Gabon Ebony Lumber
May 13, 2022
Each time I cut open a piece of Gabon ebony (the black-colored lumber I'm holding in this photo) I keep thinking I'll find gold nuggets. Or maybe platinum chunks. The piece of ebony in this photo is 3" x 3" x 36." I pay, currently, $0.97 for a cubic inch of ebony, so this board (with 324 cubic inches) cost me $314.28. So far, not a single gold nugget, though. At this point, I've found plenty of shotgun pellets, and once found a complete "swallowtail" lead bullet, but that's always been in domestic walnut lumber.
Ebony boards arrive here at the shop coated in a thick layer of wax. When the ebony tree is harvested in Gabon (the country in western Africa), the wood isn't allowed to dry - it is immediately trimmed to size and then dipped in wax. The wax stops the wood from drying, which prevents it from cracking. I have to remove the wax, cut the wood into thin layers, and let it air dry for months (sometimes years, depending on the wood) before it can be used as a dulcimer veneer.
When it is all said and done, the amount of waste is atrocious. We lose about half of those cubic inches of ebony in cleaning off the wax, re-sawing, sanding to thickness, and dimensional waste before we get to the actual "usable-wood" stage. Remember that this board is 36" long? Our dulcimer fretboards are 32" long. We remove 4" from the end early on in the process. And nobody wants a fretboard veneer with a seam every four inches!
And the worst? Sometimes we cut open a board, and find cracks or knots, hidden beneath the wax. Or a board cracks while it is drying. Or warps. The board in my hands might end up in the dumpster. Or we might get half-a-dozen beautiful Gabon ebony fretboard veneers for some custom dulcimers.
What's the benefit of ebony as a veneer? It is the most durable of the fretboard veneer woods, because the wood is so dense and hard. It is smooth to the touch, almost like glass, because the grain is so tight. It looks great, and gives a fantastic visual contrast to the position dots, and to the frets themselves. The dark ebony pairs beautifully with light-colored tops (spruces), medium-colored tops (mahogany, walnut), and dark-colored tops (rosewood and darker pieces of Western red cedar).
Gabon ebony is the "ultimate" fretboard veneer, but it is getting harder and harder to find (and more expensive to buy) by the year. It is our most popular veneer wood for higher-end dulcimers, for sure. Is Gabon ebony going to be on YOUR next dulcimer? I have personal instruments both with and without Gabon ebony, and I'm going to get it on my next instrument, for sure.