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I just left a friend's house and he is a very very serious bagpiper. He just took position of a custom made set of pipes about 3 weeks ago and this is the first time I have seen them

There are 5 stalks sticking out of the bag - the one you blow in, the one you play like a flute, and three that are drones. He picked cocabola for these items and the maker said that he had had the wood for a little over 25 years.

The wood is very dark and even in color with no streaking, no orange, no lighter parts. When you stand back and compare the various pieces of wood, a couple have a reddish tinge, but all are very dark, bordering on black. There is no finish except for wax. It all looks very cool next to the hand-chased german silver rings

He also has a practice chanter (the flute part used by itself) made of African Blackwood, and this piece looks like plastic. It is black black black with no grain showing at all

Never seen anything like these 2 beautiful instruments

For some reason, this just absolutely cracked me up

even though l'm sure you meant posession, not position, it still just slays me.

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jw ( o)===:::

A lot of cocobolo oxidizes over time to become very very dark.

It could have oxidized spontaneously, or have been deliberately ebonized?
I have never heard of people ebonizing cocobolo though because it is usually prized for its natural look. But that can be beautifully contrasted with another piece of ebonized wood, such as walnut. Check this out.
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seati ... f_1313744/

Pipes and other woodwinds are often coated with mineral oil inside and out to help reduce the effects of moisture from the players breath. With many of the true rosewoods this coating will cause them to darken or turn black. African blackwood is best known for this ,but old growth BRW and cocobolo can also do this. Then you see the brownish color of the wood coming back it is time for another coat of mineral oil.
As mentioned, cocobolo eventually darkens on it's own. Most of us try to delay this happening on non wood wind instruments, with varying degrees of success.