Care and Feeding of an Ebony?

I just became the proud owner of an Ebony RSW45 from Robert White. I was wondering if anyone had any good information about how I should care for the Ebony wood and the titanium?

Matthew: A lot of people may suggest you outsource that nasty

maintenance.

Matthew:

Don't take it appart, dont bath it, dust it, otherwise leave it alone

unless it goes wrong.

 

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its a fine camera

 

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Robin

You could send me the camera for a free evaluation of the required

maintenance and suggested intervals.

 

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This evaluation can often take three to five years, and would require

frequent use of the camera. Please send film as well, I have my own

holders and meter.

First thing to do is to announce on the Internet that you own one.

Why don't you mention how much you paid for it, too?

Two suggested methods:<P>Film and plenty of it. Think of any

scarring as badges of honor. This works if you are a

photographer.<P>

metal and wood polish rubbed in with soft cloths. This approach

works if you are a furniture collector.

If it gets wet then dry it with a cloth. If it gets dusty give it a

brush. Easy!

I know how you feel, a couple of the others don't 'get it', you've

just unpacked you're new 'pride 'n joy', and you're excited like I was

by my first LF camera. Somebody doesn't like it, so what.

 

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I'm both a Photographer and Woodworker, get a can of Liberon

furniture paste wax, the best, cost $13.90 and I've been working on

the same can for 5 yrs!

 

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Use the wax on the metal and wood, it's more protection than you

think, and whatever else scratches, nick, and/or marks you get, you

get, but if it's made out of wood and you care about it, use the wax.

I own a metal field camera not a wook one, but I've seen enough of

the Ebony to know that woodworking was done by a true Artisan. The

bevels, the joinery is beautiful, sure it was made to be used, but

waxing periodically is good for the wood, and is a gesture to the

craftsman who put his time and sweat into the piece to say 'I

appreciate what you did'.

Anything made out of wood is only as strong as it joints. Joinery

with the right glue proprerly done, is almost as strong as the wood

itself, and supplemental fasteners like screws are secondary. The

enemy of bare wood and it joints in a workpiece is the sun/UV, and

temperature/humidity swings, which causes expansion and contraction in

both the wood and joints.

 

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Anything made out of wood and its joinery tends to get torn up not

from use but from expansion and contraction which can cause the joints

to fail. In an effort to combat all of this, any combination of

stains, Danish oils, Shellacs(french polish), urethanes, and Spar

varnishes are used.

 

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Spar varnish among these has the ability to flex with the wood as

it expands and contracts, and is used on a workpiece that has to deal

with being outside. Even though these overcoats can look like hard

glass none of them are complete moisture barriers.

 

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Your wax is supplemental protection moisturewise and its biggest

advantage is that it's simple, renewable, and cheap, and it cannot

hurt and usually helps protect whatever finish the manufacturer has on

a workpiece.

 

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I went through all this technical 'macaroni' to emphasize to

Matthew that what will tear up a workpiece isn't necessarily use, but

the elements, that's why you use the wax.

When my Grandfather, who was a carpenter, died, no adult in my family

had sense enough to save his tools. The old craftsmen not only loved

their work, and its products, but also loved the tools that helped

them make a living for themselves and their families.

 

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There are some wonderful books of photographs of hand made tools and

toolboxes from around the turn of the century. One toolbox I have in

mind must have taken over a thousand man-hours to make.

 

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Tools are latent wealth full of promise, and it saddens me to see

them taken for granted. Fine cameras are not only a testament to the

craftsmen who made them but to the long line of engineers and

inventors who found new and clever ways to make them work better and

more reliably. Anyone who has ever taken the time to puzzle their

way through the workings of even a simple shutter can�t help but be

awe struck by the evidence of genius that resides there.

 

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It saddens me when I see a screwdriver that was used for a pry bar,

and broken. I have one camera that was used by a professional

photographer who worked to his 70�s. He was a friend of mine, and he

is dead now. It has marks on it, that are his marks, and I revere

those, however it doesn�t show abuse or lack of maintenance.

 

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Real manual labor is a fine schoolmaster, that teaches the value of

things that are made, and the labor that was put into them. It gives

one a respect and reverence for them.

 

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One of my next projects it to photograph grain silos. I suspect most

people think that they are ugly, but I bet those that think that they

are ugly haven�t ever been really hungry.

 

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Photography is art, but it is also craft, and true craftsmen, take

care of their tools.

