Black and white Ebony

[Joseph Bandeko]

Does anyone know what the radial and tangential shrinkage rating is for black and white Ebony?
in other words how much is it going to shrink expand in service.
I’m wanting to use a small piece of it as part of a knife handle and am just wanting to know if it moves a lot.
I don’t have a lot of experience with this wood and can’t find anything talking about this so any input would be appreciated.
(If it does move a lot I’m not going to use it)

 

[Greenberg Woods]

Natural/ unstabilized black and white ebony has some movement, the main issue is that finding dry black and white ebony is very difficult, and it is very liable to crack in drying.

It is the only ebony I regularly stabilize before sale.

 

[Joseph Bandeko]

I have some already which i partly why I want to use it, it’s been sitting in my house for a couple of years now so I’m sure it’s dry.

 

[Joseph Bandeko]

What other woods would you compare with black and white Ebony as far as movement goes?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

IMHO, it has to be dried for at least a year and then stabilized to use as a knife handle. Best choice is to buy it already stabilized as a knife handle block.

 

[Greenberg Woods]

What other woods would you compare with black and white Ebony as far as movement goes?

There is no good comparison, because the factor that makes black and white ebony so difficult is its variation. Depending on the amount of black to white area, the orientation of the grain and the drying the movement can vary drastically between trees and between individual pieces. It has to be decided on a per piece basis