D110 Comfort II Style Twist Pen
Comfort II Style Twist Pen in African Blackwood with 24k Gold hardware.
African blackwood is very expensive, on par with true ebonies such as Gaboon Ebony in the Diospyros genus. Since the tree grows so slowly, and is generally small and gnarly, available boards tend to be narrow—though large clear sections have occasionally been harvested from older trees that yield bookmatched guitar backs (~8″ wide).
Very difficult to work with hand or machine tools, with an extreme blunting effect on cutters. African blackwood is most often used in turned objects, where it is considered to be among the very finest of all turning woods—capable of holding threads and other intricate details well. When made into clarinet or oboe bodies, the wood is typically processed on metal-working equipment, giving it a reputation as being metal-like in some of its working properties.