WOOD ID POSTER:
co-created by, and sponsored by, HobbitHouse

240 woods on a poster (24"x36")

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EBONY, MACASSAR

Diospyros spp.



click here for a discussion of the genus Diospyros


my samples --- colors are accurate throughout (with one noted exception)


both sides of a sample plank of macassar ebony / Diospyros celebica --- HUGE enlargements are present. This sample was loaned to me by David Clark whom I thank for this and other contributions to the site.


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


END GRAIN UPDATE from directly above


The first pic is of a piece that is rough sanded and really doesn't do the wood justice. If that piece were fine sanded, even without a finishing agent, it would look very much richer. See the turning at the bottom of this page for a good idea of what the wood can look like finished.


end grain closeup of the piece on the left directly above --- all of the lines you see are sanding marks


two views of a very small solid piece --- the left pic shows raw wood and the right pic shows the other two sides, which I've rough-sanded (sanding marks very evident). The brownish color is correct.


small piece and end grain --- dark color is correct


end grain closeup of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank sent to me by a correspondant in Oaska Japan (I think the wood is from Malasia). This is a particularly dark piece --- the lighter colored streaks are VERY dark brown


end grain and end grain closeup of the piece directly above


both sides of a sample plank sent to me by a correspondant in Oaska Japan (I think the wood is from Malasia)


end grain of both ends of the piece directly above


end grain closeups of both ends of the piece directly above


veneer --- there is a huge variation in this wood as to how much light color there is: this piece is pretty much on the extreme side of haveing large amounts of light color. The actual color of the lighter areas is just a bit more light tan (and less golden) than is shown here.


veneer --- this sheet is the opposite of the one above in that it is pretty much on the extreme side of having almost no light areas.


veneer with a more normal mix of light and dark


veneer


veneer with a slight green tint in the pic that is not present in the real wood

NOTE: it was difficult to get the colors to come out accurately on the two really dark veneer sheets, as you can tell by looking at the color of the white ruler paper at the top of each pic. The colors are accurate for those sheets, now that I've played with the settings.


veneer --- the actual wood is slightly more black than I was able to show in the pics


veneer sheet and closeup


narrow veneer sheets


web pics:


very nice plank; pic submitted by Al Amstutz


cants


planks


some turning sticks and a plank, all with is clearly too much red color


this turning stick seems to have a little too much red color


planks and turning stock


figured plank and closeup


planks and turning stock (some waxed) listed as macassar ebony / Diospyros celebica


planks listed as Asian striped ebony / Diospyros discolor)


bowl blank; pic submitted by Al Amstutz


end grain (the one with the orange is probably from the BogusColorVendor)


thin wood bookmatched pair set up for guitar back --- color is too green to be believable


pen blanks that have been oiled and waxed


scales


figured veneer


veneer


veneer listed as macassar ebony / Diospyros celebes [which I take to be a misspelling of celebica)


slip-matched veneer

>
flat cut bookmatched veneer


flat cut bookmatched veneer and closeup


quartersawn veneer


quartersawn bookmatched veneer


veneer sheet closeups




dresser --- I think the bright orange of the lighter stripes is perhaps caused by a particular finishing agent or more likely it is an artifact of the pic


two views of a bowl






macassar ebony in a turned bowl. The upper pic shows a side of the piece in which no amount of color correction could bring out a grain but in the "front" view of the piece, I was able, by seriously diddling the colors, to bring out a slight grain pattern that you actually can see in the real wood. This all shows pretty clearly that macassar ebony can be used in place of real ebony in many cases. Not all macassar ebony is lacking in lighter streaks, but many are and the application of even a clear stain or polyurethane darkens it all to an almost uniform black.




snare drum using some really high contrast macassar ebony. I'm not sure what the finish is, but there obviously is one.




guitar back and side


guitar blanks




what I consider to be an outstanding combination of form and function. These are salt and pepper shakers, with the pepper shaker being mostly-dark macassar and the salt shaker being mostly-light macassar. Very clever, I think, but then I'm easily impressed. :-)






a single turning sample done to show the aspects of the grain pattern. STILL NEED TO DO A COLOR CORRECTED VERSION - the color here is very close but I think I can get it better. The finish is polyurethane (several coats). Oh well ... it's too late now. I just too this piece out again after 9 years spent mostly inside a closed box and as you can see below, the color has darkened noticibly.


the same piece as directly above, but after 9 years, mostly in a closed box but even otherwise it was not exposed to much indirect sunlight and no direct sunlight. The box it was in got some water damage and developed mildew and the polyurethane coating on this piece in particular was seriously degraded, as you can see. The color of the wood was not affected. The color on these pics is very accurate