 

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Neal

Matthew: Congratulations, wish you enjoy your new camera for many

years to come. </p> <p>The best you can do for your ebony is to place

it in a glass case in the dark at 50% Relative Humidity. As you will

agree this is not appropriate the second best is to protect the

camera from fast, drastic changes in humidity as would happen if the

canoe tipped over. Ebony is a very dense wood with slow uptake of

moisture and is extremely durable but it is not immune to dimensional

changes brought about by moisture changes. Waxes as others suggested

are useful in as much as they provide some protection against

moisture changes and protection against abrasion and mechanical

dulling of the wood, however I would not trust any wax to provide you

with the kind of protection against extreme conditions. Landscape

photography involves unavoidable risk to equipment. </p> <p> Once I

was photographing a stormy looking landscape that quickly changed to

a downpour. Fortunately I had my focusing cloth so I quickly draped

the camera over with it. Yes, my cloth is black on the inside but on

the other side is waterproof. No I do not own a wood camera but I do

not like my Technika to get wet either!

Julio.....I said nothing about trusting wax to protect a piece

under extreme conditions, I wouldn't wax a workpiece and then submerge

it in water, and as I said waxing a workpiece is supplemental

protection.

 

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Wax on a regular basis as the wax wears off, do it consistently,

and the wood is better off that not waxing, it doesn't make any

difference whether it is Ebony, or Bubinga, or Padouk. It's the wear

and tear over the long run that you try to address with the wax.

 

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Check out 'the Encyclopedia of Furniture Making' by Ernest Joyce

for the expansion and contraction rates for many woods, the important

consideration for Ebony is that it is NOT zero. My suggestion to

Matthew still stands, wax it if you care about it.

 

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Drop your camera in a lake, finish shooting and leave your camera

under the bright noonday sun and take a nap, those are extremes that

no finish, no wax, nothing can protect against.

 

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Sure if you're outside your camera gonna be exposed to extreme

conditions, but you still attempt to take care of it, so that isn't an

argument for not using the wax. It's easy to wax every couple of

months and the wood's better off with it than without it no matter

what, now if you decide to use you camera as a submarine, nothing is

going to help.

'The best you can do for your ebony is to place it in a glass case

in the dark at 50% Relative Humidity'.....with all due respect Julio

this is not correct.

 

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Whatever the conditions you will be using the camera under, you

should place the camera in a similar envirement for at least 72

hours(if possible) or 24 hours if you can spare that, so the camera

gets used to the heat or cold or humidity change.

 

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Just putting the camera in a glass case under the conditions

you've suggested isn't going to do any good if you're taking the

camera up in the mountains for the next week.

 

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Now of course this won't always be possible, but that is the best

case scenario.

You might speak with Ebony directly. I'm sure they've given that a

lot of thought.

 

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Does anyone know what happened to Ken Hough's Deardorff site? It's

disappeared. He had recommendations on how to care for those cameras.

Is ebony wood all that different from Honduras mahogany?

Ebony(Macassar ebony, Andaman marble, coromandel, calamander wood

etc.)......All are extremely hard and heavy, very finely textured and

somewhat cold to the touch with a marble like quality. The colours

are showy, ranging from dark greay streaked with saffron-green, brown,

red and purple to pure black. The trees do not grow much beyond 8 in

in girth.

 

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Honduras Mahogany....Yellowish brow, close even texture. Plain

lustrous figure. Medium hard, excellent working properties, very

stable. VERY HARD TO GET.

 

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Ebony is considered an exotic wood that is only occasinally

available and is something very special, Mahogany in general has been

called 'the wood that all other woods are judged by'.

 

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You wouldn't be all that wrong in calling these the Roll Royce and

Mercedes of woods, and in the hands of Masters as the makers of the

Ebony obviously are they are worked into something very special.

I also feel that you should ask Ebony what they recommend. Their

recommendations for the bellows would also be of interest. Please post

their response. If for some reason you do not want to contact Ebony,

please email me; I'll then follow through and post their response.

