Ebony wood Facts

Ebony wood Facts

Right from dark brown to jet black, Ebony is thought of  highly for its color, density and hardness. The wood is used for making piano keys, Oboes, Clarinets, Bagpipe, and Violin. The Ebony trees, as named Diospyros Ebenum scientifically, are grown in Mozambique and Tanzania in East African States.

The most costly woods  

The most expensive wood which is found in Africa, is also available in Ceylone and India.  But, till date, the African Ebony is considered to be the best and the finest of all the ebony produced in different region.

A large number of people in Mozambique and Tanzania earn their living by carving wood out of the ebony trees and exporting them to the foreign countries. The exporting cost of Ebony woods can be between 15,000 to 18,000 per cubic meter.

Ebony trees grow in grassland and lowlands, and also in coastal areas. It belongs to the rosewood family and their branches, and are full of sharp thorns. Ebony trees grow in grasslands and savannas as well as in lowland coastal areas.

Ebony tree roots enrich the nearby soil and don’t normally develop in groups,  but are found in lonely survival for its inability to compete with other trees in close proximity.

The kind of Ebony used for making violin fittings

An ebony tree takes 50+ years  to be full-grown and become harvestable commodity. Ebony tree reaches  30 ft height maximum, with a thickness of 4ft-5ft diameter and 18-20 ft height minimum is used for making the finest quality fittings/parts. For making fine quality violin fittings 18-20 ft height of Ebony trees is necessary.

Some of the Interesting facts about the ebony

• An ebony tree can be of 65-98 ft in height. Though young trees have rounded crowns, the old trees with wide and multi-branched crown spread horizontally.
• The bark of the ebony trees is dark gray in color and scaly and draped with lichens and mosses.
• Ebony tree gives out both male and female flowers on the same tree. Ebony tree blooms during the spring. Though small, the ebony flowers are sweet-scented.
• The fruit of an ebony tree belongs to berries. Some of them produces rounded berries that have velvety brown skin on the surface.
• Ebony tree is an important source of food for the wild animals, like rhinos, elephants, and giraffes. They feed on leaves of the ebony trees while velvet monkeys, baboons and warthogs like to eat fruit of the tree.