Here's a little Wood 101 courtesy of
www.wikipedia.org
African Blackwood or Mpingo (Dalbergia melanoxylon) is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to seasonally dry regions of Africa from Senegal east to Eritrea and south to the Transvaal in South Africa.
African Blackwood is no longer regarded as being ebony, a name now reserved for a limited number of timbers yielded by the genus Diospyros; these are more of a matte appearance and are more brittle.
It is a small tree, reaching 4-15 m tall, with grey bark and spiny shoots. The leaves are deciduous in the dry season, alternate, 6-22 cm long, pinnate, with 6-9 alternately arranged leaflets. The flowers are white, produced in dense clusters. The fruit is a pod 3-7 cm long, containing one to two seeds.
The dense, lustrous wood ranges from reddish to pure black. It is generally cut into small billets or logs with its sharply demarcated bright yellow white sapwood left on to assist in the slow drying so as to prevent cracks developing. Good quality "A" grade African Blackwood commands high prices on the commercial timber market. The tonal qualities of African Blackwood are particularly valued when used in woodwind instruments, principally Highland pipes, clarinets, oboes and Northumbrian pipes. Furniture makers from the time of the Egyptians have valued this timber. A story states that it has even been used as ballast in trading ships and that some enterprising Northumbrian pipe makers used old discarded Blackwood ballast to great effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Blackwood
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Ebony (Diospyros ebenum), also known as India Ebony or Ceylon Ebony depending on its origin, is a tree in the genus Diospyros, native to southern India and Sri Lanka. It is noted for its heavy black, fine-grained heartwood. It is a medium-sized evergreen, reaching 2025 m tall. The leaves are entire, about 615 cm long and 35 cm broad. The fruit is a small berry 2 cm diameter, similar to a small persimmon. This slow growing tree is native to dry and intermediate zones.
Ebony heartwood is one of the most intensely black woods known, which, combined with its very high density (it is one of the very few woods that sink in water), fine texture, and ability to polish very smoothly, has made it very valuable as an ornamental wood.
Modern uses are largely restricted to small sizes, particularly in musical instrument making, including piano and harpsichord keys, violin, oboe, guitar, and cello fingerboards, endpieces, pegs and chinrests. Traditionally, black piano and harpsichord keys were ebony, and the black pieces in chess sets were made from ebony, with rare boxwood being used for the white pieces. Modern east Midlands-style lace-making bobbins, also being small, are often made of ebony and look particularly decorative when bound with brass or silver wire. Due to its strength, many handgun grips are made of Ebony as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony
