For several reasons.
Back when I was making stocks as a sideline to writing, another stockmaker friend and I made a winter road trip to visit yet another stockmaker who lived in a remote part of north-central Montana--which is pretty remote in itself. But this guy also dealt in stock wood, so we stopped to see him, in between hunting winter varmints. Among his other stuff was a full-sized blank of very dark ebony--which weighed 80 pounds! I suspect he kept it merely as a curiosity, because he'd had it for far longer than required for "curing"....
