Joss once experimented with Lignum Vitae. I think it was good but there was a supply problem. White, dense, straight grain. I never played one but they have been discussed here.
I never knew this. I know in some of their early cues they experimented with Areno Blanco. I had one of their first big pin flat face ivory jointed cues that both shafts were made of Areno Blanco.
It was an unusual wood, almost grainless. It played fabulously though. I was robbed of that cue at gunpoint in the mid 90’s in NYC, I was heartbroken over it then and now, never found another cue that hit like that.
I talked to Dan Janes about making another to replace it. He told that he and Bill had loved Areno Blanco as a shaft wood but supply problems such as you describe led to them abandoning using it.
