ebony that looks brownish???
- Thread starter bbb
- Start date
Brazilian ebony is brown. Mun ebony is sometimes brown. Texas ebony is brown. Even African ebonies are sometimes brown or streaked with brown. Most people think of ebony as black but in reality only a few ebonies are black. The black ones are most common in cues, which is why folks believe ebony should be black, but technically it could be brown. How dark brown is your cue? Do you have a picture?
If the builder simply described it as ebony then he should have expected you to expect black, and could easily have avoided the confusion by telling you before hand that it was brown & not black.
If the builder simply described it as ebony then he should have expected you to expect black, and could easily have avoided the confusion by telling you before hand that it was brown & not black.
Here's a fairly recent, similar thread: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=264531&highlight=ebony
ebony
Black ebony is getting harder to get everyday. Madagascar is shut down,
that was the really black stuff. Gaboon is coming in with a lot of brown streaking. If you want jet black, try plastic.
I recently talked with a major lumber importer and he said his source for ebony would no longer
guarentee color, only country of origin. Plus it came in dipped in really thick wax. So no idea until you buy.
Bet you will see more and more dying in the future.
Black ebony is getting harder to get everyday. Madagascar is shut down,
that was the really black stuff. Gaboon is coming in with a lot of brown streaking. If you want jet black, try plastic.
I recently talked with a major lumber importer and he said his source for ebony would no longer
guarentee color, only country of origin. Plus it came in dipped in really thick wax. So no idea until you buy.
Bet you will see more and more dying in the future.
I, myself, see no problem in putting some black stain on black gabon ebony. It is still gabon ebony. Same texture, same weight, same density and the same wood. It certainly doesn't affect the performance of the material or the cue. The only difference is you have improved the aesthetics a little. Isn't that the reason we put in inlays, points and rings? It all adds up to just making a tool to look better without hindering performance.
Dick
Expecting today's Ebony to be jet black is like expecting the shaft wood to have 20 plus growth lines and be white and clean with near zero grain run out. That would probably give you about the same percentages of Jet black Ebony and Maple shaft wood that are of that quality. Both are getting very hard to find in that quality.
I have 40 pieces that are jet black. Bought from Luthier Mercantile eons ago.
I think they are worth more than my car now.:grin:
I used to buy ebony (1.5 X 1.5 X 15 for a little over 6.00, purple heart ( 1 X 1 X 30 for 1.05 and 2 X 2 X 24 for 2.00) , king wood and a couple of other woods from them at very friendly prices but those days are long gone. I once bought 100 1 X 2 X 12 ebony pieces from Eisenbrand for 2.00 each and they are just as black as black can be. I also bought 50 pieces of 1.5 X 1.5 X 15 of Maccasser ebony for 3.00 each from them. Wanted to order more but was told that Dufferrin had bought up all of their stock of over 20,000 pieces. Quality has really gone down hill and the price of the exotics have sky rocketed over the last 20 - 25 years when I was loading up on wood.
Dick
"Brazilian ebony is brown."
Even worse - it's called Panococo and comes from Guyana.
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As said by many - The black Ebony we all want is getting more rare
every day. The best is called 'musical instrument grade'<as in woodwinds>
Sri Lanka(Ceylon) was the source for the best, I haven't even heard
of any supply for years.
Of course I do Joey...
Dale
