Wood question

Kevin Evans · January 14, 2011, 04:45:00 PM

Guys I recently bought a piece of Ebony that is 3"x3" block 18" long.
I cut a piece off and was going to put on knife in a few days went back to install,
in one week it was cracked.

My question is the entire block was dipped in wax (I guess) and I guess its not dry .I don't know??
What should I do now??
I don't know much about wood

DANA HOLMAN · January 14, 2011, 06:19:00 PM

Kevin
I have bought some of that wood from woodcrafters, it is dipped in wax to keep it from drying out to fast, (that is what the guy at the store told me). the ebony i bought had a lot of the white with black lines. i got one piece out of it and the other has small cracks, luckly the wood i used for the handle has not cracked. As far as saving the rest of it im not sure what to tell you
sorry i cant help
dana

kbaknife · January 14, 2011, 06:51:00 PM

Sounds like the whole thing is still too wet.
People who buy the 3x3 use then for turning and need them wet - that's why the whole block is waxed instead of just the ends.
You will not be able to use it for a while.
Cut it up into blocks.
Then, get some canning wax and melt it.
Dip about 1/2" of each block end into the hot wax.
Tie a string around them and hang them from your barn ceiling until next summer some time.
I've got quite a few blocks of ebony, Kevin, that have been cut up for about 2 years.
Want one?

Lin Rhea · January 14, 2011, 08:18:00 PM

I would have it stabilized after it is dry. Ebony is bad to crack, but I think it would be fine after doing what Karl suggests and then stabilized.

kbaknife · January 14, 2011, 08:27:00 PM

Have you had ebony stabilized, Lin?

Lin Rhea · January 14, 2011, 08:45:00 PM

No, I have not. I do figure it would help though. In fact, I have avoided using it so far because of the cracking, but would like to see what stabilizing would do.

Kevin Evans · January 14, 2011, 10:57:00 PM

Thanks guys.
I thought I was being smart ,buying a big piece and cutting into 6 or 8 pieces ,doesn't look so smart now.LOL
Don't know if I need more yet Karl I am on my last piece of
African Black wood now.

Doug Campbell · January 15, 2011, 12:28:00 AM

You probably did do the right thing cutting it into smaller pieces Kevin. Look over it carefully and hit anything that looks like a crack with the real thin CA glue. Doesn't take much, the capillary action sucks it right into the crack. You'll still have to put it up till it dries though. I've had pretty good luck doing this with ebony, snakewood, ironwood, koa... things dry out real fast out here in this low humidity...

Most of the Ebony I've had my hands on is dense enough I'm not sure if stabilizing would do much good either guys.

Lin Rhea · January 15, 2011, 05:19:00 AM

On another thread Tyler mentioned seeing Ron Newton do a stabilizing demo. He stabilizes everything including ivory. After seeing the amount of bubbles coming out of the otherwise dense materials, he made a believer out of me. Impressive to say the least.

Doug Campbell · January 15, 2011, 09:42:00 AM

Cool, I've used K&G I think it was a couple times and been a little disapointed in some of the denser, (osage, koa) stuff I've sent in...

Scott Roush · January 15, 2011, 03:57:00 PM

There was just a thread on this on Blade (I think?)a couple of weeks ago... It was regarding how unstable ebony is in terms of shrinking and cracking, etc. Especially if it was over-heated on the sanding belt. The thread convinced me to stop buying it. I just got a big chunk of East Indian rosewood that I will use when I want something dark like that... and apparently it is very, very stable.