Blackwood – African

African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) grows in the seasonally dry regions of Africa, from Senegal east to Eritrea and south to northern South Africa. It’s one of the densest woods you can buy and one of the world’s most prized instrument woods.
It often looks almost completely black with barely visible grain, though sanding can reveal a very dark chocolate brown. It’s so dark and dense that it hardly seems like a rosewood at all.
The trees are small and often twisted, so long, straight, clean boards are hard to find, and exceptional pieces command a premium. It’s hard work to cut, but it turns and polishes to a superb, glassy finish.
African Blackwood is the traditional wood for clarinets, oboes and bagpipes, and it’s a favorite with woodturners, carvers and guitar makers for fingerboards, handles, inlay and turnings.
This species is listed in CITES Appendix II and the IUCN reports it as being “near threatened.”
Why We Love This Wood
Hard to get clean sections and hard to work, but the results are totally worth the effort!
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Vital Statistics
| Main Color Group | Black |
| Grain Pattern | Even |
| Avg Dry Weight - LB/BF | 6.6 |
| Avg Dry Weight - KG/M3 | 1270 |
| Janka Hardness - LBF | 3670 |
| Janka Hardness - N | 16320 |
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