Wood is one of the most long-standing materials used in the making of jewelry and weapon parts. This article is about various kinds of wood, from well-known walnut to black ebony, which is used for decorating only the most sophisticated and fancy objects.
Amaranth (also called the Purple Heart wood) is a valuable and very beautiful wood with a lilac or violet-crimson core. After the oxidation reactions on its surface, amaranth wood acquires a dark brown hue with a shade of lilac instead of the crimson, but after the oxidized layer removed, the original tint returns. The texture of amaranth is striped and glittering.
Besides its unusual color, amaranth is valuable because of its high density and durability - it is very stress proof. Amaranth is very difficult to process, and it is used mostly for floor surfacing, furniture, facing, and decorative purposes. It grows in Central America, in the Southern US, and in Brazil.
Circassian walnut (also called Claro walnut) is one of the most commonly used kinds of wood: it is durable, easy to work with, and attractive. Because these trees are grown primarily for their nuts, a large amount of walnut wood is never procured, which is the reason why walnut wood is so expensive. Walnut trees are grown specifically for their wood in only a few countries: Italy, France, Turkey, and the Balkans. All parts of walnut tree are used, including the roots, which are the source of valuable knotty burls with very beautiful and complex textures.
Walnut wood is usually used for making furniture, wooden gun parts, and décor items. Walnut wood can be of various colors – from dark brown to dark gray. Walnut's upper layers are always grayish and sometimes with a shade of pink or red. Wood color primarily depends on soil quality and climate conditions. For example, the Italian walnut is of a red tint, and it has a richer texture than the Swiss or the German walnuts.
Caucasian and Crimean walnut trees have dark, almost black, wood that was greatly appreciated in the first part of 20th century. Currently, the French walnut wood with its grayish tint is considered most valuable as well as the Manchurian walnut wood of a brownish gray color.
Cherry is a durable, fine, and easily processed wood that is widely used and appreciated all over the world because of its beautiful pink-brown to pink-gray tint. The color often gets darker and richer with age. Cherry wood annual rings are very distinct and look like beautiful designs.
Due to the slight differences in density among each of its rings, cherry wood, being softer than an oak wood, is usually very easy to work with. It is used in making furniture, musical instruments, smocking pipes, and various fine art items. Cherry wood can be found in many countries of the world, and it grows widely in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Ebony is a wood of black or dark-green color, which can be found in tropical forests and is obtained from the trees and bushes of the ebony family. Ebony is considered to be one of the most expensive woods, and it is used for producing tough, durable objects. The reason ebony is so appreciated is that it is extremely beautiful and sophisticated. Its rings are nearly indistinguishable and, therefore, it creates an impression of solid blackness. Ebony is very dense (1050 kg per m2) – it is the only wood that can sink in water. When procured, only 30-40 percent of the ebony trunk is used because its upper layers do not possess the desirable properties. The upper layers are of a grayish yellow or of a yellowish white tint.
Ebony is widely used in the furniture and jewelry industries, and it is also sometimes used for making musical instruments. Even though there are a hundred of ebony species found, only five of them are suitable for use. The best and rarest species is the Ceylon ebony which looks almost mirror-like when polished.
The most widely used species of ebony is the Cameroon ebony procured in Africa. It is almost solid black. Because of its high porosity, the Cameroon ebony is less valuable than the others. Madagascar ebony is much preferred. It has a mixed color – dark-brown wood with almost black annual rings, and it is valuable because of its low porosity. Macassar ebony, or the colored ebony, is also commonly used. This wood is black, with a pattern of brown and light-brown rings.