African Blackwood

Scientific name:
Dalbergia Melanoxylon

Other names:
Mufunjo (Uganda)
Mpingo
Mugembe (Tanzania)
Babanus (Sudan)
Mukelete (Rhodesia)
Grenadilla (Mozambique)

Distribution is rather extensive range in savanna regions from Sudan southward to Mozambique, westward to Angola, and then northward to Nigeria and Senegal. The trees much branched, multistemmed small tree usually 15 to 25 ft high, sometimes as much as 50 ft; bole short, seldom cylindrical, often fluted; rarely over 1 ft in diameter.

Weight:
1200kg/m3 (75lb/ft3) and specific gravity of 1.2.

Use:
Used primarily for the manufacture of woodwind instruments, but also used for other turnery work, brush backs, knife handles, walking sticks, Calls, inlay work, carvings, etc.

General characteristic:
Heartwood dark purplish brown with black streaking; sharply demarcated from the narrow yellowish sapwood. Texture fine and even; grain straight; luster low; slightly oily.

Working properties:
Not easy to work with and causes extreme blunting to cutting edges when sawing it is advisable to use tungsten carbide saw teeth. However an excellent finish can be obtained. Difficult to plane with hand or machine tools. Excellent for turnery and can be worked to a smooth, lustrous finish. Woodwind instruments are machined with metal-working equipment.

Drying and shrinkage:
Difficult to season and dries very slowly and must be controlled to avoid degradation. Timber must be seasoned very slowly, end coating of logs or bets is necessary. Drying times of 2 to 3 years and more are common. Kiln schedule T2-C2 is suggested for 4/4 stock and T2-C1 for 8/4. Shrinkage green to ovendry: volumetric 7.6%. Movement in service is rated as small.

Durability:
Heartwood is rated as highly durable, moderately resistant to termites, sometimes attacked by borers in the standing trees; sapwood liable to attack by powder-post beetle. reported to respond to a diffusion treatment of polyethylene glycol-1,000 to improve dimensional stability.

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