Probably shouldn't mention this, but African Blackwood is a threatened species, quickly on the way to becoming endangered. Most of it is harvested illegally and/or leaves its country of origin illegally. It is highly unlikely that any we could get here was cut or shipped in a sustainable or ethical way, or that any local people benefited from the indiscriminate use of their resource. Blackwood takes FOREVER to grow to harvestable size, very few even care to try to replant, and even fewer actually do it. That isn't to say that the people you got it from are bad, but somewhere down the line it is almost guaranteed illegal. That said, most of the blame goes to the musical instrument industry who use it to make clarinets. Not saying you shouldn't use it for knives, only that you should know the cost.
