So had a chance to have a good look at the darker ( replacement ebony?) piece that Adam sent and began the process to fit to a neck.
Based on Simon's observation used a full respirator before working on the material.
Board was originally just over 9mm thick so gave it a run on the thicknesser to get it down to around 6mm.
Cause it was free gave it a bit of stick and hit it with 2.5mm cut straight up. Straight through and totally flat smooth finish (which surprised me). While thicknessing it had a unique smell akin to a tyre fire so would be interested to see an actual MSDS for the product. As with Simon's obs a little sticky with the dust.
Next fretted the board and was very easy to work with nice clean fast cuts.
As Im going to fit to a build, made up an inlay and routed the board with dremel. Cut really well ( not so much smell this time) and no chipping.
Will glue to neck sometime this week and begin radiusing so will see how it goes with sanding.
So far very easy to work with and looking forward to seeing how it plays once complete.