WOW #1 Amboyna Burl

R

RSB-Refugee

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
...This is the first installment of Wood Of the Week (WOW). I have a preliminary list of 34 different woods, that I have seen, or heard of in cues. They are arranged alphabetically, so Amboyna Burl is at the top. I think if the list were in order of the most strikingly beautiful, it would be at the top also, or at least very high on the list.
...I did a little poking around on the internet and it seems Amboyna is more of an anomaly than a type of wood. It comes from Padauk, Narra and possibly other trees.
Here is a LINK to a site that has some information and some photos. They are a seller of hardwoods, I did not want to steal their photos or info, so I thought it would be easier to link to it, than to get permission to copy.
...From that site I found a Scientific name, Pterocarpus macrocarpus, so I looked for it at CWAR,
(Center for Wood Anatomy Research) a division of the
US Forest Service, Dept of Agriculture website. CWAR has a lot of scientific data on many woods, in this case, there is almost none. Here is an excerpt from their site,

Pterocarpus angolensis AF Muninga

Pterocarpus dalbergioides AS Andaman Padauk

Pterocarpus indicus AS Amboyna Burl

Pterocarpus macrocarpus AS Burma Padauk

...I believe, the "AF" & "AS" to stand for Africa & Asia respectively, referring to the origin of the species. Here is a LINK to the CWAR website.
...One last thing want to share with you, is a SITE that I found, which has some really cool photos.
...That concludes my brief introduction of this weeks wood. Please feel free to add, ammend or comment. Photos of extraordinary examples are more than welcome. I now turn the topic over to the experts.

Thanks,
Tracy
 
Amboyna burl is not the same as padauk burl or narra burl.

You can find the burl in the Philippines for example... Cuemakers like mister Edwin Reyes, mister Viatorre and other Philippine cuemakers use it a lot.

Actually it is the base of the tree wich is also called the stump.
But burl sounds nicer I guess...

Please have a look at this link: http://www.cookwoods.com/Amboyna Burl.htm

The wood is not dense and thus very brittle. if you use it for a cue, you should core it with a 3/4 inch dowell for stability and strength. It warps all the time because of the tension in it.
But it is very heavy though, wich makes it ideal for bowls, doorknobs, stearing wheels, gear pokes...etc.

It polishes well and finishes ok (unless you seal it off first. Then it finishes well).

The wood is sensible to UV and shouldn't be kept in the bright light for too long or it will turn brown.

TIPS: after having turned it on a lathe, seal it of with thin or medium superglue.
The best way to store it is in a rather dark place with constant humidity.
Write on the pieces the date and weight of them every 2 months so you can see when it finally stopped working (it will never stop completely, but when a 20" piece shrinks or expands less than 1/8 of an inch or has a weight difference less than 5 grams, that's acceptable)

Tom Penrose
 
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You can find Aboyna in deep red, blonde, yellow and orange. The deep red is the most sought after. I would not use Amboyna without coring it. I mainly use it for inlays and butt sleeves as I am not in favor of cored forearms. Amboyna has a lot of mineral deposits making it pretty tough to find whole handle pieces that are perfectly clear. Amboyna can vary in figure. It can be loaded with birdseye or just have some awesome curly or quilted figure. Amboyna is somewhat unstable so it should always be used as inlays or a cored piece.
Chris
www.hightowercues.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
dzcues said:
Here's a picture of a cue I made using ebony & amboyna burl.
Click to expand...
Bob, That cue is a real knock-out, thanks for sharing it. I hope we get plenty of examples, such as this.
deep said:
WOW is a great idea Tracy, i'm looking forward to learning a lot!
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Deep, thank you, I hope to learn a lot, also.
Penrose Cues said:
The wood is not dense and thus very brittle. if you use it for a cue, you should core it with a 3/4 inch dowell for stability and strength. It warps all the time because of the tension in it.
Click to expand...
Tom, you say it is not very dense and then say it is very heavy. I thought these statement were confusing, untill I read Chris's statement...
cueman said:
Amboyna has a lot of mineral deposits making it pretty tough to find whole handle pieces that are perfectly clear.
Click to expand...
Is it the high mineral content that makes it so heavy? Do the minerals cause problems with dulling of tools? Is it the minerals that give it so much luster?

