Does it really make a difference? Is the darker Ebony better,other than color?
The staining of Ebony has gone on for a long time in the "quality" acoustic guitar business.Companies like C.F. Martin do this on their fret boards and bridges and those guitars are highly desirble and of exceptional quality....Honestly,I'm just curious if it's more of an aesthetic thing.
Thoughts appreciated.
Makes perfect sense....I do wonder if the heavier weight of Ebony is also one of the reasons for folks wanting it....Just a thought.
It's expensive but still available from various sources
https://www.bellforestproducts.com/gaboon-ebony/
you can turn 3 kings using one 2x2x12 blank
Some manufacturers simply do not care.
By the way I am not impressed by the logs filled with check marks. End of ebony blanks are often sealed with wax in order to prevent checking before the wood is machined (same for other species prone to drying cracks).
Once you have cut the logs in small blanks you can easily select the best blanks.
The addition of tinted wax during the finishing process should not be used and is not necessary when you use prime quality blanks. I agree with you 100%.
By the way a nice cheap source for gaboon ebony is old african statues…
Looks totally acceptable to me.Very nice set. I hope you get a lot of pleasure from it.
Real ebony isn't ALL black. Even the highest quality, "Ceylon ebony", was never all black.
Just my opinion,but I think anyone agonizing over the extreme blackness of Ebony is worrying for no reason.....It's wood! All wood varies. Even the argument that one might as well but black stained Boxwood is off,imo..... Lighter colored Ebony looks perfectly fine if it's good quality stuff.....It's "still Ebony"!
They created this MYTH that the old sets were all naturally black ebony. But companies have ALWAYS futher ebonized ebony wood to make it appear jet black, Jacques, too. It's part and parcel in my line of business, too (violin fingerboards are made of ebony) It's only today that people, like @DesperateKingWalk, are OBSESSED about that.
My Australia-made Maton guitar - a small bodied EGB-808 - it has an ebony fingerboard and it feels great and while I can’t confirm, I reckon these pieces below are Ebony manufactured sometime in the 80’s or ‘90’s most likely. I like the subtle, visible grain. I have sets that are jet black ebony too. I like ‘em all. 
How do you know that your jet black pieces haven't been ebonized additionally? Have you sawed pieces in half? 
Actually,my last set purchased from S.C. was the William Hallett pieces and I chose the Padauk/Boxwood......I wanted a different look for the darker pieces,since I have this wood on a few other sets....Variety, is what I've tried to employ in my collection.
I have ultra dark Ebony and lighter Ebony sets....Like 'em all.
What bothers me is, blemishes,misalignment and chips....Those go back.
I initially did not want to enter into this discussion, but since I made a little research when writing my book about chess collecting, I thought I could give it a go:
There is jet black ebony, but it is rare. It has been rare in the past two centuries already and it is certainly rare today. When we are talking about ebony, we are talking only about the heartwood - the sapwood, which accounts for up to 70% of the entire tree, is yellowish in colour and without particular use. More than 90% of the heartwood ebony will have more or less visible grain, even in the types that do occasionally contain jet black parts (traditionally Ceylon ebony (i.e. Diospyros ebenum), Gaboon ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) and occasionally Madagascar ebony (Diospyros perrieri)).
Of the aformentioned types, Gaboon ebony is the blackest in colour. It is of high quality, but has a little disadvantage, which are the medium to large pores you can usually see in the endgrain. The other types, i.e. Ceylon and Madagascar, come with significantly smaller pores and are thus regarded as (much) higher in quality than Gaboon ebony. But they are also much rarer. This is particularly true for Ceylon ebony, which is so rare nowadays that the market prices usually exceed those of Gaboon ebony (which itself is quite expensive already) by far.
Here is an example of the large pores in Gaboon ebony. These are pawns from a 19th century original Jaques Staunton set.
So, in a nutshell, Gaboon ebony is the blackest ebony type, but has larger pores, while Ceylon ebony usually has more visible grain, but has smaller pores. In the past, in particular in the 19th century, Ceylon ebony was the preferred type, but since it is hardly available any longer in larger quantities and/or for reasonable prices, the preferred type today is Gaboon ebony.
