Bob,
Those rims caught my eye as well. SWEET!! They are being marketed by wheelbuilder.com. They are made in Italy by a couple of brothers, forget their names. Current production. After looking them over closely, I noticed that there was no joint. Upon inquiry I was told (if I remember correctly) that they are made out of one continuous length of wood ( beechwood? ). Probably it was more than one length of wood, but the the rim is a continuous wrap of wood. I could hardly tell there were any layers. Having done woodwork, I was really impressed by these rims. Spoke tension is not as high as a metal rim, but boy are those rims beautiful! I believe the retail price was around $170 a rim. Don't quote me on that though. Go to http://www.wheelbuilder.com for more info.
Jay Sexton
snow in
Sebastopol, CA