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EBONY (Diospyros ebenum)

Trade Name

Ebony

Scientific Name

Diospyros ebenum Koenig

Family

Ebenaceae

Common Names

karimaram (India)

Description Of The Tree

Botanical Description

Small to medium, occasionally attains a height of 20 m and about 40 cm in diameter . Bark dark grey with longitudinal fissures

Natural Distribution

Sporadic in West coast semi-evergreen forest

Wood Identification

Anatomic Description Of Wood

Wood diffuse porous. Tangential diameter of vessel lumina 100 to 200 micras. Vessels in radial multiples of 2 to 4. Simple perforation plates. Vessel-ray pits similar to intervessel pits in size and shape. Occasionally tyloses common. Black-colored depos Paratracheal axial parenchyma scanty and/or vasicentric. Axial parenchyma in continuous tangential lines (included in reticulate and scalariform). Occasionally prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells and/or in fibers. Rays more than 10 per mm (abundant). Rays exclusively uniseriate. Heterogeneous rays and/or multiseriate heterogeneous rays. Prismatic crystals in the ray cells.

Availability

Cites Status

CITES III

General Wood Description

Color

Sapwood light yellowish-gray to gray, heartwood jet black.

COLOR INDEX (1=Black, 7=Light yellow,white)

3

Grain

Straight to somewhat irregularly wavy.

Texture

Fine

Natural Durability

Durable, refractory to treatment.

Natural durability index (1= Very high durability, 7=Vey low durability)

1

Wood Physical Properties

Air-dry Density (Weight and volume at 12%MC) (g/cm³)

1.15

Total shrinkage Tangential (Saturated to 0%MC) (%)

8.1

Total shrinkage Radial (Saturated to 0%MC) (%)

4.7

Dimensional stability ratio (Total Tangential Shrinkage %/Total Radial Shrinkage %)

1.7

Wood Chemical Properties

Wood Mechanical Properties

Bending Strength (MOR),12%MC (kgf/cm²)

1181

Stiffness (MOE) 12%MC (kgf/cm²)

141300

Workability

Sawing

Not difficult to saw and work.

Machining

Not difficult to saw and work.

Finishing

Can be finished to a fine shiny smooth surface and takes good polish.

REFERENCED USES

End Uses Summary

TOOLS, tool handles, OTHER AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, handicrafts, toothpicks, moldings

Tool Handles
  • 43 - Maderas de Bolivia (Características y Usos de 55 Maderas Tropicales)
Other & Musical Instruments
  • 63 - Madeiras do Brazil II
Handcraft
  • 66 - Maderas latinoamericanas. VII. Caracteristicas anatomicas. propiedades fisicomecanicas, de secado, y tratabilidad de la madera juvenil de Cordia alliodora (Ruiz & Pav. Oken.)
Tooth Picks
  • 72 - Proprietes physiques et mecaniques des bois tropicaux, deuxieme supplement
Molding
  • 79 - Padronização da Nomenclatura Comercial Brasileira das Madeiras Tropicais Amazônicas, Sugestão

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