Ebony
A black hardwood, famous for it's lustrous beauty. It is a delicacy in the world of the African wood sculptor. Skilled ebony sculptors tend to migrate to the few regions of Africa where ebony wood is grown. A highly dense wood with a coarse texture and a dark interlocking grain, ebony wood normally is brown on the outside of the tree; and black on the inside. The carvings often come as a beautiful mixture of black and brown; but it is mostly the pure dark black wood that is the most well known grain. Its exceptional density makes it not only very heavy, but also gives it an incomparable sheen when polished and rubbed clean. Each has its own special beauty.
Tamboti
Tamboti has been called the Cocobolo of Africa. The heartwood is dark brown with darker longitudinal streaks that creates breathtakingly beautiful markings. The wood is mottled and banded, sometimes with visible growth increments. It is a hard wood, very lustrous, and with a powerful, persistent, and pleasant scent, sweeter than that of sandalwood. This pleasant odor from the wood will last a long time after the wood is cut, and a piece of furniture made of Tamboti can scent a large room for a long time. Tamboti is arguably the most beautiful wood on the African continent.
Iron Wood
Ironwood is a common name for a wide variety of african trees or shrubs that have exceptionally hard or dense wood. Although the name is applied generally to trees of three unrelated genera, scores of other trees are also called ironwood in local usage. Because it is so dense it will not float in water, carving anything from it can be extremely difficult, but it is still widely used by many African artists.
