Ebony

[Rob Grant]

A mate just found a nice solid well seasoned log of beautiful black ebony (Diospyros ferrea) in an isolated far northern creek bed. Weathering and tumbling in the water course had stripped off any extraneous sapwood and bark. This will break down into a lot of fretboards, headstock veneers and binding!

I thought a few North American instrument builders might be interested in a photo of the "treasure." The tapemeasure is ~1 metre.

[Rob Grant]

Here's the end view. There's a coating of polyurethane over the ends...

[Rob Grant]

I forgot to add that the original log was almost twice this length. The mate had to hack it in half to reduce the weight and length so he could cram it into his already overloaded 4WD. The remainder wound up as a "night log" in the cooking fire!

[F5GRun]

Wow!! great find. What area of the world are you located? I doubt ill find any of that in a creek bed in Pennsylvania! Enjoy and thanks for the pics.

P.S.
Im Jealous

[sunburst]

I'm jealous too!
There's nothing like that to be found in creek beds around here!

[Rob Grant]

I'm located up in far northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Several species of ebony naturally occur in our region. Generally the trees produce an insignificant "black" core. Occasionally you find a specimen with a core like that above.

I've never had to cut a living tree. It's best to look for trees which have died of natural causes. The termites and wood boring beetle larva will clean up the bark and sap. If there is a substantial core, it will be left untouched by insects and fungii. There is a theory that the black cores contain toxic organics that the tree produces to protect itself from attack.

Although you wouldn't find ebony in Pennsylvania, it does burn like the black coal of that state (without the smell!).
I chucked the ragged ebony off cuts into a pile and set them alight. They burned slow and steady and produce quite a bit of heat. The end result is a pile of distinctive orange coloured ash.

[Mr. Loar]

Wow, I never saw an ebony log before. Thanks.

[sunburst]

We have a native "ebony" here in Virginia too, Diospyros virginiana (common persimmon) but I've never seen a black heart of any size in one. I wish there was a traditional looking native fingerboard/peghead overlay alternative that I could use, but alas there isn't.

[F5GRun]

Hmmm. Normal wood leaves black ash, and black wood leaves orange ash? who knew?

Thanks for the photos and the location! We have plently of coal here, but its hard to get a comfortable radius out of it for a fingerboard.

Maybe you can post more photos once you cut 'er up.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Here is some nice ebony that I got a short while back. #On the left is the largest chunck of Gabon Ebony I have ever purchased. #It's almost 3" thick. #On the right is some very nice Macassar ebony of which I got two identically sized pieces. The guitar is there for scale--sorry Scott

Finding large pieces of black (Gabon/Gaboon)ebony is rare anymore and the prices have skyrocketed in the past two years.

Great find there Rob

[billhay4]

I found a sixpack of beer in a creek pool once. Though I'd died and gone to heaven. But your find is much better!
On the subject of persimmon, why couldn't it be used for fretboards? Is color the only issue?
Bill

[oldwave maker]

Great find, Rob! In 20 years of picking up cans on highway 152, all I've found is short 2x4's and juniper firewood splits.
Back in the mid 90's a friend was headed to Swaziland to help set up education courses for the university, asked if I needed anything from africa, and I said howbout a chunk of ebony, this is part of the piece he brought back. A fun addition to any festival booth display, especially when kids try to lift it.
He went back 2 yrs later and said there wasnt a piece that big left in the entire country, so this souvenir wont become fretboards......

[sunburst]

...On the subject of persimmon, why couldn't it be used for fretboards? Is color the only issue?

Yep, color is about the only issue, it can be used for 'boards, as can locust, Osage orange, and others, but the traditional look is important to lots of buyers.

[JeffD]

Here's the end view. There's a coating of polyurethane over the ends...

A really naive question. (I know very little about wood except mandolins can be made from it. Where I grew up every tree had been planted.)


Wouldn't polyurethaning the ends inhibit natural drying?

Or is that what you want to do?

[sunburst]

Wouldn't polyurethaning the ends inhibit natural drying?

In a word, yes.

The pores in wood open to the ends of the log/board/piece, so wood looses (and gains) moisture much faster through the end grain.
As wood looses moisture (beyond fiber saturation point) it shrinks, so it stands to reason that it will shrink more at the ends where it looses moisture faster. If the ends shrink faster than the rest of the wood internal stresses result, and the wood will develop the familiar end checks or cracks in the end grain. Coating the ends with something that slows the loss of moisture through the end grain allows the wood to shrink at a similar rate everywhere and avoid the end checks that would likly result from natural drying, so more of the wood is solid, not cracked, and usable.

[Rob Grant]

I used polyurethane to seal the ends because I had an old out of date tin of "Estapol Satin" (an Australian brand name) laying around the workshop. You can seal the end grain with wax or even acrylic (plastic) house paint.

Bill, nice chuck of the African gear. It's amazing how much of a contrast the white sapwood is from the black heartwood. Our ebony also has white sap with thin flecks of red. The sapwood must be high in starch because it doesn't survive long around termites and borers.

Colour for traditionalists can be a problem with fretboards. For years Rosewood has been used as an acceptable alternative for fretboards. Here in Oz I prefer to use what we call locally Cooktown Ironwood or "Red Ebony" for fretboards and headstock veneers. The rich, burgundy or red-brown colour and waxy texture of the Cooktown Ironwood make it a hit with local customers.

[twombo]

Ouch, Rob!1

Dont'cha get car sick real easy!! It's bad enough drivin' on the other side, but upside down? You guys are tough in the "down under". Do toilets really swirl anti clockwise (I try not to look)?

Mike

[Rob Grant]

Mike,
I just filled the laundry sink up to "scientifically" varify the direction of the swirl. I would have used the toilet to varify the action, but Aussie toilets flush with a bit more force then the average Yank unit. There is no gentle swirl to be observed there!

My sink water exited in a counterclockwise direction.<G>

[twombo]

Will check mine tonight at 39 degrees north, 121 west to compare swirls!

Mike

[Red Henry]

We have a native "ebony" here in Virginia too, Diospyros virginiana (common persimmon) but I've never seen a black heart of any size in one. I wish there was a traditional looking native fingerboard/peghead overlay alternative that I could use, but alas there isn't.

When only small pieces are needed, Persimmon works great. It does seem to be ebony's acoustic equivalent in mandolin and banjo bridges, with the visual addition of fancy colored inclusions.

Red

[Eddie Sheehy]

Having lived in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres I can categorically state that it can swirl in either direction in either Hemisphere - probably depends on the plumbing more than on the Earth's rotation. I did find however that my sense of direction was "off". I'd exit a building and find myself walking in the "wrong" direction. Luckily I no longer have to fly South for the winter so I should be ok now.