This is our fifth wood feature giving information about rare and unusual woods of the world.   Some of these woods are used by Higdon Writing Instruments for making our custom writing instruments and others are ones that we think are interesting and worth highlighting.  This week we are highlighting a wood most everyone has seen but few are familiar with, African Blackwood. African Blackwood or Dalbergia melanoxylon is also known as known as Mpingo.  African Blackwood grows in most areas and countries south of the Saharan Desert in Africa but with most of the significant numbers being in eastern Africa. Tanzania (where it is the National Tree)

and Mozambique are the largest producers of the timber for this tree.  It has acclimated to a wide variety of conditions which has allowed it to grow over such a large region. The tree usually reaches a height of around 25 feet and the timber is not harvest-able until the tree is 70 to 100 years old. African Blackwood is part of the Rosewood family along with Brazilian Rosewood, Tulipwood, Cocobolo, and Kingwood.  It is a very dense wood with a specific gravity of around 1.2 which means it will not float in water.  The heartwood of the tree is a near black ranging from a deep brown to a deep purplish color.  The sapwood of the tree is a light creamy almost white color giving an amazing contrast.  It is said that the closer the tree grows to the ocean the lighter the color of the heartwood is. The historical and current uses of African Blackwood are many.  Due to its moisture resistance, which includes resistance to saliva, it is most notable for its use in making certain woodwind instruments.  These include Clarinets, Oboes, Flutes, and Bagpipes.  This is where most people have seen the wood but didn’t know what it was.  They have also been used for the black keys in pianos at one point where Ebony is traditionally used.  It is also an excellent carving wood and is used frequently by the Makonde tribe of eastern Africa for traditional carvings.  Furniture makers have and continue to prize this wood for use in their craft and have since the time of the Ancient Egyptians.  For these same reasons Higdon Writing Instruments has chosen African Blackwood as one of our wood selections.  Please follow along for future postings of information and rare and unusual woods.  If you have any questions please visit us here.