African Blackwood is a remarkably hard and heavy wood species which grows in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Highly prized for its visual beauty it is also the material of choice for many of the finest woodwind instruments including oboes, clarinets and bagpipes. I discovered that Blackwood, like many other tonewoods, is a wonderful material for snare drums, and possesses a mid-range voice which projects well and sounds very full from ppp to fff.
Our African Blackwood stock is secured from blanks which are unsuitable for the production of woodwind instruments due to small defects which I can eliminate in the milling process of our segment shell drums.
I make a donation to the African Blackwood Conservation Project for each drum I produce in an effort to help ensure a sustainable future for this magnificent material and the indigenous people who depend on it.
African Blackwood 14 by 7 with Matching Hoops
