Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Ebony
DocJim
Hi All,
Occasionally I make lighthouse nightlights for friends. In the process of making one I decided to make the lantern room out of some ebony that I had bought from one of the Woodfinder companies. Not sure of its country of origin. I found it not an easy wood to work with. I found it brittle and a bit hard to machine. Does anyone have any observations on working with this wood?
Jim
Re: Ebony
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
hard, brittle but easy to machine with turning tools, drilling, tapping and the like. Treated like a piece of brass I find it easy to work with.
Re: Ebony
William Duffield
What Bill said…
…and what you have already observed.
I've used it for turning finials and bottle stoppers. However, I once tried to turn and carve a flame finial from Gabon ebony. The edge of my veiner (carving v-gouge) shattered, so I gave up on the idea of a flame. There could have been something wrong with the heat treatment of the Pfeil carving tool, but fixing it is still on my To Do list.
Woodturning Ebony
John K Jordan
I use a lot of Ebony but only for woodturning, mostly smaller things. I love turning it. I have a variety, mostly Gaboon, and it turns beautifully with sharp tools. I usually just buff the bare wood instead of use a finish.
A few turnings...
Threaded boxes from Black and White Ebony
ERC and Ebony
Ebony and Walnut
Bottle stopper hardware from Ruth Niles
I also like African Blackwood, which can look so much like Ebony it can be hard to tell the difference.
I look for Ebony with brown streaks which can make it look more like wood. Polished Ebony can look just like plastic so if it's jet black I rub it down for a satin finish!
JKJ
Re: Ebony
Ralph Lipeles
When making small parts from ebony I sometimes use my benchtop milling machine.
another option
paul in AZ
Another option for ebony is wenge. Sometimes uniformly black and sometimes it has brownish streaking. When oiled it looks like ebony. Much cheaper as well.
....and Ivory
Joe Fleming
Somebody had to say it 
Re: another option
Thomas Stockton
I work with both ebony and wenge and I much prefer ebony it scrapes and files really nice and is fun to shape. wenge is brittle and splinterry and not very fun.
Tom
Re: another option
paul in AZ
Agree on this.
I find wenge saw dust and splinters to be very irritating to my skin. Nasty.
But I do like the look of it.
Re: ....and Ivory
DocJim
Bwahaha
Re: Ebony
ebd
I absolutely love Macasser Ebony. I've used it in some turnings but prefer to use it for boxes.
segments from macasser - top & bottom wenge.
sides macasser - top burl - wasn't quite done. still had a wee bit of fiddeling to get the top to close perfectly and the latch to close.
Nice work
Ellis Walentine
Macassar has always been one of my faves, too. I recall making a knockdown coffee table once out of 1 1/2" Macassar Ebony. A guy traded me a BMW for it.
Keep up the good work.
Ellis
Wenge
John K Jordan
I've tried to give it a chance but dislike turning wenge. For now I used it for support blocks when clamping for glueups for turning.
JKJ