What is "Macassar Ebony"?

Plumberdv

Plumberdv

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Sep 26, 2008
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What exactly is Macassar Ebony? I have an old ('73 or '74) 112 on its way and it has that for handles. From the pictures, it looks pretty much the same as the standard handles that are in production now, so I'd like to know what the difference is.
 
Plumberdv said:
What exactly is Macassar Ebony? I have an old ('73 or '74) 112 on its way and it has that for handles. From the pictures, it looks pretty much the same as the standard handles that are in production now, so I'd like to know what the difference is.
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There are many species- make that common names- of Ebony within the Family with Macassar being one of the two most common and Gaboon, or Madagascar, Ebony being the other. It is generally lighter (both in color and in density) than what we generally think of as ebony, the very dark, very dense, Gaboon ebony. There are a bunch of other species as well. See here for much more information.
 
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According to the website I linked to above, the common name macassar ebony refers to any of three species, D. Celebica or D. Insularis, and, according to the Diospyros entry at wikipedia, these are found on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia and in Papau New Guinea/Solomon Islands, respectively. There is also D. Kurzii which is indeed found in some of the islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is the ebony that looks like a marblized cookie.

Apparently there are hundreds of forms of ebony and even more common names. Even persimmon is considered a form of ebony. I thought I knew something about the wood but today realized that I don't know much at all! :)
 
Thanks, Roughedges, for getting here before me - I was all set to go through all that rigamaroll too. The kurzii ebony is also sometimes called "dot" ebony, because it looks like a dalmation when cut so it shows the end grain. Pretty stuff.

Tropical woods are funny stuff. There are about a gazillion different species that can all be correctly called "ebony," "rosewood," etc. You've practically got to be a botanist to really know what's going on with all of them.
 
Flat, I think it did come from Indonesia.Perhaps someone will post w/ more authoritative knowledge.DM
 
"The growth range of the species is reported to include the East Indies, Philippine Islands, and the Celebes Islands of Indonesia. It prefers well-drained, rocky soil, and is sometimes found near water but never in swamps."
 
It probably was East Indies that I read and that somehow became India in my mind.
Course, everything your read ain't right all the time. In any case, talking about different ebony, I have some scale that I bought for my knife projects that was called "White Ebony" Its pretty nice looking stuff.

I'll try to do a picture of it in the morning and get you guys impression on it.
 
Macassar and Gabon ebony are both members of Diospyros. Both have very similar Janka hardness (about 3220, almost three times white oak's hardness). Both have similar density (one of the most dense woods around).

Gabon ebony is usually uniformly jet black, although I have seen some lighter samples with visible grain. Macassar ebony is striped black/light brown. Depending on the individual piece of wood, it can be almost all black or almost all light brown, and anything in between.

These two are probably my favorite two woods for knife handles. Gabon ebony for small folders, macassar for larger knives. Large pieces of macassar with good figure are beautiful. And related species are very similar - kamagong (from the mabolo tree in the Philippines, also from the genus Diospyros) is virtually indistinguishable from macassar ebony. I have some carved articles made from kamagong that I bought in the Philippines, but it is very difficult to get kamagong wood.

More recent Buck knives have birch (or other wood) handles that can look similar to the older macassar ebony.

I recently got a Custom Shop 110 with buffalo horn scales. If macassar were an option, I would have gotten that.

This GEC is gabon ebony:
1-18-08003.jpg


The two 2-dot 112s in this pic have nice macassar:
Knives12-11-07010.jpg


And this custom has kamagong:
Laconico1001.jpg
 
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I just found out from my guitar nut brother, that they use it in alot of guitars. As a matter of fact, he bought one on line today with a Macassar Ebony fret board.
 
The current 110s and 112s are Obeche Wood from Africa and are not related to the Macassar Ebony that was used up intill 1993 or so. The Ebony was natural wood and the Obeche is a stained, epoxy impregnated and laminated wood. Obeche in its natural state is blond and very soft like aspen, poplar or cottonwood.
 
The current 110s and 112s are Obeche Wood from Africa and are not related to the Macassar Ebony that was used up intill 1993 or so. The Ebony was natural wood and the Obeche is a stained, epoxy impregnated and laminated wood. Obeche in its natural state is blond and very soft like aspen, poplar or cottonwood.
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Thanks for that Richard. I thought it was birch that was being stained and laminated. I suppose that since its called Obeechee I should have wondered about that assumption.
 
The surface of the 110/112/055 inlays are actually a veneer that is stained to resemble Macassar Ebony. The veneer itself is made in Europe. The wood for the actual Macassar Ebony inlays came from Indonesia; it was received in various forms/sizes over the years and was processed into the inlays at Buck (all except the 055 of course which did not exist then). Finaly the Indonesian government decided that they no longer wanted to export the raw material, but instead required finished handles to be exported. We tried this, even going so far as building equipment and sending it to the supplier in Indonesia so they could process the wood (into inlyas) with it. This attempt was unsuccesful; with "raw" Ebony becoming more difficult to obtain, Buck began the transition to the inlays used today.

Bill Keys
Director, Lean Manufacturing & Engineering
Buck Knives
 
ok bill,
if the ebony were available would buck switch back?
or offer it as a CS option?
 
I don't think so Dave,as Joe and I had this conversation a while back and he said there were other problems w/ that arrangement.C J even posted about this topic a while back.
DM
 
It's really a shame so much of the really nice wood in the world comes from frickin' third-world countries.
 
It's a real shame that macassar is not available for CS 110s. A quality piece of macassar is soooo nice. Maybe if I supply the wood.....
 
Maybe if I supply the wood.....
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Now that's exactly what I've been planning to ask Liz and Joe. I've got some really nice scale that I would love to see go into a CS knife. I'm aware on one guy who dropped of a knife at the factory store for servicing and left a set of Aboyna burl scale with that knife. And they put the burl on for him.

I already these really nice sets that I'd love to send in for NS, rivets, & S30V blades in the CS.
Macassar Ebony
Blackwood
Desert Ironwood
Bocote
English Walnut
White Ebony
 
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