wood runs about $400 on the Chinese market these days. So if you wanted to make an oil with say 20% Kinam, and planned on making a couple of tolas, you would need roughly 2kg of wood, of which 400gm were Kinam. So, doing the math, that would take $160,000.00 of Kinam, not to mention the cost of the rest of the 80% of the wood. Throw in the amount lost doing the various trials during the production. So I guess I do not understand how that can be done for $3500 a bottle. I mean, just to break even, we are talking like $20,000 for 2.5gm!
I guess a possible explanation is to have procured the kinam several decades ago and stored it until now. Out of passion and benevolence, despite knowing the true value, use it to make oil and sell it based on wood values back then. I believe Brunei Kinam which is approaching a five figure price, is based on this explanation??
Anyway, just wanted to put this out here. If anybody has any info, please enlighten.
And for the record, the ASO Kinam oil sounds like an awesome oil!