Hey Folks,

I have a cuemaker friend who is going to make me a tulipwood Merry Widow with an ebony handle. Elforyn joint and buttcap, rings at all positions. He has some nice black ebony, and I’m providing the tulipwood. My problem is, I have a couple different pieces of tulip and I’m having trouble deciding which to use - a good problem to have, as I’m well aware. Hoping to get some input from you all here. The longer piece has some cool figure and I like the color okay, and the shorter pieces have a much darker orange and red color but fairly basic, straight figure. As of now I’m leaning towards the shorter pieces with the really red color. Wondering what you all think.

As a caveat: I do understand it’s much harder to judge in photos rather than having them in hand, but it is what it is. I’d say the color of both is much nicer in person than I was able to show in the photos.

The longer piece, with some water on it to show figure:






The shorter pieces, which are waxed. Photos taken on a foggy day so light isn’t great: