Black or Ebony Stringing?

[Calpol]

How different are they? Black 2.7mm is 50p/m and Ebony 2.7 is £1.65/m. Surely there can't be that much difference? On one hand it seems a bit daft to buy the ebony but on the other it'll only be a couple of bucks more anyway...

Help please

 

[bjm]

The price reflects the fact that the black lines are not ebony. They are dyed (not sure what species) and you get the consistency of colour which you won't always get with ebony.

Brian

 

[Digit]

In my experience Calpol Black is a dyed wood, Sycamore if I recall correctly.

 

[eg]

Two more things to consider - (a) Ebony usually bleeds while dyed Sycamore does not (b) Ebony is an endanger specie that in many cases is fell illegally.

Eyal

 

[Calpol]

I think it's maybe dyed boxwood, definately seen that done before... Just go for black then, all this bleeding and colour consistency doesn't sound too good.

Cheers all

 

[NKE]

I use black beading on the violins I build for the inlay around the edges, in my experience ebony can be a nuisance to bend around tight corners where as most dyed softer woods are much easier to handle.
A lot of the dyed soft wood I have come across appears to be maple that has been dyed with black aniline dye which if it is not fixed properly can bleed a bit when you apply a varnish that has a strong solvent directly over it, I personally have never had problems with ebony bleeding.
The traditional way for most of the classical Italian violin makers to make a black beading is to use pear wood that has been dyed with logwood chips, if this is done properly it creates a fantastic intense black beading that is flexible, lightfast and doesn’t have any bleeding problems. The process is relatively simple; if you would like the receipt just e-mail me.
Neil.

 

[devonwoody]

I purchased a 60cm length of 50x50 of Wenge (from Yandles) that is black. Not cheap tho.

 

[Taffy Turner]

That is interesting Dev.

I have a couple of bowl blanks of Wenge that are a dirty grey / brown colour. They came as part of a mixed bag I bought years ago, and to be honest I have never got around to turning them as they look so dingy.

It is a shame they weren't black like the piece you bough!

Regards

Gary

 

[Imperial]

My experience with ebony stringing is from the last few days and is very favorable. When inlaying into a table top between a Burr Walnut veneer panel and Satinwood edge banding it scraped up beautifully and has a real shine which you just don't get with dyed wood. I had also tried to "Ebonise" some Walnut to see what it was like, but it remains a little purple. It also did not change the colour all the way through, I was told the method caused a chemical change and would turn the wood black, not in my experience! I'd use Ebony every time if I could afford to and for a few quid more on stringing it's worth it.