Finishing ebony

[Roger B]

I'm making an ebony grip cap and nose cap and have never worked with this wood before.  It looks as if it polishes perfectly glossy.  What else do I need to finish it?  Just put on a coat or two of Truoil? 
Roger B.

[wmrike]

I've not found oils to adhere well.  Yeah, what does work?

[bjmac]

my experience is with knife scales and model ships. Ebony does finish to a good gloss, and does accept wax. It is prone to checking, though. Taylor has much more experience with this wood.

[Stormrider51]

And wear a mask while working it!  It's a carcinogen if the dust is inhaled.

Storm

[Dogshirt]

And wear a mask while working it!  It's a carcinogen if the dust is inhaled.

Storm

What isn't a carcinogen these days?

[eddillon]

Ebony is oily.  Glue doesn't adhere very well.  I suggest using a dowel or headless wood screw and epoxy for fore ends.  I usually drill the ebony cap and the face of the forend.  I then use a wood screw as a dowel.  I cut the head off of the screw and then epoxy the two parts  together.  No worries about the pieces coming apart.
Ed

[leatherman]

I have made several rifles with ebony nose caps. I had no problem with them finishing to a nice polished lustre after appying the finish on the rifle and then hand buffing it out. I use an oil finish like Chambers or permalynn. I also used epoxy bedding died black to attach it to the stock under cutting the inside of the ebony cap and it worked great.

[bob in the woods]

All of my instruments have their ebony bridges /fingerboards, glued with Titebond. 30 plus years and no failures yet.  Works for me. As to finish, I used an ebony nosecap on a half stock once and just finished it as per the rest of the rifle. Boiled oil finish. it worked fine.

[Dave Waters]

You might try "Watco Teak Oil" It's made for dense hard woods.