rss feedOne man’s firewood is another man’s oboe
There’s something fascinating about objects whose appearance belies their value. The notion of hidden potential is a beguiling concept and one that makes us open our eyes wider to the world around us. Uncut diamonds or amber washed up on the beach spring to my mind; things that the uneducated eye would simply miss altogether.
And a piece of firewood may seem like an unlikely place to look for such a quality, but if you’re in the bush, and looking for a really good piece of wood to cook your supper over, then one of the best – that produces a wonderfully slow burning and hot coal – is also one of the more beautiful substances to come out of Africa.
Dalbergia Melanoxylon, known locally as Mpingo is Tanzania’s National Tree. It’s often referred to as Ebony, but is actually African Blackwood. If you wander around in places like the Selous Game Reserve, it wont be long before you (probably literally) stumble on a piece of scruffy, dull looking wood. Elongated, but intricately contorted, the heartwood – long stripped of its soft cortex and bark by termites – is weathered a dull and unremarkable grey.
But stop and pick up the stick and the first thing you’ll notice is its weight. Take out a pocket knife and make a small cut, and immediately you reveal a hint of the hidden character. For something so hard, it cuts surprisingly easily – the grey outer layer falling away to reveal a deep black richness beneath. It’s so closely grained that it carves almost like dark chocolate. And the cut surface has a luxurious coolness to it.
Drop a short length of this wood on a rock and you reveal what must be its most alluring quality. Instead of the knock you’d expect, there is an ever so soft, but distinct ringing note as it strikes.
And this is what the makers of musical instruments have known for centuries. Oboes, Clarinets and Picoloes are traditionally made from Blackwood, its tonal qualities make it one of the world’s most sought after sound woods. There are even stories of pipe makers from the North of England taking lengths of Blackwood used as ship’s ballast and turning it into pipes. There cant be many more poetic examples of an object’s potential being unlocked.
(Unsurprisingly these very qualities threaten the survival of African Blackwood in many places. If you’d like to read about on going conservation of this an other species, you can do a lot worse that look at Flora and Fauna International’s Global Trees Campaign website)
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Wonderful articale.
I always loved the black wood.