Resawing and cross-laminating ebony for fragile jewelry?

[Randall Hansen]

DW's birthday is coming up, and I usually make her wood jewelry. This year I'd like to make a hollow heart necklace. Two hollow hearts, in fact, one cut out of the other, having my son finish one of them. Something a little like this:

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I'd like to use ebony. I have a nice little block, I don't know what type, but it's pure, pure black. I'm concerned about its brittleness, breaking with the grain, so I'm considering sawing a few slices off and laminating them together cross-grain.

So, questions:

Is this laminating overkill? Or are my fears of brittleness grounded?
How would you resaw the damn stuff? I don't have a bandsaw or table saw. I do most handwork with Japanese saws, but I'd have to make pretty perfect cuts for the lamination to work.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yes, laminating it is a really good idea.

Well, if you don't have a table saw or a bandsaw, you'll have to cut it with what tools you have. So make perfect cuts with a pull saw. Practice some on less-expensive wood, and then tackle the ebony.

[Chris Fournier]

I make ebony pick guards for guitars and for stability and durabiilty they are laminated. Never failed.

[Chuck Nickerson]

If your resaws aren't perfectly flat, surface-true the pieces by rubbing them against sandpaper adhered to a flat surface (MDF is good enough).
With small pieces it's just a couple minutes to true them up. IME 180 grit is good enough.

[Randall Hansen]

Thank you, Jamie & Chris. I will laminate. I like overkill so much, it's hard to know when I've gone too far :)

And thank you, Chuck. I have a thick piece of glass in the shop just for that reason. I don't know why I didn't think of it, but I'm glad you did.