Turned African top Blackwood Box with Desert Ironwood Insert Medallion, solid top

-- Handmade, one of a kind turned box.

-- Heirloom quality.

-- Solid African Blackwood, with hollowed base/container section and solid blackwood top.

-- Top has cork wrapped interface for smooth, semi-tight closing. Box can be lifted by top without separating from base.

-- 1" Desert Ironwood domed medallion inset into top of box.

Silky feel, beautiful shine/sheen. Grain not obscured, shows through light finish. Finished with light coat of Shellac and Microcrystalline wax. Periodic buffing and occasional re-coating will maintain the clear, hard wax coating, and ensure the box retains it's brilliance and fingerprint resistance indefinitely... or at least until passed on to the next generation.
Nice heft, surprising weight.

Care has been taken to add tasteful, yet not overdone details. African Blackwood takes detail so well that it's often hard to resist the temptation to overdo decoration and embellishment; however, restraint is necessary to allow the wood to speak for itself, which it is more than capable of doing.

A delight to handle.

1 1/2" Diameter X 4" H.

Woods Used in the Production of this Turned Box:

African Blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon, Mpingo)

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.

African Blackwood is very expensive, on par top with true ebonies such as Gaboon Ebony in the Diospyros genus. Considered the original ebony, African Blackwood was imported and used in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. Even the name “ebony” has an Egyptian derivation as “hbny”—which has been shown to refer to primarily to Dalbergia melanoxylon, rather than the species which are considered to be ebony today: such as those in the Diospyros genus. In addition, African Blackwood is technically in the Rosewood genus (Dalbergia), and is more stable and resistant to movement and warping than other types of ebony.
African Blackwood is considered to be among the hardest and densest of woods in the world; indeed, among some 285 species tested, (including Lignum Vitae), Gabriel Janka originally found African Blackwood to be the very hardest. (from "The Wood Database").

Desert Ironwood (Olneya tesota)

Heartwood color ranges from an orangish yellow to a darker red or brown, with darker violet to black streaks.

Very difficult to work on account of its density. High cutting resistance. Desert Ironwood is usually restricted to very small projects, though it takes a good natural polish and is very stable in service. Turns, polishes, and finishes well.

The small size of the tree—in combination with its restricted distribution and relative rarity—means that Desert Ironwood is in scarce supply. Expect prices to be extremely high for a domestic hardwood, or par with many high-end exotic imported hardwoods.

Desert Ironwood is perhaps one of the most highly-regarding of all woods in knife-making, with its density, stability, and grain patterns and colors creating a unique combination of characteristics that's ideal for decorative handles. It's also favored for carving by the indigenous Seri people now living in the state of Sonora in Mexico. (from "The Wood Database")