If you are planning on building something around your home that is made out of real wood, then you have some choices to make. One very popular type of wood that you may use around your home is known as ebony.
This is an absolutely beautiful type of wood due to its very dark color, but many people wonder how strong it is. Today, we are here to figure out whether ebony is a hardwood or a softwood, and how strong it is. We will be evaluating its strength based on a number of important factors.
Is Ebony a Hardwood or Softwood?
There are a few different species of ebony wood out there, ones that originate mainly from Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. This is indeed a type of hardwood and is in fact one of the hardest types out there. If you are looking for something extremely hard, durable, and able to withstand a great deal of weight, this material is always a good choice to consider.
Ebony Wood Strength: All You Need to Know
As mentioned above, ebony is an extremely hard and strong type of wood. It is much stronger than any type of softwood out there, and also stronger than the vast majority of hardwoods. We are going to be examining this wood based on five factors, all of which have to do with its strength.
These factors include its compressive strength, the modulus of elasticity, the modulus of rupture, the hardness, and the density or weight. Now, there are a few different types of ebony that we will be looking at today. These include Ceylon, Macassar, Texas, brown, and Gaboon ebony.
Compressive Strength
Let’s take a look at the compressive strength of the various types of ebony:
- Ceylon ebony – 9,210 lbf per square inch (63.5 MPa)
- Macassar ebony – 11,630 lbf per square inch (80.2 MPa)
- Texas ebony – 10,740 lbf per square inch (74.1 MPa)
- Brown ebony – 11,790 lbf per square inch (81.3 MPa)
- Gaboon ebony – 11,060 lbf per square inch (76.3 MPa)
Brown ebony has the highest compressive strength of all. In the grand scheme of things, all of these varieties are stronger than virtually all other types of wood out there, as there are not many types of wood that can beat this.
The compressive strength of wood may also be called the crushing strength. This refers to how much weight a piece of wood can take parallel to its grain. To help you visualize this, imagine a table. Now, imagine putting weights on that table. How much weight can that table, or specifically the table legs, hold before they buckle and break?
Bending Strength
Let’s take a look at the bending strength of various types of ebony:
- Ceylon ebony – 18,650 lbf per square inch (128.6 MPa)
- Macassar ebony – 22,790 lbf per square inch (157.2 MPa)
- Texas ebony – 22,090 lbf per square inch (152.3 MPa)
- Brown ebony – 22,910 lbf per square inch (158 MPa)
- Gaboon ebony – 22,930 lbf per square inch (158.1 MPa)
Gaboon ebony has the highest bending strength of all types of ebony, with this wood in general having a higher bending strength than most types of soft and hardwood out there.
The bending strength of wood is also referred to as the modulus of rupture. This measurement has to do with how much weight a piece of wood can handle perpendicular to its grain.
This is unlike the compressive strength which had to do with wood managing weight parallel to the grain. Here, to imagine this, picture a horizontal stick. Now, imagine hanging a bucket off of that stick. How much water could you fill into that bucket before the stick snaps and sends the bucket crashing down?
Stiffness
Let’s take a look at the stiffness of various types of ebony:
- Ceylon ebony – 2,040,000 lbf per square inch (14.07 GPa)
- Macassar ebony – 2,515,000 lbf per square inch (17.35 GPa)
- Texas ebony – 2,398,000 lbf per square inch (16.54 GPa)
- Brown ebony – 2,712,000 lbf per square inch (18.70 GPa)
- Gaboon ebony – 2,449,000 lbf per square inch (16.89 GPa)
Brown ebony is the stiffest of all these varieties, with ebony, in general, being stiffer than the vast majority of all other types of wood out there.
For those of you who don’t know what the stiffness of wood is, this may also be referred to as the modulus of elasticity. This refers to how much weight a piece of wood can take before it begins to sag or bend.
To imagine this, picture the same table we used in the first example for the compressive strength. Now, imagine putting weight on that table. How much weight would you have to put on the table before the actual table itself starts to bend or sag in the middle?
Hardness
Let’s take a look at how hard various types of ebony are:
- Ceylon ebony – 2,430 lbf
- Macassar ebony – 3,220 lbf
- Texas ebony – 2,820 lbf
- Brown ebony – 3,590 lbf
- Gaboon ebony – 3,080 lbf
Brown ebony is the hardest type, although, again, ebony is harder than most other types of wood in the world.
The hardness of wood refers to how hard the material is in general. Specifically, here we are talking about resilience towards physical damage such as scratching or denting. This is generally measured on the Janka hardness scale.
Density
Let’s take a look at how dense various types of ebony are:
- Ceylon ebony – 57 lbs per cubic foot (950 kilograms per cubic meter)
- Macassar ebony – 70 lbs per cubic foot (1120 kilograms per cubic meter)
- Texas ebony – 60 lbs per cubic foot (965 kilograms per cubic meter)
- Brown ebony – 72 lbs per cubic foot (1160 kilograms per cubic meter)
- Gaboon ebony – 60 lbs per cubic foot (955 kilograms per cubic meter)
Brown ebony is by far the heaviest of all. Like all of the other factors, however, ebony in general is very heavy.
We then have the density of wood, otherwise known as its weight. Here we are looking to determine how heavy a piece of wood is based on a specific size. Generally speaking, this is measured either in pounds per cubic foot or kilograms per cubic meter. Knowing how heavy a piece of wood is has its importance in terms of durability and workability.
Is Ebony Strong?
The bottom line here is that ebony is extremely strong, and this is the case for all of the types that we looked at today.
When it comes to the modulus of rupture, the modulus of elasticity, compressive strength, the hardness, and density, most types of ebony are much stronger and more durable than virtually all other types of wood out there, whether we are talking about various species of softwood or hardwood.
If you need something hard, durable, stiff, and almost impossible to break, various types of this wood are prime choices to consider.
Summary
At the end of the day, if you are looking for a type of wood that is going to last for a very long time, is extremely durable, and is structurally sound, then all of the types of ebony we have looked at today are good options for you to consider.