PB+J wrote:
There's something about the colored ebonite that reminds me of bowling balls from the 50s and 60s abut also old pipes. My dad smoked a pipe and some of them had ebonite stems.
Is there an upcharge for colored ebonite?
I cannot say enough good about my Ellis ebonite Pratten, especially now that I can actually play music on it. I've made a bunch of breakthroughs and can now make actual music on the flute, which is such a free blowing and expressive instrument.
I have a hard time seeing myself explaining to my wife "but look, this one is black and green!"
I do charge significantly more for the colored ebonite for a couple of reasons. First, it is a
lot more expensive than the black ebonite (about twice as much). Second, there is a lot more pressure not to make a mistake! With black ebonite (as with African blackwood), you can mix and match pieces, and if something goes screwy on a section, you can easily replace it with another piece of black ebonite. A flute made from the colored stuff needs to all come from the same piece of ebonite so that it matches, and this means that a mistake is pretty much fatal to the entire flute since there is no hope of an exact match on a replacement piece, and any such error is also very expensive. So the stress level in working with it is quite high and I have to move with greater care. That comes out in the price. And finishing ebonite is
much more labor intensive than wood. Takes several times as long, easily.