Ebony is used in knife production for making handles. The dark wood, primarily sourced from India and Indonesia, has been regarded since ancient times as the epitome of fine wood and has since been used for particularly exclusive woodwork.

Ebony is the wood of trees of the Diospyros genus, which belong to the ebony family. It is characterized by its black or black-brown coloration and the fine, clearly visible stripes that give the wood a particularly distinctive texture. In its processed state, ebony has an especially smooth surface. In addition to these aesthetic qualities, ebony has special physical properties. This rare precious wood has a high density, is very robust, and has high aging resistance, making it a preferred choice not only for decorative uses but also wherever wood is exposed to special stresses – such as in knife handles.

The traditional distribution area of ebony includes tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and South Asia, especially Cameroon, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Ebony from Cameroon is by far the most widespread. However, the other variants are of higher quality, with the so-called Ceylon ebony (named after the former name of the island of Sri Lanka) having the highest quality but also being hardly available anymore. For the production of high-quality products, ebony from Madagascar and Indonesia is mostly used today.

Ebony was already considered particularly valuable by the ancient Egyptians, and since then it has been used in almost all cultures for fine and finest wood products – especially for inlays (intarsia) and veneers, but also for musical instruments. During the historicism period in the late 19th century, it became fashionable to make handles for doors and windows, as well as for fine cutlery parts and weapons from ebony, a use of this wood that has especially been preserved in the production of elegant knife handles to this day.