Ben Wright, age 13, of Gadsden, Ala., for his question:

WHERE DO WE GET EBONY WOOD?

Ebony is a hard, black wood that can be polished to a beautiful metallic luster. Ebony trees grow in Japan, the Philippines, the East Indies, Sri Lanka, Africa, Madagascar and North and South America. Ebony wood comes from all of these areas and countries.

Only the heartwood or inner wood of ebony is dark colored. The sapwood, or outer wood, is white, grayish white or pinkish white. The heartwood of some kinds of ebony is dark brown instead of black and may have streaks of light brown, yellow or red.

A hard gum fills the heartwood fibers. This gum is probably responsible for ebony's brittleness, which makes it easy to work and to carve.

The persimmon trees of the United States and the Orient are species of ebony, but these trees have so little black heartwood that they have little commercial wood value.

The hard sapwood of the American persimmon is often used to make wooden heads for golf clubs.

Ebony is used mainly for black piano keys, flutes, the handles of knives and brushes, cabinets, wood inlays on furniture and other ornamental objects.