Wood id help

cueaddicts

cueaddicts

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Just picked up an old one piece cue with double wedge butt. It's a shorty at 53". I'm curious about the woods. Both the butt wood and front woods have pretty tight grains, but overall the cue is very light at 12oz. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Sean
 

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Tough to tell. The front looks a lot like maple but could also be beech. The prong looks like a rosewood grain but it doesn't have to be. The color looks like mahogany or faded walnut, but Brazilian rose fades to a pale brown like that over time, too. One wedge looks almost certainly like brazilian rose or possibly macassar ebony. The other is too tough to see to even guess. Those are my guesses, and I do mean guesses.
 
Thanks. I was first thinking cherry in the butt section, especially with this cue being so light overall. It does seem a little 'softer' than many of the older rosewoods I've encountered in these vintage cues. Would pear be a suitable wood for up front? I don't think it's maple....or at least doesn't look like any I've seen. The color seems a little "peach-ish" to me for maple, but no doubt tough to tell under the old patina. Wanted to defer this one to more expert eyes.....:smile:
 
I don't know the woods except my guess of maple forearm, mahogany butt and walnut wedge point and that is just a guess. But what I noticed as a cuemaker is the short butt end imitation v-groove points that are actually flat bottom inlays. A house cue maker decades ahead of the CNC cue artists on this one. I always thought those splices down there were v-grooved. I appreciate you showing this. I could be wrong and there actualy be a plug in the end of the butt that is making those points just look like flat bottom inlays.
 
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I think you're right Chris, these aren't 'V' cut points.
What I see is that the veneers don't angle towards the center. They run straight & parallel.
I'll bet that they were cut on a bandsaw and the plug was used to fill the void.
 
Another cool thing about this cue, too, is the bottom of the prongs are very sharp where the woods meet, not a squared off splice joint like you see in most modern full splice bar cues. Those guys had interesting ways of doing things back then....for sure!
 

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cueaddicts said:
Another cool thing about this cue, too, is the bottom of the prongs are very sharp where the woods meet, not a squared off splice joint like you see in most modern full splice bar cues. Those guys had interesting ways of doing things back then....for sure!
Click to expand...
Definitely no plug there.
 
That was the first thing I noticed too. It also looks like the point of the pocket was cut in By hand. I'm Debating with Myself whether the whole pocket was. From that bottom picture one looks like It could be as evident by the gap at the bottom, but the other point looks flat like It was milled square.
 
Cue Crazy said:
That was the first thing I noticed too. It also looks like the point of the pocket was cut in By hand. I'm Debating with Myself whether the whole pocket was. From that bottom picture one looks like It could be as evident by the gap at the bottom, but the other point looks flat like It was milled square.
Click to expand...

Figure this cue was built before electricity was standard, which means no routers. I'd imagine that it was cut by hand with chisels. Pretty good work can be done with a sharp chisel & pencil. Doesn't take a long time, either. During this time, these guys were carving fancy Victorian style furniture details. Just look at any finer 19th century hutch. A wedge in the cue would be cake.

BTW, it looks like the bottom of the cue has been lost. There was likely a leather tab or something glued on the end.
 
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