When you purchase an impingo wood carving you are getting History and quality all at once.
The ebony Mpingo, or African Blackwood is the dark black wood that was imported to Egypt for thousands of years, and even mentioned in the Bible. This original Ebony wood is a super dense True Rosewood with the finest grain of any known wood. The slow growth in the dry arid areas of South Africa makes it an ideal wood for world-class mask and statue production since the fine grain will hold even the most minute detail and polishes to a glassy smooth finish.
African Blackwood scientific name is Dalbergia melanoxylon, African Blackwood is {mpingo wood) an exotic hardwood par excellence. It is not only extremely rare, but also incredibly dark in color - often bordering on completely black. Sometimes specimens are slightly lighter in color because subtly streaked with rich browns and traces of violet iridescence. The thin, yellowish-white sapwood is clearly demarcated from the dark heartwood
Historical evidence of human use and trade in Dalbergia melanoxylon the scientific name for mpingo wood can be found dating back for over 5,000 years, beginning in the ancient Egyptian culture. mpingo was used in the tombs of the Pharaohs – their contents and construction materials – have been so well preserved, documented and scientifically tested because it has been established that Dalbergia melanoxylon (Mpingo wood) was widely used in the production of the exquisite furniture and artwork possessed by the ruling classes of Egypt. Surprisingly, it was also used in temple construction, as wooden splines holding the immense stones of the pyramids in place, and other construction purposes where a strong wood was needed, such as door latches and hinges. It was widely fashioned into funerary figures and ritual objects. Identical to its use today, it was often used in inlay and marquetry as a high contrast material when combined with ivory, tortoise shell or precious stones. This use of the material has continued through the centuries until the present, proving it to be one of the most important artistic materials the world has ever known.
The Mention of Mpingo wood in Egyptian historical writings, inscribed on cuneiform tablets and painted on the walls of their monuments, refer to ‘hbny’, a designation which is the root of the modern word, ebony. Since so many Egyptian artifacts have been recovered and tested, one can be reasonably certain that their descriptive term hbny referred to the species now called mpingo, Further evidence for its provenance is the Egyptian documentation of their source of supply, indicating by wall paintings and hieroglyphic writings that it was imported into Egypt from sub-Saharan Africa by two trade passages – along the route of the Nile River, and by way of the Red Sea along the eastern coast of Egypt.
This hard, expensive wood was used for special furniture such as Tutankhamun’s chair, stool and bed. Pieces were also incorporated in the shrine doors as bolts, and were used for a gaming-board stand, legs of another chair and the framework of boxes. Even part of the doorframe into the burial chamber was of ebony
mpingo wood’s stunning beauty is equal in its toughness as a wood. Foremost it has incredibly high density. Mpingo wood has a specific gravity of 1.27, or 1,270 kg/m3, which is absurdly high for timber. In fact, African Blackwood is the third most dense wood known to man.
On the standardized Janka hardness scale, African Blackwood (mpingo) scores a prodigious 3,670 lbf on the Janka hardness test, Experienced woodworkers described mpingo wood as hard as metal.
African Blackwood originates from the arid plains of sub-Saharan Africa, where it grows from Sudan and Ethiopia in the north to South Africa in the south. However, most commercial timber is harvested from two countries: Tanzania and Mozambique.
Mpingo wood grows exceedingly slowly due to the harsh conditions of its native habitat. Approximately 60 to 70 years must elapse before a Mpingo tree can seriously be considered for logging. But the very best, darkest-colored wood only comes from much more mature trees that are at least 150 years old.
For many thousands of years the glossy black timber has been intimately associated with ebony – in many circles considered the most desirable of dark woods.