Indian Ebony

[John Bertotti]

Curious if anyone has used a wood called Indian Ebony? A local sawyer had a small stash all waxed up and was selling it as turning blanks. I grabbed one in the off chance it would be a nice inlay or bridge material. I paid what the tag says and it may have been to high or not I just don't know. But I liked the look of it. There is some streaking on two sides so it obviously goes through the blank but I like that for appearance's sake although I have no idea how it will affect tone. I might go back and grab another if it is suitable for bridges. This one is destined for a Celtic/Nordic knot and dragon on a tabletop. It is 6/4 square by 12.125" long Thanks for any insights shared or thoughts given!

[Richard500]

Yes, it’s good stuff, and the name is not some marketing invention. Cursory web search.
However, since the piece you have is nicely regular, just for your own records you might want to weigh it and record the density for future comparison to other materials. The only thing I found is there might be a small difference in hardness with African ebony, and it might be straighter-grained, but this can be tree-to-tree differences. There are other ebonies worldwide.

[John Bertotti]

Thanks! That's a great idea! I will weigh it but perhaps I should get the wax off first? I think I will grab a couple more tomorrow! I am going to slice it thinner and use it for an inlay idea I have floating around in my head.

[John Arnold]

I used Indian ebony a lot when I started building 40+ years ago. IMHO, it is at least as good as African ebony. BTW, it is a true ebony (Diospyros spp.).

[sunburst]

I picked up a similar turning blank at Woodcraft once, and sawed it into mandolin fingerboards.

[John Bertotti]

I have been thinking about that. I figure at 1x1x12 I could easily get three boards out of one. Maybe four if I am careful and cut it with a Japanese thin kerf pull saw. That would be more tricky.

[John Bertotti]

Out of curiosity what is the minimum thickness you would make a fret board?

[HoGo]

I shoot for 3/16" (4.7 mm) final thickness. But I resawed a cello fingerboard blank into mandolin once, and even though I tried to saw as thin pieces very close to final thickness the last slice ended up tiny bit thinner, some 4mm thick. I glued thin hardwood veneer with strong epoxy to bottom before I finished the fingerboard shape and bound it like usual.

[John Bertotti]

I picked up two more 12" long pieces one was 1.5" square the other was 2" square.

[MikeEdgerton]

Indian Ebony has apparently been used by at least one major American guitar manufacturer in the past. There are some pretty strict rules regarding the export of the product from India.

[John Bertotti]

I wonder if the size he gets is a loophole for getting it. These are sold as turning blanks.

[HoGo]

Not sure about legal issues of indian ebony, some exotic woods cannot be exported in raw form, some can be exported only as finished goods (Kauri comes to mind). I don't think you can tell it apart from african (or other black ebonies) once cut into fingerboards...
I see that your pieces are completely covered in wax. I would make sure they are dry enough before you cut them. They don't have to be perfectly dry, just not too wet or they will split or twist. In any case, I would clamp the pieces together between two flat pieces of wood right after resawing and keep them that way till you use them. I sometimes receive thin ebony this way sandwiched between two slightly longer boards held together with long woodscrews at the ends.

[John Bertotti]

This guy kiln dries everything to 5-7 %, that said I should ask if this stuff was dried that way.

[HoGo]

Exotic woods often come from the source waxed to prevent checking when exported and exposed to completely different environment. You can scrape the wax from sides of the block (keep the endgrain sealed) and check with scales if the weight is stable.

[John Bertotti]

But what is considered stable? weight per board foot fairly similar between pieces? I don't even know if these are from the same tree or even stand of trees.

[sunburst]

But what is considered stable? ...

When determining moisture content of wood, stable weight means the piece weighs the same each time it is weighed over a period of time. If the piece is still loosing moisture (drying) it will weigh less each time it is weighed. With the end grain sealed heavily with wax, as yours seem to be, that approach might take a long time because moisture loss will be very slow.

[Richard500]

Weighing is one way to see if wood you get is stabilizing in your environment. Jot down the weight as received and then every few days or weeks to see if it loses or gains. Once nothing much is changing, it’s stable. Doesn’t mean it’s dry.
Of course, since wood dries almost completely through the ends, if you keep them waxed, as suggested, you will prevent cracks, but also drying as fast.
If you like gadgets, you can buy several types of moisture meters, the ones with needle points being the cheapest, but that doesn't give the whole story.
I gather that builders have to be very careful with the state of wood going into wide parts, but since drying cracks affect gross-grain width and not length, something narrow, like a fingerboard is probably less of an issue for functionality. And, each wood species behaves differently.

[HoGo]

Weighing is one way to see if wood you get is stabilizing in your environment. Jot down the weight as received and then every few days or weeks to see if it loses or gains. Once nothing much is changing, it’s stable. Doesn’t mean it’s dry.
Of course, since wood dries almost completely through the ends, if you keep them waxed, as suggested, you will prevent cracks, but also drying as fast.

I can see the wood in OP doesn't just have sealed ends but is whole dipped in wax. In that state any drying or stabilisation would take forever. Wood dries through sides but at much slower rate, that's why the endgrain is always sealed. Without proper sealing the ends will dry much faster than the wood further in and also shrink and deep end checks will form pretty quickly. If you seal the ends and leave sides free to loose moisture the wood will dry at slower rate but much more evenly and checks will be reduced or eliminated completely. That's why I suggested scaping the wax from sides, otherwise the wood completely covered in wax will stay as it is for decades (wet or dry).

[John Bertotti]

Yes these pieces are seriously encases in wax. It will scrape off and I will do that on the long sides but not the end grain. I might resew them to the sizes I want but make sure the ends are sealed.