Ebiara

It is important to remember that although many people may, or may not, be sensitive to any given wood, the only experience that truly counts is your own, so use reported side effects as guidance but not as a substitute for cautious and safe practices.

Appropriate protective equipment is therefore always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.

Complete information about health hazards associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database.  Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource.

Fortunately, I experienced no negative side effects when working with Ebiara.

My Personal Experiences:

I just have to say at the outset, if you don’t like EXTREMELY porous wood, don’t bother picking up any Ebiara.  I seriously think you could see these pores from space.  Because words don’t do it justice, I have included several pictures of the end grain pores.

Ebiara Pores 2

Ebiara Pores 2

Remember, these are NOT torn out spots or turning errors, those are just the naturally occurring pores in the wood.  In fact, the entire piece is porous, but the pores in the face and non-endgrain areas are filled with a slightly yellow resin that keeps them from appearing open, but pores they remain.  Some turners will fill these pores with commercial fillers but I leave the wood as natural as I can.  The wood is smooth over and around the pores, so I leave them as a natural component of a natural product.

Ebiara Pores 1

Ebiara Pores 1

This piece is diminutive, measuring only 5 ½” wide and 1 3/4 “ high.

That said, Ebiara cuts cleanly for a very porous wood.  It was a little brittle and splintery on the edges but nothing compared to something like Wenge.

The Ebiara cut fast.  I was able to complete this small dish in less than two hours.

The finish cuts with the Easy Wood Tools Negative Rake cutter made the sanding pretty easy.  The Ebiara sanded easily which surprised me for such a porous wood.  It smoothed down quickly for which I was grateful.

There is a distinctive scent with Ebiara that I am sort of at a loss to describe.  It wasn’t offensive, but it was only slightly sweet and spicy.  I think there were more overtones of perhaps vinegar to it while still sweet.  It’s an odd scent that has to be experienced to understand it.

Once the Ebiara dish was ready for top hollowing it was mounted in a Nova 35mm chuck and once it was ready for reversing it was mounted in the Nova Cole Jaws mounted on another Nova Chuck

All cuts on the Ebiara were made with my Easy Wood Tools cutters, including the use of the new negative rake cutters for VERY fine finish cuts.  The negative rake cutter produces tissue like shavings.  It’s use GREATLY reduces sanding time.

All sanding was done with Green Wave sanding pads from Packard Woodworks.

The Ebiara bowl was finished with ShellaWax from Australia.

Would I work with Ebiara again?  Yes, I think I would.  It was relatively easy to use and the finished product is quite lovely.  It’s a good thing that I didn’t hate it because I have another piece yet to use!

As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!

Update:

Several days later I turned my second, and last, Ebiara blank.  The size and turning experience were essentially identical.  One difference is that this blank had only one section of clearly visible pores, showing, once again, that unlike mass produced commercial items, each wood bowl is unique and special in its own ways!