# Unusual Ebonies



## Damienw (Aug 9, 2014)

Hi all, 
Just thought i'd show off some fairly uncommon ebonies i've picked up recently that folks on here might not have come across...

Japanese Persimmon (came out of a small chest of drawers) 







Whilst this piece came from a much larger chest of drawers...

















Australian Ebony

As far as i've seen, this stuff seems to grow smaller than a lot of the other ebonies, as well as having more black marbled throughout the sapwood. It also appears to be rather hard to dry, as i've never seen a big piece of it without a lot of checking and faults. Nice stuff though....

Reactions: Like 4 | EyeCandy! 1 | Way Cool 3


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## Kevin (Aug 10, 2014)

That Japanese persimmon is beautiful. Never seen any.


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## phinds (Aug 10, 2014)

Yeah, I've seen a fair amount of misc Asian ebonies ... there are a lot of them and I have no idea how one would tell them apart once they've been separated from their bark/leaves/size of tree/shape of tree, etc. (not that *I* would know to do it even before then). Some of them do seem to be more like macassar ebony and some more like Gaboon ebony, but even then, I don't know if that's reliable as a distinction.

Anyway, those are nice looking pieces. Do you have any projects in mind for them?


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## Damienw (Aug 10, 2014)

phinds said:


> Yeah, I've seen a fair amount of misc Asian ebonies ... there are a lot of them and I have no idea how one would tell them apart once they've been separated from their bark/leaves/size of tree/shape of tree, etc. (not that *I* would know to do it even before then). Some of them do seem to be more like macassar ebony and some more like Gaboon ebony, but even then, I don't know if that's reliable as a distinction.
> 
> Anyway, those are nice looking pieces. Do you have any projects in mind for them?



In the case of the Japanese Persimmon it can tend to go in a few different directions as far as grain patterns and colours are concerned...some pieces will have black marbling with olive tones through it, whilst others can be a clear cut straight division between black heartwood and white/yellow sapwood. Though i have heard that the black colouration doesn't always show up from one tree to another, so that tends to complicate identification even more so. 

I have noticed that termites and other unpleasant nasties seem to like it more than other ebonies though, at least judging by the number of small pieces of japanese furniture i've restored with eaten and hole ridden persimmon pieces in them. 

You can however get japanese persimmon in bigger pieces than i've generally seen gaboon ebony offered in, as in this little example i found online ....
I've also found a similarly sized slab at work, though its only got a minimal amount of black in it, so i dont think its really worth bothering with unfortunately. 






At the moment i'm not sure of what i might use my pieces for, though i was thinking i might possibly have the highly figured smaller drawer front cut up and used in some infilled squares i'll be having made up at the end of the year/early next. 
I've also got a much smaller naturally weathered piece of Australian ebony, that i've been contemplating turning it into a netsuke sometime soon :)

Reactions: Like 1


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## FDIII (Oct 14, 2014)

one of my favorite woods. if there is any out there please get at me


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## Mike1950 (Oct 14, 2014)

Slab looks a lot like American persimmon. Dries the same. Nice to work with. Sure polish's up nice and makes very good drawer slides.


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