Besides being very expensive, African Blackwood also has the distinction of being rather unpleasant to work with. It dulls edge tools immediately, clogs sandpaper rapidly (both the thickness sander and when had sanding), it often has voids that need to be filled, warps and distorts if not aged for a considerable amount of time (even when well quarter sawn like the material I used), it weighs a ton, smells unpleasant when worked, and seems kind of brittle.

I find the smell of African blackwood quite pleasant, though it may just be nostalgia. It reminds me of new tires at Western Auto as a child.

It does indeed dull most tools instantly, but I have one old block plane that can stand up to it. I wish I knew what alloy its blade is. Scrapers also work well (mine is from Lee Valley). And humidity expansion is far less than ebony, so if properly aged it is very stable. Brace in low humidity and it won't crack, and won't expand excessively in summer either. It bends easily too, although it does exude a lot of resin that has to be scraped off afterward.

New tires, that's the smell! I hate it

Having to resharpen my No 8 twice while jointing the back was incredibly frustrating, especially as the LN iron normaly tends to maintain its edge for quite some time. Even my toothed iron plane needed frequent honing while thicknessing the sides, at 5mm thick I quickly gave up on the drum sander after massive clogging each pass. I have a 19th century Spiers infill plane with a rather high angle Mathieson iron that handled the Blackwood well but that's the only plane in my collection that seemed to be able to take more than 5 consecutive passes. As it's the wood of choice for most woodwinds I'm not surprised at its stability but it took many months of being stickered before I felt comfortable using it. It did bend easily, likely because of the vast amount of resin in the material, it reminded me of Bois de rose in that regard.

Many years ago, LeeValley had a bin with miscellaneous chunks of African Blackwood. I bought a bunch of pieces for dirt cheap every time I went there and ended up with a cubic foot or so. I've made many bridges for both flat top and archtops, a couple of fretboards with the few pieces long enough, archtop end pins, headplates, heel caps, tool handles etc. and still probably have about 20 lbs of it. It turns like nothing else I've worked with on a lathe. Almost like plastic and polishes and buffs up incredibly. I've used 60 grit on my drumsander with very, very light passes for thicknessing but it's definitely a challenge with gumming up things. The smell to me is kind of like rubber and roses. I first saw it in Charles Shifflett's shop when he was still building. The classical commission he was doing at the time was 15k and that was over 20 years ago. It's a beautiful wood in the same class (to me) as Brazilian, both being Dalbergia, although much more difficult to work with pretty much any hand tool other than files and scrapers IME. Here's a D'Aquisto inspired bridge using it.

Ever have one of those days where things just get done?

I dig the Osmo oil.

Brad


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Finished the woodworking on this 635mm scale Alpine spruce and African Blackwood guitar with Malagasy ebony appointments and Brazilian Rosewood bridge. Now to start French polishing!

Flew out to Copenhagen this weekend to help a friend resew some old rosewood he bought at an estate auction. As his shared workshop was quite busy on Friday we only had Saturday to get to work, hardly a bad thing as I greatly enjoyed a day of cycling, eating, and drinking my way around the city. We only managed 5 sets and likely have another few dozen to go; a good excuse to visit Denmark again this Autumn!