macassar ebony

Uses:
Black Ebony is an exotic species probably most known for its use as fingerboards for various musical instruments, whereas the macassar ebony is the wood of choice for many decorative turners. Its amazing striped pattern of real blacks and dark chocolate browns is an unresistable draw for those in the know.

Other Names: calamander wood, variegated ebony

The Tree:

Ebony is the Greek word for "fruit of the gods" and if you read the history books they suggest that drinking goblets were made from this wood, as they believed it was an antidote for poison, and its use would ward off their enemy's evil intent.

There are 100's of types of ebony worldwide, but most are only shrubs, and only one found in N. America .. the persimmon tree, known best as a wood for the manufacture of golf clubs.

The trees today are few and far between, and of a much smaller size then 20 year ago, ... found on the Asian, Indian and African continent. They can grow to 50' in height & 1 1/2' around, but you're talking about a tree over 100 years old, thus supplies of all sorts of ebony are in relatively limited supply.

Wood Description:

Information on macassar ebony lumber is relatively limited. It is an ebony from India and the East Indies and varies from its closest cousin in the colour banding that makes this wood so dramatic in appearance.

Macassar lumber is less brittle than the gaboon and thus less prone to splitting. The grain can be dramatic and variable from one board to the next.

Weight:approximately 65+ lbs per cubic foot

Finishing:
The wood is very dense thus no fillers are necessary. It finishes to a beautiful sheen, with limited time and effort, although its hardness does dictate sanding through a range of grits.

Machining:
Must have sharp tools, dulling will occur, but cuts easily with a bandsaw. It turns nicely on a lathe although not as great as the gaboon (more grain). Sanding works quite well with power tools, but next to impossible with hand sanding (forget the cheap sandpaper, it won't touch it). Burning can happen if you exert too much pressure on a dull sanding belt, so start with a fresh one.

If you are using it as an inlay with other open pored woods, you do have to be a bit careful. The fine dust can accumulate in the open grain and alter the colour of the contrasting wood... Do use a compressor and blow off the surface well, prior to finishing, then use a tack rag to remove any loose particles.

I hope this information on macassar ebony lumber will encourage you to give it a try as it really is a truly beautiful wood.

my samples --- colors are accurate throughout (with one noted exception)


The first pic is of a piece that is rough sanded and really doesn't do the wood justice. If that piece were fine sanded, even without a finishing agent, it would look very much richer. See the turning at the bottom of this page for a good idea of what the wood can look like finished.


end grain closeup of the piece on the left directly above --- all of the lines you see are sanding marks


two views of a very small solid piece --- the left pic shows raw wood and the right pic shows the other two sides, which I've rough-sanded (sanding marks very evident). The brownish color is correct.


small piece and end grain --- dark color is correct


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


veneer --- there is a huge variation in this wood as to how much light color there is: this piece is pretty much on the extreme side of haveing large amounts of light color. The actual color of the lighter areas is just a bit more light tan (and less golden) than is shown here.


veneer --- this sheet is the opposite of the one above in that it is pretty much on the extreme side of having almost no light areas.


veneer with a more normal mix of light and dark


veneer


veneer with a slight green tint in the pic that is not present in the real wood

NOTE: it was difficult to get the colors to come out accurately on the two really dark veneer sheets, as you can tell by looking at the color of the white ruler paper at the top of each pic. The colors are accurate for those sheets, now that I've played with the settings.