Stained ebony vs unstained ebony

I think sellers should make it clear that their ebony is either stained or unstained. They don't. When I bought my 1st ebony set from CB I had no idea the wood was stained black. I thought I got naturally black ebony because the pieces I received were completely black. All the more experienced players know about ebony but us newbies don't. So are the sellers trying to pull the wool over our eyes to make more sales? Could be. 

Here's what I'd like to see advertised on all ebony sets sold:

Ebony (stained)

Ebony (unstained)

@MCH818 asked in another thread who stains their ebony. I asked ChessBazaar if my Punjab set I bought from them was stained and they told me it was. If I hold the pieces up to  a LED light I cannot see any striping, only black unlike my Danum set from Staunton Castle. 

There are different types of ebony wood.  Genuine ebony is very dense and heavy and expensive and so  is rarely used for making chess sets nowadays. The ebony wood used instead is low grade which looks somewhat brownish and in order to make it jet black like genuine ebony they treat it with chemicals. 

In light of issues I see on this forum with cracked pieces - which seem to fall more on ebony (or is that just my imagination?), if a piece is going to be stained black anyway, am I better off with stained boxwood ("ebonized") than stained ebony?

+1 ... letting the customer know of the finish options.

Perhaps it’s also about being clear on the nature/characteristics of the wood being used too.

(Caveat: I’m not a wood expert so what follows is the thoughts of an amateur and they may be misguided.)

I prefer black/perhaps dark grey ebony - it is on the fret board of my guitar and my chess pieces ... (I’m no expert but I think African and perhaps Ceylon ebony have heartwood that is more likely to be black than striped).

I would be disappointed if I received ebony chess pieces with any hint of striping (purely a subjective personal taste thing). I'd even more disappointed if my ebony pieces were stained or painted. 

Unstained, black ebony heart wood for me. I hope that’s what my pieces are ... but perhaps they are fake and I am the fool. 

Now ... if it’s about the body of my guitar (or I wanted striped or figured wood in my chess pieces) - I might choose Macassar ebony - or other figured wood - which I believe is more likely to have striped characteristics - that figuring is lovely on a guitar.

I suppose it’s about the retailers providing as much info as possible - wood type, characteristics, stains etc... so that purchasers can be as informed as possible.

I prefer the brown streaks in natural ebony now that I've seen it. In fact I would like to see the brown streaks being more visible, provided the density is there and not more prone to cracking. I think this coloring is beautiful.

I understand that natural ebony is preferable to many, including me, over stained ebony. My question is what is the advantage of stained ebony versus “ebonized” boxwood?

"guys, look at me! I own the exotic ebony wood! Toughest and blackest wood in the world! wow wow wow!!"

that's the advantage

That's a good question because the advantage of ebonized boxwood is less chance of cracking and at a cheaper price. A serious plus. However I've read that the ebonized treatment can wear off which would not be aesthetically pleasing to most people - certainly not to me. But yeah, that's something to consider. In fact if I had known all this on my first purchase at CB I would not have chosen an ebony set (stained, unbeknownst to me at the time) but an ebonized boxwood set.

I never thought that nor would I ever think that. That's just someone being an idiot. 

@MCH818 give me a minute...

Left king natural ebony - right king stained ebony.

From CB, right. Yeah I was a little upset or rather disappointed because (being ignorant of ebony) I thought I was buying naked black ebony wood. 

That is true, ebony wood is prone to cracks specially in weighted chess sets. Genuine ebony is found in Africa from which original Jaques sets are made. It is very dense, jet black and heavy. In contrast, Indian ebony is dark grey and dark brown and the wood is not that dense and heavy. As African ebony is expensive, they use cheap Indian ebony instead but in order to make it look like genuine ebony they treat it with chemicals. 

I recall being disappointed when I first splashed out for a boxwood and ebony set years ago. It took me a while to convince myself that the black pieces were not some sort of high quality plastic. 

I've just been looking at some of my sets from 1900 or thereabouts. I do not know whether they are stained or not, but I cannot see the grain at all. So I suspect that blackening the ebony pieces is not a new practice.

I could be wrong though!

From what I've read due to over harvesting pure black 'blackwood' ebony is now so rare I suspect any/all ebony chess set these days is stained. Certainly any set any of us would consider affordable

"A single Black Ebony tree could be worth a million dollars if you could grow it or find it"

https://treeplantation.com/black-ebony.html

Just ask the seller if the set you're considering is stained or not. CB told me my Sher-E-Punjab set was. Btw, the Chess Store sells an identical design called the Bucephalus at almost 3 times the price. I wonder if their set is stained. 

Almost all Indian ebony is treated with chemicals because Indian ebony is not high quality like African ebony and is a mixture of dark brown and dark grey. The reason why original Jaques ebony sets are not black and dense is because they used high grade african ebony.