Big hunk O Ebony!

I haven't made any bowls - yet - but I have turned a lot of Ebony into very expensive sawdust in my day

for your application wax alone should do just fine - I haven't tried shelac, but I think you might encounter problems because Ebony is so oily

Ebony will polish like glass wax it and buff it and it should look like a black diamond

HTH Dale

Turn it. Sand It. Use a buffing system on it like beal. By the way thats a good price for Ebony.

By the way

is it ever - esp for The Rocklers according to my trusty Windows calculator that come in at about $8.75/bd. ft. or around 10% of what I would expect to pay for Gaboon from them

Leslie - did they say what kinf of ebony and/or where it came from

Dale

Sharp tools (should be standard anyway), sand with wet/dry to 1000, then I use a 5-0 steel wool equivilent sanding pad to buff and finish sand the wood. While it's warm from buffing I run pure beeswax on the piece so it allows the wax to melt in, and then buff that out with a chamois. Brings a glass-smooth finish and glow to almost any oily hardwood.

No, I didn't think to ask. But I will next time I am there. Which is often.

I thought it was a good price too and they still have several more pieces.

Yea, I found frequent sharpening a necessity with this stuff. I will do the wax treatment on it. I was unsure about doing anything else with it. Now I am anxious to see how it turns out!

I'll second this. It's like plastic at those grits - keep going up in grits, it keeps getting shinier. I put a light coat of danish oil on mine - wipe on, wipe off.

I also noticed that ebony responds well to scrapers, in case you need to know.

that is a good price! do be careful...Ebony has a tendency to crack, sometimes after weeks or months. I have one box lid with an inlay that I need to repair now....and it waited 6 months to surprise me. You can 'almost' hide cracks by sanding it's own dust into it with superglue, but I think I will use most Ebony for smaller, thinner projects where this happens less often. African Blackwood (of the Rosewood family) is much more stable than Ebony ...if you can find it.

I plan on going back tomorrow. If they have any left, I will buy them and offer them on here to purchase.

I did finish one bowl and it did turn out very nice. Thanks all for the suggestions.

Leslie

after you have sanded it very well try some white rouge on a piece of soft rag. flannel works well. you can polish ebony till its almost like a black mirror. skeez

Micro mesh all the way up to 12000 grit. Than HUT PPP.