The artificial colouring by way of chemical treatment of ebony used by Indian makers to make the pieces appear jet black is cheating on the customer, let's be clear about it. On the other hand, (1) the prices of Indian makers are usually low, so unless entirely naive one could hardly expect to get a set made of highest quality rare material for the price of an economy set and (2) the Indian makers are frequently infringing copyrights etc., so when exactly did the notion come up that they are honorable salesmen, who will be entirely honest when it comes to marketing their goods?
Preference for a uniform colouring as in jet black ebony vs the natural look of wood grain is a rather subjective thing. I personally prefer to see grain in my wooden pieces, even the ebony ones, because to me it identifies the pieces as an organic material. Even when untreated, the jet black ebony has a certain artificial look, that I personally do not like too much. As it was said in the above video, from the looks of it, it could even be mistaken with black plastic. When I commissioned the reproduction of the Augustea set a few years back, I therefore expressly asked the Indian maker to not treat the ebony under any circumstances, but to keep it as natural as possible. I even asked him to look for the most coloured pieces for my own personal set, because that's what I like. Here is the ebony grain of my Augustea king in the sunlight.
We tend to think of ebony automatically as black wood, but in most types this is simply not true. Most ebony types are coloured, some even strongly, as in Makassar ebony (Diospyros celebica, also known as "Coromandel") or Kamagong ebony (Diospyros philippinensis), which is a personal favorite of mine because of the very lively grain.
Here are examples from the 1974 Philippine Staunton sets made of narra and kamagong I am selling, just to show how much bandwidth there can be in the visible grain when it comes to coloured ebony types - it goes from almost uniform black to fiery grained brown. The pieces are all from the same batch.
Note that ALMOST ALL higher grade chess sets are made in India nowadays. There are a few exceptions like NOJ and a handful of others, but 98-99% are from India. That accounts for all wooden chess sets sold by HoS, Official Staunton, Regency Chess, etc etc.
Note that ALMOST ALL higher grade chess sets are made in India nowadays. There are a few exceptions like NOJ and a handful of others, but 98-99% are from India. That accounts for all wooden chess sets sold by HoS, Official Staunton, Regency Chess, etc etc.
Thanks to a cheap labour workforce in India! But that does not make the Indian makers more honorable salesmen. They do not disclose that their ebony is "enhanced". That is not really ok in my view, but neither is it surprising, is it? Whenever I bought from Indian makers, I did not expect that a set priced at that level is made from highest quality ebony, so I was happy with my purchases. I got what I paid for.
They do not disclose that their ebony is "enhanced". That is not really ok in my view, but neither is it surprising, is it?
And neither do HoS, Regency Chess, Official Staunton and the other "middlemen".
They do not disclose that their ebony is "enhanced". That is not really ok in my view, but neither is it surprising, is it?
And neither do HoS, Regency Chess, Official Staunton and the other "middlemen".
Yes, the same questionable business practices.
Hi,
I went through the whole conversation and I am so much thankful to all of your appreciation for my work.
I saw the pics of the Kings and I saw the comparison between all the Kings especially the color of the ebony. I wish to let you know that we use only the natural ebony wood. The chess pieces which you find in the jet black ebony wood are mostly stained blacked ebony pieces. Sometimes we get the ebony wood in the light grains and sometime we get the ebony wood in the dark grains. While we see the wood logs we cannot justify the colour of the ebony wood. It looks like the jet black but when we make the chess pieces we find variations in the color of the ebony pieces. You have already seen the pics of the knight heads which look they are under production. I am herewith sending you the pics of the ebony logs which look like the jet black. So its not like that we are using the low quality ebony wood. This is natural wood and the grains on this wood are also natural. Nowadays buyers are so much concerned with the quality of the pieces but I request to all of my buyers that you should think in that way that chess making is not an easy process especially on these much expensive woods. The comparison of the chess pieces should be considered by taking this in your mind that you purchased the handcrafted chess set made in the expensive wood and nowadays for a craftsman this becomes a big challenge to satisfy his buyer.
Thanks
Mandeep