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What experiences have you had with Blackwood, does it bend easily, is it brittle, how does it take a finish?

It's expensive as hell, but it looks interesting, I've never played with it, but it might be something worth using in a build...

Just curious, don't want to drop a ton of cash and then find it's PIA to work with...

Thanks
-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

I built one with Malaysian Blackwood and it bent worked and finished great. But there is also African and Tazmanian...

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Pat

I assume you are asking about African Blackwood? If so I'm sorry but I can't give you any input. However Australian Blackwood and Indonesian Blackwood bend pretty well and work fairly well also and can make some good looking guitars.
Kent

I love African Blackwood. Bends great. It will gum up your thickness sander, so use a LOW GRIT. The only downside I can think of is that you got to be perfect on finish. Or you will see imperfections. Remind me to post some pics. Hibdon is your trusted source.

Malaysian blackwood planes ok, but doesn't bend. It is very brittle, and being an ebony, it moves a lot with humidity. So once built into a guitar, it requires humidity babysitting in the winter or it will crack... or if you brace dry, then it may explode in the summer.

African blackwood is insanely hard and very abrasive. Scrapes beautifully (if you resharpen frequently), but eats planes and chisels for breakfast... too fast for resharpening to do any good. Colin North once told me that A2 steel can stand up to it. I've been meaning to buy a new plane blade ever since. ABW seems pretty brittle, but maybe not as bad as some other rosewoods. Humidity expansion is low, so even flatsawn should be relatively well behaved. I haven't tried bending it, but being an oily rosewood, I expect it to go without a fight.

Tone-wise, I would expect it to be more or less "transparent", i.e. give a very pure soundboard tone. It's so dense, you'd have to make it scary thin to get it light enough to vibrate much. But it doesn't seem to ring as well as other rosewoods, so you probably wouldn't really want to anyway.

Mine been easily. It was well quartered and I think it was around .07.

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Pat

I can tell you about Australian blackwood (aka Tasmanian blackwood - but it doesn't only grow in Tasmania; a lot comes from the southeast mainland). It is a great tonewood, and also can look amazing. It is an acacia species, closely related to koa. It can be quite straight grained, or can come with amazing figure and curl. It is quite easy to work with. Bends well, although can get more cantankerous when highly figured. IMHO (as an Australian) one of the best tone woods available, and a consistent favourite of many Aussie instrument builders. It has fairly big pores. Glues easily and takes a variety of different finishes well.

Australian Blackwood is really nice. It is not really in the same category as African Blackwood. What it is is more Koa than a lot of Koa I've seen used.

Absolutely my favorite tonewood. When a log comes into the school we all fight over any sections that could be used for lutherie.

One caveat, it splinters easily and does need pore filling. But dang it makes a nice guitar.


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Not sure what all of u are experiencing, but my African Blackwood from Hibdon has excellent tone, easy to bend, scraping and sanding are fine. Where I ran into any issues was in thickness sanding. Ive since adopted that 30 grit paper from Klingspor. Never seems to wear out or gum up. You have to plan ahead. You cannot take to final thickness with it because of score lines. But 80 grit will solve, even if by doing so means sacrificing that paper. Still, I extend life with Easy Off.