A number of years ago, I picked up a couple of fancy knife blades with the idea that I would figure out what to use as handles at some later date. During a trip through Africa, I stumbled on a few blocks of blackwood and figured I could carve them. Later that year I found myself heading to Bali, Indonesia and figured that the famous wood carvers in the town of Mas (near Ubud) could do a better job than I could. I asked if they could carve "ebony" and they said "sure - it grew on Bali and they did it all the time. I brought a couple of the smaller blocks to a carver along with my sketches. When I returned the next day to pick them up, he was nearly in tears. He showed me his iron (not steel) chisels which now had buggered cutting edges from his efforts to carve the wood and gave me back his best efforts at creating the designs I had drawn. I figure, if I ever get around to working this stuff, I'll use a grinder.

Jeff