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3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  rtb 
#1 ·
Ebony

Ebony (Diospyros ebenum)

Ebony is a really beautiful wood but is also very, very hard to work with. from my uses of Ebony i have found that it is a very brittle wood and chips very often. it is also very hard to shape using hand tools again because it chips so much. really i have found that the only way to shape it is to sand it and because it is so dark i have a hard time of finding in which direction the grain runs and all it does it chip. also when gluing up Ebony because of the oil content Epoxy is the best way to join it as standard wood glue doesn't hold well or dry well.

Cost again is a major factor and why many piece you see are Ebonized but i would say that if you have the chance to work with Ebony it is a great experience and is a beautiful wood once it is finished. my favored way of getting ebony is just buying cutoffs and using it for accents. for finishing it is good to coat it with a coat of dewaxed shellac first because the oil content might inhibit the finish from bonding correctly. I have a project with Ebony that i am working on now and i will post pictures here once i put the last coat of finish on.
 
#5 ·
well it is for a picture frame that i made for my ccousins graduation. Its really cool and i filmed the whole thing and should have everything on either by tonight or tommorow. i am working on the other hickory frame too. I have the lumber ripped down to final size now and i should have the construction done by tommorow. thanks for the comments everyone.
 
#6 ·
I have worked with Gabon ebony a lot. It does chip out while cross cutting if you are not careful.
Ripping is not bad at all.

It turns great and polishes up great. It's used for a lot of woodwind instruments.
 
#7 ·
Hickory

I know that there is already an entry on hickory but i figure that the more entries we get even if on the same wood our library will grow as everyone will present new ideas. so first off one thing that i noticed with hickory was that it chipped out a lot with router use. what i did to counter this though was take a lot of passes. even if you do take a lot of passes though you can still get chip out. also the king of chip out on hickory are the straight grained boards that are the ones that woodworkers usually like the best. i found this out on my second picture frame which has very straight grain that it chipped out a lot and sometime whole piece will come up along the length of the whole board. other than router use it works relatively well with most other power tools.

now for hand tool work. i found hickory to work good with hand tools. it was relatively easy to work with my chisels which aren't very sharp so with sharp carving tools i would think that it would be relatively nice to carve. the only thing it that when going across the grain and exiting you need to watch out for chips as such as with the router you can get big strips lifting up along the board. i used a card scraper on it too and that worked well and provided a smooth surface.

last is finishing. hickory is a very streaky wood and color varies from board to board so you need to make sure that your boards match. another thing to watch for is the heartwood which is much darker and less desirable. a good finish for it in my opinion is General finished light walnut danish oil. i found it to really bring out the color and not even pictures can capture the color which i think is really good. also there are ways to equalize the heartwood. a darker dye will in essence cover up the heartwood and equalize it. so thats all for hickory. i will post some pictures when i am finished with the mirror frame. i think all in all hickory is a great wood to work with and it is gorgeous too. i will greatly enjoy any comments of suggestions.
 
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