Core or Not to Core : Curly Redwood
- Thread starter CavinTan
- Start date
I'm a hobby cuemaker, but in the past used thousands of feet of 8/4 redwood building out door decks and landscape features.
Redwood is very soft & light. More than that, it is about the only species of wood that expands and contracts lengthwise with humidity changes (as well as normal width-wise). Mechanically, burls and extreme curly sections of any wood tend to be less predictable and "weaker" in directions that would not be common for straight grain wood of the same species.
If i ever used any soft woods like that or koa, etc, would definitely core, straight grain wood, probably something stable & heavy like PH, padauk, wenge, etc. I would expect an un-cored burl or deeply curly redwood forearm to have a spongy hit. That said, i have not yet actually cored anything and tend to use relatively stable dense, heavy hardwoods.
It will not be dent resistant, and might not be the best substrate for a rigid finish like cyano or even lacquer that will crack or separate.
smt
Redwood is very soft & light. More than that, it is about the only species of wood that expands and contracts lengthwise with humidity changes (as well as normal width-wise). Mechanically, burls and extreme curly sections of any wood tend to be less predictable and "weaker" in directions that would not be common for straight grain wood of the same species.
If i ever used any soft woods like that or koa, etc, would definitely core, straight grain wood, probably something stable & heavy like PH, padauk, wenge, etc. I would expect an un-cored burl or deeply curly redwood forearm to have a spongy hit. That said, i have not yet actually cored anything and tend to use relatively stable dense, heavy hardwoods.
It will not be dent resistant, and might not be the best substrate for a rigid finish like cyano or even lacquer that will crack or separate.
smt
Wouldn't it also need to be stabalized for use in a pool cue?
I have used quite a bit of redwood burl and YES every piece of redwood, not just burl needs to be stabilized first, then cored. You will not be happy with the results otherwise. Glue and finish will just get sucked right into the wood if not stabilized, and there will not be any structural integrity to the cue if you don't core it.
Would you still core if it has been stabilized? / would the hit be less spongy? the piece i have is not highly figured..
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I core anything stabilized
I season my coring dowells over time and I core EVERYTHING.
Redwood is very soft with a Janka hardness of 450 lb/f. In Addition to that your piece is figured. Coring is a must. What wood you use for coring depends on what weight and balance you want the cue to have. Personally I prefer to have a fairly tight fit and use epoxy instead of PU glue, but both methods works fine. With PU glue you can get away with a more sloppy fit.
Sorry, just saw your reply...
Yes, i cored it with rosewood & used epoxy.
Cue still hits SOFT..
-CVT cues
Why Rosewood for your Core?
Just curious.
What rosewood did you end up using and what diameter is your core wood?
Had one that was already undersized for a forearm, since rosewood is generally stable and "crisp/hard" hitting, i thought that might have balanced it out.
i think? it was siamese rosewood. 16mm.
Also, i have a capped joint. Elforyn.
So fairly soft in terms of rosewoods, combined with small diameter core and a soft joint material probably all contributes to tye soft hit. "Standard" .840" joint diameter and 1.240/50" butt diameter?
16mm.... ouch
That's a small core. Jmo
What are the standard sizes for cores?
I was taught with 16mm, i've seen many production cues use it too..