Wow! They really are beautiful. I thought about buying one for my son till I realized I was looking at the price of the shaft...
Wow! They really are beautiful. I thought about buying one for my son till I realized I was looking at the price of the shaft...
Good thread; I've been taking notes!
Real ebony is a bit difficult to work with on large scale because the end-grain is prone to cracking unless well sealed. That was a problem with early real ebony
"Ebony" cameras I've been told. I bought mine in mahogany. We've got a client building the digs for someone who installed over forty solid ebony exterior doors and
windows on the top floor to their barn (race horses on the bottom floor). This was intended as their temporary residence until the larger guest house gets completed, and I can truly empathize with their suffering, as there are only seven full bathroom in that loft. The guest house is almost done, likewise all ebony doors and windows; and the main house has now begun. I won't even ask how many doors and windows it will have, or what the staggering price of the hardwood alone amounts to. But at least they won't have to do any "ebonizing", since they're got the real deal.
..."well my friends we've got trouble...right here in River City!Originally Posted by Tim Meisburger
I ammased around Sixty thousand turning squares of very solid ebony over fifteen years ago. The proce was between four dollars and around six...Glad I did, mediocre squares are now going for around forty dollars in quantity. Ther won't be any before too long.
Yeah, the problem is that these software gazoonionaires around here can buy up almost the entire supply of certain hardwoods for their mansions and yachts. One
rather famous one bought up half the world's supply of Port Orford cedar for a single house. Then to ease their conscience, I guess, they donate a few bucks to some "Save the Forest" fund. Interesting contradiction there. All these techniques are sure interesting, Evan, and I'm glad you've found a successful niche. I really
don't have any time for serious woodworking myself, except for hardwood picture frames and hopefully soon, studio furniture. I work more with hardwood plywood.
Maybe out on an architectural shoot this coming weekend with a pal who is an incredible old-school woodworker, but now largely retired and getting into photog
himself. He worked for a couple decades building one of those aforementioned gazoonionaire's mansions & furniture, etc.
Here's a gazillionaire deal. I've always used a lot of antique ivory in my cues. The President mad an executive order banning any commercial sale of ivory or ivory products. The aim is to help stop elephant poaching and allowing them to liv. A good thing and the right thing to do.. NOW if you can afford to go on safari (read gazillionaire contributor) you can shoot two of them and bring back your trophies..TWO of them? I thought the aim was not to kill elephants!?!?
I've got an antique grand piano sitting in the shop taking up space, with real ivory and ebony keys, and gorgeous crotch grain walnut. But never got around
to refinishing it, cause I wanted to do it the authentic way - French polish true shellace, layer after layer, and not some modern varnish shortcut. But one other thing on that long, long list of "things to do" .... I've dug up some mammoths and mastodons, but the ivory is the first thing that goes fragile in most paleo-soils. Ya gotta
find the tusks in permafrost if you want them intact.... But maybe a few more winters like you've just had, and the wooly mammoths will be migrating right into your
back yard?
... Oh, a postscript... about ten minutes ago a customer showed me some photos of an absolutely incredible ebony dining table with a lot of intricate marquetry set into it. He wasn't the designer, but made it directly under the designer's supervision. That kind of thing that would sell for forty or fifty grand, at least. I like the way
purpleheart machines too, but alas, it inevitably fades. I still have some vibrant purpleheart picture frames three decades old, cause they've been kept out of sunlight
and halogen UV.
Purpleheart color can be restored with heat, but I won't guarantee what will happen to the rest of it
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