Jonathan: I did not mean to disagree or imply anything wrong with

your recommendations, in fact I think you did a very good job with

them. That said, you missed my tongue in cheek humour about the glass

cage. Placing it PERMANENTLY in that cage at 50% RH would indeed be

the best for the Ebony, ....but the worst for Matthew; I clearly

acknowledged that after mentioning it. I am quite aware of the

relevant technical data for ebony, the wood. For one thing, its

volumetric shrinkage can be double to nearly triple that of Teak,

depending on wheather it is East Indian ebony, or African Ebony. (US

Forest Products Laboratory Wood Handbook); which type of ebony was

used for making the camera I do not know, but in neither case getting

it wet is not the best for it. That is the message I hoped to convey

to Matthew. I quite agree that wax which you suggested is I about the

only practical thing for the case in question, but by no means

trustworthy when it comes to the soaking that cameras can be exposed

to in downpours. Ebony is wood, beautiful, strong, hard wood etc.

but the reality is that it still is wood, with all its advantages and

disadvantages. Better for Matthew to know that now than latter, no?

As there seems to be an interest in ebony, the wood, here is an

excerpt from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 2002:

"The best Indian and Ceylon ebony is produced by Diospyros ebenum,

which grows in abundance throughout the flat country west of

Trincomalee in Sri Lanka. The tree is distinguished by the width of

its trunk and its jet-black, charred-looking bark, beneath which the

wood is pure white until the heart is reached. The heartwood excels

in fineness and in the intensity of its dark colour. Although the

centre of the tree alone is used, reduced logs 30 cm to almost 1 m (1

to 3 feet) in diameter can be obtained. Much of the East Indian ebony

is yielded by the Coromandel ebony, D. melanoxylon, a large tree

attaining a height of 18�24 m and 2.4�3 m in circumference, with

irregular branches and oblong leaves. D. montana of India yields a

yellowish gray, soft but durable wood. D. quaesita is the tree from

which is obtained the wood known in Sri Lanka as Calamander. Its

closeness of grain, great hardness, and fine hazel-brown colour,

mottled and striped with black, render it valuable for veneering and

furniture making.

D. dendo, native to Angola, is a valuable timber tree with very black

and hard heartwood known as black ebony, as billetwood, or as Gabon,

Lagos, Calabar, or Niger ebony. Jamaica, American, or green ebony is

produced by Brya ebenus, a leguminous tree or shrub; the heartwood is

rich dark brown, very heavy, exceedingly hard, and capable of

receiving a high polish."

Hi Matthew,

I work with ebony wood. It is an oily wood that, in my experience,

can be difficult where waxing is involved. There are some waxes that

complement it and others that merely stay a sticky film on the

surface. I use a beeswax/arnica oil combination that I cook-up in the

microwave. The problem with waxing a camera involves the accidental

transference of that wax to film, lenses, etc.

You might try, in a small area of the wood, a product like Armor-

all. I've used it lightly on surfaces and it seems not bad as a

sealant. Your best bet would be to not coat the wood and bring along

a plastic trash bag in cases where it begins to rain. You might check

with The Ebony people and find out if they have treated the wood used

in your camera. I would think it is treated and another layer of goop

on the wood would only make the camera an excellent dust collecter.

Happy shooting.

Peter

Yeesh. Look what I started.....:-)

Yes Julio, that is funny now that I reread you post....thanks for

pointing that out....kind of like 'pheasant under glass'. I e-mailed

Ebony about their recommendations, told them I recommeded wax and

asked them how they felt about it and am awaiting a response.

 

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I am very familiar with Mahogany since I made the coffee table

that now resides in my living room out of Mahogany. I stained it with

several coats of danish oil and regularly wax it with Liberon paste

wax, there's no goop whatsoever.

 

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Bottom line is the wood doesn't know if it's in a camera or desk,

wood is wood, so the issue is pretty simple, do nothing, or wax it

regularly, for added protection. Good point about whatever possible

treatment Ebony has performed on the wood, although I read John

Sextons review which say that's linseed oil, and that being true, wax

isn't going to hurt.

 

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On the Mahogany pieces I've made, Liberon and Mothers California

Gold(an automotive paste wax), work like a charm. I wouldn't

recommend Armor all/silicone as once you get this on something, you

cannot get it off.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure that Ebony use danish oil on the cameras.

Yes Julio your point is well taken, and something Matthew should

take notice, don't expose this camera to downpours, get it soaked. In

the woodworking subculture the majority of folks don't even try to

make a piece out of Ebony, they buy a stain, another wood, and try to

duplicate the 'look' of Ebony with staining.

 

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That is how special your Ebony is, and it is why I bought a metal

field camera, so I could concentrate on pictures rather than being

careful so I wouldn't bang up the camera(being a woodworker myself, I

would be loathe to tear up another mans handiwork).

One more thing Matthew, linseed oil and turpentine is Danish oil.