One of the most tedious sections in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is when you first arrived in Archades. In order to gain access to Tsenoble, you can to earn pinewood chops by matching two people throughout the town. This can become increasingly frustrating if you are trying to gain access to Grand Arcade and/or High Garden Terrace as you will need to earn a whopping 28 pine woods in order to trade them in for a single sandalwood. Fortunately, there is an easy (but quite expensive) way to save a lot of time.
Buying Pinewood Chop
In the upper level of every shop in Archades, there is a person known as the Chopmaster. This is the person you will have to talk to in order to trade in your pine chops for sandalwood.
The Chopmaster is also where you can buy a pine chop. With that said, the method to do so is slightly obscure. To do so, talk to him and choose the third option: “Just passing through.”
Afterwards, talk to him again and, if you did the previous step directly, you’ll get the following option: “I’d like to buy a chop.” If you choose it, he will then offer to sell you one for 20000 gil.
Rinse and repeat the previously steps until you get all the pine chops you need. Once you have 28 pine woods in your possession, you can’t buy any more of them.
Getting the Sandalwood
If you have enough pine chops, you can talk to the Chopmaster to trade them for one sandalwood, doing so will give you access to the aforementioned Grand Arcade and High Garden Terrace sections in Archades.