It is definitely not Macassar ebony or Ceylon ebony- it is “Kamagong” (locals also refers to it as “mabolo” because of the associated fruit that it bears, kind of like a fuzzy haired Georgia peach that we have here in the US). It only grows and indigenous to the Philippines- it is very hard and very dense. It is traditionally use as a fighting stick in the art form of martial arts, “Arnis or Eskrima” specifically to the Philippines. The thing is that Macassar ebony also grows there and people can confuse the two. There are vendors out there in parts of Asia like Thailand, Indonesia, etc. that markets what they sell as “kamagong”- it does not grow in any other parts of Asia period. It gets more confusing as these are commonly refer to as “ironwood or as ebony”. It is a true “diospyros”. All this information I am stating here are facts.
I have travelled to the Philippines several times and visited a lot of furniture showrooms and guitar builders where you will see an all solid wood dining room sets (other forms of furniture type) made from these and guitars built from this wood. There was also a large showroom here in SoHo NYC that showcased a lot of Asian made furniture- they had a dining room, living room and settees. They tend to be more predominantly black with streaks and not the black and tan typically confused about this species. This species is also restricted by Philippine government and PI forestry department because of exploitation and over harvesting. I have actually a log that was brought here back by a GI (west coast) that was stationed in the Philippines (Clark Air base) back in the 80’s. He freighted as much as he could and he had some beauties- he had a burl that was like 250 pounds and it was blackish brown with streaks in it.
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