Tracy
 
RSB-Refugee said:
Bob, That cue is a real knock-out, thanks for sharing it. I hope we get plenty of examples, such as this.

Deep, thank you, I hope to learn a lot, also.

Tom, you say it is not very dense and then say it is very heavy. I thought these statement were confusing, untill I read Chris's statement...
Is it the high mineral content that makes it so heavy? Do the minerals cause problems with dulling of tools? Is it the minerals that give it so much luster?

Tracy
Click to expand...




burl wood is wood wich grew and curled into a ball shaped mass, so sometimes you can find sand or little stones in the burl.

That can affect the tools, yes...

Mineral deposits make the burl heavy, but mineral deposits can also mean salt or calcium. When you've just turned purpleheart for example, you can see tiny white stripes in the wood. That's salt and calcium.

Tom Penrose
 
Penrose Cues said:
burl wood is wood wich grew and curled into a ball shaped mass, so sometimes you can find sand or little stones in the burl.

That can affect the tools, yes...

Mineral deposits make the burl heavy, but mineral deposits can also mean salt or calcium. When you've just turned purpleheart for example, you can see tiny white stripes in the wood. That's salt and calcium.

Tom Penrose
Click to expand...
When there is salt, and calcium in purpleheart, is there anything I can do about it? I have a piece with the deposits, and I figured I would not be able to use it for a forearm.

Rodney
 
hot7339 said:
When there is salt, and calcium in purpleheart, is there anything I can do about it? I have a piece with the deposits, and I figured I would not be able to use it for a forearm.

Rodney
Click to expand...


You can. You can remove the deposits by scraping them away with an exacto knife.

Tom Penrose
 
cueman said:
I would tend to disagree with anyone who thinks amboyna burl is heavy, It is much lighter than ebony, cocobolo, snakewood, zircote or any of the other woods that we consider heavy. If someone has heavy amboyna it is because it is still very wet.
Chris
www.hightowercues.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Click to expand...




It is much heavier than most burl woods though...

Take Jarrah burl or maple burl or buckeye or narra....etc. Those burls are much lighter.

And you compare amboyna burl to the heaviest woods on earth.... not realistic comparaison is it?

Tom Penrose
 
Penrose Cues said:
It is much heavier than most burl woods though...

Take Jarrah burl or maple burl or buckeye or narra....etc. Those burls are much lighter.

And you compare amboyna burl to the heaviest woods on earth.... not realistic comparaison is it?

Tom Penrose
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It seems to be a little lighter than regular maple. So that puts it in the medium weight group to me. If you consider regular Michigan maple heavy, then go ahead and put amboyna in your heavy group. I listed woods I consider heavy, maybe throwing snakewood in with ebony and cocobolo might be extreme, but ebony and cocobolo are considered heavy by me. Whereas bocote is borderline heavy to me.
 
amboyna

Here are a few examples.
 

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Sheldon said:
Here are a few examples.
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Sheldon,
Thanks for sharing the pics, the detail is real good. On the one without finish, it looks like the dark spots are little craters. Is that the case, or is it an optical illusion? If so how do you fill them in?

Tracy
 
RSB-Refugee said:
Sheldon,
Thanks for sharing the pics, the detail is real good. On the one without finish, it looks like the dark spots are little craters. Is that the case, or is it an optical illusion? If so how do you fill them in?
Click to expand...
I filled the craters with the cue's finish. It takes a while to build it up to level, but in the end it looks great.
 
Since it is so brittle, if you use amboyna burl for points, how do you keep the tips from tearing out or breaking when you turn them down? Thanks.
 
Here are a couple more pics of amboyna in a cue.
 

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