Dean said "is in very short supply due to troubles in Africa as well as a bit of over harvesting." A few months ago I did some internet searches looking for larger turning blanks of ebony. It seems most of the quality stuff comes from South Africa where the political situation is fairly stable and there appears to be good quantities of it available. What I asked them to bid on was several hundred pounds of 2'X2"X24". The price quoted was acceptable to me. But, then they would only air freight it to St. Louis and that cost more than doubled the price, plus it would be a days round-trip drive to pick up. And it would be shipped freshly cut, green and wet, completely sealed in parafin. Since ebony has a reputation for almost never drying and continuing to crack, plus the shipping cost, I don't know how anyone can make a proift selling the stuff. Plus the very long wait before it is usable. Also, there is no guarantee as to what it will look like. You buy it and it is heavily streaked in brown, buyer is stuck. I'm looking at a project where I will be making about a dozen large items and want them ebony black. But I don't like problems. I believe I will be using walnut and 'ebonizing' it with alcohol based black analine dye. Less expensive, more predictable and results (hopefully) beautiful.