African blackwood

No, African blackwood is actually a member of the rosewood family (Dalbergia) whereas Ebony is in the diospyros family which just happens to include Persimmon. Texas ebony is not a true ebony.

It works well but can be brittle. It also can respond poorly to excessive sanding. Like most dense exotics it has a tendency to heat check if it gets too hot from sanding. So clean cuts or sanding with a lubricant is recommended. I prefer to sand dense exotics with paste wax which can be easily cleaned between grits with a paper towel and some mineral spirits.
 
No, African blackwood is actually a member of the rosewood family (Dalbergia) whereas Ebony is in the diospyros family which just happens to include Persimmon. Texas ebony is not a true ebony.

It works well but can be brittle. It also can respond poorly to excessive sanding. Like most dense exotics it has a tendency to heat check if it gets too hot from sanding. So clean cuts or sanding with a lubricant is recommended. I prefer to sand dense exotics with paste wax which can be easily cleaned between grits with a paper towel and some mineral spirits.

Interesting. Thanks.
 
I recently watched an episode of Forged in Fire and they used African blackwood on the grip of either a knife or sword. I believe that they found it hard to work with. Machining and finishing ?
 
It's less brittle than "true" ebony though and has even better "tone wood" qualities so widely used by instrument (woodwind) makers. I think it's also a more "true black" so some people like it for that.
 
There are many ebonies. Some are black as night (Gaboon and Ceylon (which is the blackest of the black that I have seen) ebony); ebony with stripes (Macassar ebony, striped ebony, Mun ebony) and even black and white ebony which happens to be a favorite of mine because of how interesting the resulting woodwork is. And Ryan is correct blackwood is less brittle generally than ebony. I much prefer turning blackwood over true ebony although I don't find as many problems with the Mun and Macassar varieties.

Several years ago I was traveling and happened to sit across the aisle from an African woman (not African-American) who was using a hand carved cane. What intrigued me was that the cane was made of ebony yet had the most amazing carvings on its surface. I asked the woman if I might see it because of my interest in all things wood and she let me hold it and examine it. It was unbelievably heavy. I would not want to be rapped across the skull with that cane. She verified that it was indeed ebony and knew the tree from which it came. It was a beautiful thing and gleamed like black gold. It was an amazing piece of work.

I saw the episode where the guy had his handle from blackwood split/crack. It appeared to me that the wood had somewhat spiral grain which I think would make it more likely to split. I have numerous pieces of both blackwood and ebony split because of my carelessness while sanding. Once a dense wood like that gets hot it is very likely to split.
 
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