How Hard Is Zebrawood?

[killemall8]

i think i remember that it is extremly hard, but i cant search for it. it brings up a million things that have nothing to do with it. thanks guys

[Jon]

Fairly dense - somewhere around Hard Maple's density. I haven't done enough work with the wood by hand, so it's hard to compare.

[jmrentis]

Here is a site that offers some basic info for many woods, here is the Zebrawood specs.

This other site shows the density of different woods by their scientific name-Zebrawood density Just go down to Tropical Africa and look under Microberlinia brazzavillensis and you'll find the density is 0.70. You can seach other wood to compare, but yeah it seems fairly dense compared to quite a few guitar woods, though there are more dense woods. I was routing some today and it actually routed just fine, no problems at all, but it is a little heavy and dense.

Edited August 7, 2007 by jmrentis

[Mattia]

It's hard, but variable; darker stripes are harder than the lighter bits in between, it can tear out quite badly, and be a bit of a pain to work.

Plus, it's kinda smelly.

So, yeah.

[ryanb]

It's hard, but variable; darker stripes are harder than the lighter bits in between, it can tear out quite badly, and be a bit of a pain to work.

Plus, it's kinda smelly.

So, yeah.

I agree. Zebrawood has soft parts and hard parts in the light and dark stripes. It can sometimes be VERY splintery and have a lot of tearout ... depends on the piece. It is pretty, but I find it to be a pain to work with in general. Doing a guitar top or something like that probably wouldn't be too bad though.

[ToneMonkey]

End grain is a right bitch to sand.

[Ben]

Its pretty hard... what everone else said is all true.

Its a bit of a pain to work with, but its worth it in the end (in my opinion)

[MP63]

I have a 2" slab of the stuff. What I have used, reminds me of oak.

Hard and brittle. Very dense.

[Prostheta]

It's hard, but variable; darker stripes are harder than the lighter bits in between, it can tear out quite badly, and be a bit of a pain to work.

Agreed. It's the same as wenge in this respect. Don't use anything coarser than fine steel wool to polish it or you'll end up abrading the soft parts of the grain faster than the hard parts and causing yourself more work bringing it back into flatness!

I personally didn't find zebrano hard to work when shaping the back of a neck. Just make sure your planes and spokeshaves are set up nicely with good honed blades, and be prepared to resharpen a little more often than you normally would. If you think it might tear out. It will.