OK Sandman, I will take it slowly.
Although I do not have experience in turning woods, I was an apprentice to a guitar builder in the mid 1980's. (That made my Dad REAL happy
) Anyway, we built a custom order Electric Bass for a client out of Purple Heart, and it darned near ruined every single tool we used on it!
This stuff was like steel.
Based on that experience alone, I will take your warning, and proceed slowly up the hardwood charts in my turning.
I have used ebony on some ship models (1/8"x3" stock), so I have some experience with it. I would actuallly say that sanding it was harder than sanding Iron!! (I have sanded Iron doing some gunsmith repairs on my Brown Bess Musket... but that is another hobby, and another story altogether.....)
Cocobolo is beautiful!! I have a Fife that is made of Coco, and it is stunning!!
Thanks for the heads up!!