COLOUR REFERENCE / ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY
MOKUREI STUDIO / SPECIMEN 009
African Blackwood
Dalbergia melanoxylon
Near-black heartwood, sometimes with a deep violet or brown undertone.
- Botanical family
- Fabaceae
- Average dry density
- 1,270 kg/m³ (≈12% MC)
- Janka hardness
- 3,670 lbf
- Native distribution
- Central & Southern Africa
- Grain & texture
- Very fine and mostly straight
Material character
Exceptionally dense, close-textured and dimensionally stable compared with many other dark timbers.
Notable applications
Clarinets, oboes, precision instrument parts and detailed turned work.
Of particular interest
Despite the name, African blackwood belongs to the rosewood genus Dalbergia, not the Diospyros ebony genus.
Workshop note
International trade rules may apply to Dalbergia products; verify provenance and current obligations.
Wood identification is provided by the Mokurei Studio collection, not independently laboratory-verified. Technical figures are reference averages, not measurements of the photographed piece; they vary with provenance and moisture.