Any woodworkers here?

[mrfu]

My guess would be ebony, the marks on the end are probably from the importer or exporter. The tooling marks on the sides are from where they hacked off the bark and sap wood in the forest since these thing were usually packed out by natives on their backs. Finewoodworking magazine had an interesting article in an old issue about a guy finding and buying ebony in the forests of west Africa.
There are two major species of ebony Gaboon ebony from africa and maccassar from near southeast asia, yours is most likely Gaboon since it is jet black, the maccassar has black and kinda brownish stripping. Interesting fact is persimmon is in the same family .
I don't think it is lignum vitea since it tends to be green or brownish when it ages and would also show more grain.
Tom

 

[deanocraft]

I build banjos for a living, so I get to deal with ebony quite a bit. To me, it looks like ebony... I have also seen rosewood that was as dark as ebony. I would also guess the marks to be something from the exporter or importer. I would keep that baby indoors. It is pretty and I would not want it to rot in the weather.

 

[dstig1]

My recollection is that the US Forest Service offers a free service to all US citizens (or residents? not sure) where they will do up to 3 wood IDs per person. it might have been per year, or maybe per lifetime. Too long since I heard that. But you could send them a chunk and they should be able to ID it if it is that important to you.

Heh - here it is:
Forest Products Laboratory - USDA Forest Service

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Heyyyyy... c'mon guys! Next thing you know you'll be telling me all these decoys I'm making from concrete molds won't work either!

Why not? They made ships from concrete during WWII...but I think they made better decoys than they did freighters. As a matter of fact, I believe there is the hulk of one half submerged in Galveston Harbor.

 

[bunyip]

At the risk of being a pedant I think the term is ferro cement, yachts are still made from it.

 

[jymbee]

My guess would be ebony, the marks on the end are probably from the importer or exporter. The tooling marks on the sides are from where they hacked off the bark and sap wood in the forest since these thing were usually packed out by natives on their backs. Finewoodworking magazine had an interesting article in an old issue about a guy finding and buying ebony in the forests of west Africa.
There are two major species of ebony Gaboon ebony from africa and maccassar from near southeast asia, yours is most likely Gaboon since it is jet black, the maccassar has black and kinda brownish stripping. Interesting fact is persimmon is in the same family .
I don't think it is lignum vitea since it tends to be green or brownish when it ages and would also show more grain.
Tom

Ebony would lend credence to what one family member mentioned some ago when describing it. I have to admit it would be kinda' cool to be able to state I have a block of Gaboon Ebony!

 

[jymbee]

My recollection is that the US Forest Service offers a free service to all US citizens (or residents? not sure) where they will do up to 3 wood IDs per person. it might have been per year, or maybe per lifetime. Too long since I heard that. But you could send them a chunk and they should be able to ID it if it is that important to you.

Heh - here it is:
Forest Products Laboratory - USDA Forest Service

Thanks for that. I may just go that route unless one of the local woodworkers I'm going to reach out to has a definitive answer based on their expertise.

It's been stored inside for as long as I can remember and has never seen the light of day-- until I carried it outside to take the photos. But I'm left wondering, if it's that dense, how would one cut it to produce a sample? Perhaps I'll do a small test with a Shark hand saw to at least get a sense of how it might cut.