Best Forearm wood?
- Thread starter troyroy78
- Start date
i dont know, but i really like your avatar pic:thumbup:
Myself I like the Curly Maple uncored. If it is something that is going to be cored, I like Ebony forearm with a straight grain maple core. JMO.
I like uncored ebony. I like the weight and hit. I prefer it to be mated with curly Koa for the handle, cored, and ebony butt. Gives great balance, feel, and hit. JMO.
I like both. :grin:
From a purist's perspective, straight-grain wins hands down, though you or anyone else would be hard pressed to notice any difference whatsoever in the hit. Maple forearms hit like Maple forearms whether it be BEM, curly or straight-grain. Now apply those same qualities to shaft wood and it's a whole different ball-game.
I have been told by many cue makers that bocote is a fine choice
also pau fero, I heard jerry franklin loved that wood and thought it was
the best playing.
also pau fero, I heard jerry franklin loved that wood and thought it was
the best playing.
that's strange,i have always felt Maple had a wide variety of different hits to it.not necessarily Birdseye different from Curly or Straight-grain but even the same varieties hit differently.some Birdseye is very crisp and almost hard where some is soft hitting and some Curly hits hard while some soft and so on and so on.
that may not have made any sense but i know what i was trying to say.i just didn't relay it very well.i guess that proves hit is subjective.
And what part of the tree they were cut from makes a difference imo.
The only difference you will find in Birdseye and straight grain maple is the normal variances from one piece to another. They both hit really good and the tighter the grain the better the hit. So you might find more tight grain birdseye than regular straight grain that is super tight. That might be why you have heard people refer to each as better playing than the other.
You mean denser maple? :grin:
I read a post somewhere that all Birdseye and Curly came from a Acer saccharinum (silver Maple) a softer wood.
The Acer saccharum (rock or Canadian), a harder wood is preferred for shafts.
That is simply not true.
(the part about what species the wood actually is, not the part about you reading a post...)
Kelly
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Any Coco, ebony, maple, ph, bocote, are good stable woods. You would be happy with any of those. After that, it just depends on your color preference.
i have tried so many cues... for me, i never had any hit more solid than a solid (uncored) pink ivory forearm. not that i am biased because my current playing cue has one. 
african gabon ebony is my second choice. phi ebony third.
african gabon ebony is my second choice. phi ebony third.I agree. Although highly figured wood is much more common in Western Big Leaf Maple, the eastern Hard Rock is what most cues are made from and for a reason.
Dick
Just to clarify so some of the readers don't come-away confused.
BEM and hard Curly both come from the Hard Rock/Sugar Maple tree.
Soft Maples (silver, etc.) are unsuitable for cues unless cored.
There is a Red Maple (curly) that has fantastic display of curl and depending on who you talk to, some will tell you it's hard while others will tell you it's classified as a soft. From my experience, I find it to be way closer to Hard Maple than I do to Silver Maple. I trust it.
Big Leaf is in a league of it's own. It's very light & very soft but it's figuring can be phenomenal. Definitely one to be cored.
Thank You.
BEM and hard Curly both come from the Hard Rock/Sugar Maple tree.
Soft Maples (silver, etc.) are unsuitable for cues unless cored.
There is a Red Maple (curly) that has fantastic display of curl and depending on who you talk to, some will tell you it's hard while others will tell you it's classified as a soft. From my experience, I find it to be way closer to Hard Maple than I do to Silver Maple. I trust it.
Big Leaf is in a league of it's own. It's very light & very soft but it's figuring can be phenomenal. Definitely one to be cored.
Thank You.