Drying ebony black and white wood

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Fishnamedfrog

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Aug 7, 2016
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I just bought a piece of ebony black and white from woodcraft. It came with a layer of wax over it, and I was told to dry it with rubbing alcohol or in a microwave, however I wasn't told exactly how this is done. Any advice.
 
I would just leave the wax on it and leave it in a dry place at room temperature for a few months (3-4 to be safe) - taking off the wax too soon may cause the wood to crack if there is too much moisture left in the wood. There's no way of really knowing how long the wood has been in storage and if where you bought it from has a different climate/ humidity from where you are there may be some additional issues with dimensional stability. I haven't heard of the microwave / alcohol method but it sounds dubious and would recommend against it - perhaps someone who has tried it can chime in? I've had cracking happen when I was impatient to get to work with the wood I bought before it was completely seasoned and it resulted in some checking in pieces of yellowheart and osage.
 
Black and white ebony is an unbelievable pain to season. The vast hardness difference means that it is incredibly prone to cracking. When I dry it, I leave the 3ndgrain waxed ALWAYS and over 2 years slowly remove wax from the face grain while keeping everything stacked, stickers and weighted. Even then there is minor cupping and cracking of the ends.
 
Go to a woodturning site like "Saw Mill Creek" and do a search for drying wood. Wood turners have a lot of experience in this area and have a lot of different techniques.
Now, Black and White ebony may be very hard to dry. I have a piece that is waxed, and I plan to let it sit maybe a couple of years before I take any wax off. I think Ben has some good advice on Black and white ebony.
 
Scrape all the wax off the sides, but leave it on the ends. Let it dry a year. Then cut about 1/8" off each end and sand the sides. Let dry another year. This should work fairly well.


Wood turners don't have to deal with warp and twist nearly as much as knifemakers do. many of their "treatments" would ruin a piece of wood for a knife handle. The best weay for knife use is slow and continuous drying.

Once fully dried, B&W ebony stabilized well.
 
There is a microwave method and it was considered for production and large pieces here in NY Expense ended the project. For knives it's a slow process of alternating micro +rest !
In any case slow is the word with lots of luck !
 
If you want to speed drying of handle wood safely, especially for getting wood down below 10% moisture content prior to stabilizing, build a simple drying cabinet. It can be as small as a bread box, or as large as a storage cabinet.

It should have wire shelves. Old oven grates work well. Drill about eight 1/2" holes in the bottom and eight 1/4" holes in the top. In the bottom install a screw-in light socket. Place a 75 watt incandescent bulb in it. The bulb should be at least 6" from any wood being dried. Place wood blocks on the shelves and turn on the light. It will lower the moisture slowly, but still a lot faster than drying in open air. A month or two in a cabinet will do what a year in open air will do.

You can put a type J or RTD TC in the cabinet and connect it to a cheap PID and control the warmth in the cabinet. A temperature readout is nice anyway. The cabinet gets to about 90-100F.
 
Wouldnt cutting it into scales (making it half the thickness) cause it to dry faster? That what we do in bow making. You can take a freshly cut tree, get it down to bow dimensions (roughly 5/16 thick at the limbs) then leave it in your house for 2 months and your good. But idk if it's different for knife scales.
 
B&W ebony takes a long time to dry. 2-3 years. If you try to speed it up, it will twist and crack. The last piece I did I left for 7 years. That's overkill, but it stabilized well.
 
valknut said:
Wouldnt cutting it into scales (making it half the thickness) cause it to dry faster? That what we do in bow making. You can take a freshly cut tree, get it down to bow dimensions (roughly 5/16 thick at the limbs) then leave it in your house for 2 months and your good. But idk if it's different for knife scales.
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Bows are supposed to curve and bend... knife scales not so much. Also, the wood types are different than most extic knife handles.
Cutting most exotc woods to size ofor scales will end up with twist and warp. After flattening, they will be much thinner.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Bows are supposed to curve and bend... knife scales not so much. Also, the wood types are different than most extic knife handles.
Cutting most exotc woods to size ofor scales will end up with twist and warp. After flattening, they will be much thinner.
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Figured I just didn't know if it was possible. Thanks for the clarification Stacy
 
I've used B&W ebony from Woodcrafters, and just assumed it was properly dried and ready for use. Woodcrafters does not tell you it needs further drying. This post is a bit of a shocker.
 
Never just assume an exotic wood is dry. Always ask, and even then doubt can be healthy. The only exotics that I don't put through no drying are those that I know came out of someone's shed or shop after being there for years.
 
I have tested the moisture of the waxed wood from Woodcraft and it can be as high as 30%. Most is between 15% and 20%.

Think about it ... if it was dry, they wouldn't need to wax it :)
 
Yep. The worst offenders are woods that don't dry very well.

I never trust waxed
Gaboon ebony
Black and white ebony
Snakewood
Ironwood

It's so much easier for a large website or less honest seller to just not mention the wood is waxed and sell wet wood rather than deal with the high loss rate associated with cutting out cracks, voids and checks. It's one of those things people don't often considered about wood prices. When I sell snakewood, the price is so high not only because buying the logs is expensive, but I have to put hours of work into prepping the wood before sitting on it for a few months-years before the moisture is at Acceptable level before cutting away all the useless cracked areas.

If I just bought wet logs, sliced them up, dunked them in wax and sent them out, they would be cheaper but they would be a vastly inferior product.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Yep. The worst offenders are woods that don't dry very well.

I never trust waxed
Gaboon ebony
Black and white ebony
Snakewood
Ironwood

It's so much easier for a large website or less honest seller to just not mention the wood is waxed and sell wet wood rather than deal with the high loss rate associated with cutting out cracks, voids and checks. It's one of those things people don't often considered about wood prices. When I sell snakewood, the price is so high not only because buying the logs is expensive, but I have to put hours of work into prepping the wood before sitting on it for a few months-years before the moisture is at Acceptable level before cutting away all the useless cracked areas.

If I just bought wet logs, sliced them up, dunked them in wax and sent them out, they would be cheaper but they would be a vastly inferior product.
Click to expand...

And this is why your awesome Ben
Always informative and here to help
 
Places like Woodcraft aren't trying to cheat or sell an inferior product, green wood is often preferred by wood turners, it's easier on tools, and it's pretty common to rough turn a piece several times over a year or more to allow for proper drying before the finish.
 
Even if they say "Dried" My home brew method of prepping my woods, after I buy them,

From Anyone out of my part of the country or world is to leave it like it is, In block or scales for at least three months to cure to the local humidity etc before I use them. Once they have acclimated im GTG!
 
aarongb said:
Places like Woodcraft aren't trying to cheat or sell an inferior product, green wood is often preferred by wood turners, it's easier on tools, and it's pretty common to rough turn a piece several times over a year or more to allow for proper drying before the finish.
Click to expand...

Woods meant for turning, this is very true. I was speaking in regards to knife making, where people think that because they bought a block labeled as "knife handle" it is ready to put in a knife when it may still be as high as 20%
 
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