What on earth is ebony?

Ebony, also known as shady sunken wood, has both the quaint elegance of wood and the charm of stone. it is known as oriental sacred wood and plant mummies. By earthquakes, floods and landslides, all plant organisms on the ground are buried in low-lying places such as ancient riverbeds, and some trees are buried in the silt. under the action of bacteria and other microorganisms under hypoxia and high pressure, ebony is formed after thousands of years of carbonization, so it is also called carbonized wood. All previous dynasties have used ebony as an object to ward off evil spirits, making handicrafts, statues of Buddha and amulet pendants.

The formation time of ebony mostly ranges from 4000 to 8000 years, which is not enough to become a plant fossil, nor does it belong to mineral resources. Trees such as nanmu, Toona sinensis and Salix mandshurica are buried in the mud due to natural disasters, under the condition of hypoxia and high pressure. formed by thousands of years of carbonization. Due to different tree species, the market value varies. Nanmu is the most expensive, reaching 800 to 150000 yuan per cubic meter, and the older it is, the better it is preserved, and the higher the price.

Ebony is generally black, so the Sichuan side is generally known as ebony. Later, it spread and became a common name for shady sunwood. Species include hemp willow, Cyclobalanopsis glauca, camphor, nanmu, red Toona, yew, mulberry, yellow willow, yellow cypress, locust, sandalwood, etc., generally with fragrance and germicidal characteristics to form ebony, and large ebony with a diameter of 3 meters is also found in the Mianyuan River in Deyang City.

Ebony is hard in nature, mostly brown-black, black-red, yellow-gold and yellow-brown, the section is smooth, the wood grain is delicate, the polishing method can achieve mirror light, and some ebony essence is similar to red sandalwood, never fade, do not decay, do not give birth to insects. It is an ideal material for making works of art and antique furniture. Archaeologists have solved the mystery of a large number of large ivory unearthed in Sanxingdui by restoring the living environment of Samsung ebony. It is the spirituality of ebony that the teachers of the Palace Museum have tested that ebony can significantly promote blood circulation and prolong life, which the people of Shu regard as a treasure to ward off evil spirits and accept blessings. As ebony is a non-renewable resource, the amount of development is getting less and less, and some natural ebony works of art are of great collection value.

Ebony is more peculiar than ordinary wood. Generally, wood burns out white ash, while gloomy wood burns yellow ash. The color deepens in the case of water, and the natural color is restored after the water is dry. If you apply a little vegetable oil, it will be black and shiny and will not fade. When most of the gloomy wood is unearthed, the heart of the tree is rotten, leaving only the tree head and the middle layer of the trunk. The severely carbonized surface can not be used as a general material, so it is generally necessary to plane off its outer layer and leave the wood core for use.

Modern ebony refers to one of the national mahogany standards, and the ebony generally referred to in the wood market refers to black African ebony, which is a category of tree species and belongs to the national mahogany standard. Custom is divided into ebony, green wood, ebony three kinds, ebony pure black, very brittle, green wood solid, water is heavy. In Japan, ebony wood is collectively called ebony.