Coring Forearms

[Arnot Wadsworth]

I would like to know why so many cuemakers today are into coring the forearms. This is a new concept and I have yet to have any cuemaker explain its reason to my satisfaction. It seems to me that if the wood is not suitable to be used in a cue, coring it would make no difference.

In my opinion coring a forearm just adds a "whole bag of worms" and causes more problems than it solves. Convence me otherwise please.

 

[k-carson]

well i cored some amboyna burl thinking id love how it would look as a cue

but as you said "not suitable for a cue = new can of worms "

im gonna grind the joint pin to a sharp point and have the nicest

marshmallow roasting stick around .

i can understand the practice of coring heavier would to get the desired

balance but for now im gonna just stick to the tried and true

 

[macguy]

I would like to know why so many cuemakers today are into coring the forearms. This is a new concept and I have yet to have any cuemaker explain its reason to my satisfaction. It seems to me that if the wood is not suitable to be used in a cue, coring it would make no difference.

In my opinion coring a forearm just adds a "whole bag of worms" and causes more problems than it solves. Convence me otherwise please.

quote
"Convence me otherwise please."

Why, you have a right to your opinion.

 

[Cue Crazy]

The cues I have hanging now are all balanced naturally, in fact I have yet to core one, but must admitt It has struck My interest, so I am in pursuit of something to bore with to come to my own conclusions on the subject. since I am still learning, and experiementing with other methods, balancing using the wood selections has produced good results at first, with something really close to the hit and feedback I desire. The problem Is I am limited on what wood I can put where in the cue. usually the heavier wood goes in the handle, except in some of the veneered short splices I have put together. Those have maple or purple heart in the handles.
It's not that the wood I want to use is just for looks and of poor quality, but rather I feel is to heavy to put where I would like sometimes due to balancing issues.

I am curious to know if anyone has capped the joint end of a forearm being cored. I am wondering as to what effect this would have on the hit and feel.

Greg

 

[Jon]

Well, some people might have an insane figured piece of cocobolo (for example), and would rather core it just to be safe.
Then again, some core to speed up the process.
Then again, some woods just hit like $#!t, but are pretty, so they core with something that is known to hit good (maple for example.)

 

[Sheldon]

I've built several amboyna cues and a few snakewood cues that all came out really nice. If you dont have the ability to core your cues, you are missing out on a LOT of possibilities. You can core light woods with heavier ones, you can core heavy woods with lighter ones. You can make unstable woods like really heavily figured birds-eye and burls perfectly usable. I built a full-length WALNUT cue for a real picky player, and he LOVES the way it hits. I cored it with maple plywood. You can take an ebony or cocobolo sneaky pete blank and core the back of it, making the balance point something reasonable.
Again, like anything else, you can &$#* it up and do a poor job of coring and it will be crap. To do it right you need a gun drill or something similar.

 

[Arnot Wadsworth]

You can make unstable woods like really heavily figured birds-eye and burls perfectly usable. ]

How does drilling a hole in it make it stable? The only stable part is the laminated dowell.

How long will it be stable? If coring turns out not to be all it is cracked up to be, the customer is the one who will suffer.

What about the different woods shrinking and expanding at different rates with the glue in the middle and the glue not expanding or contracting at all. What effect is that going to have on the cue?

How do you know that it is glued properly? It seems to me that when you push the dowell in you push the glue out.

[Again, like anything else, you can &$#* it up and do a poor job of coring and it will be crap. To do it right you need a gun drill or something similar. ]

The issue never has been about how to drill the hole, anyone with a gun drill can do that.

 

[macguy]

You can make unstable woods like really heavily figured birds-eye and burls perfectly usable. ]

How does drilling a hole in it make it stable? The only stable part is the laminated dowell.

How long will it be stable? If coring turns out not to be all it is cracked up to be, the customer is the one who will suffer.

What about the different woods shrinking and expanding at different rates with the glue in the middle and the glue not expanding or contracting at all. What effect is that going to have on the cue?

How do you know that it is glued properly? It seems to me that when you push the dowell in you push the glue out.

[Again, like anything else, you can &$#* it up and do a poor job of coring and it will be crap. To do it right you need a gun drill or something similar. ]

The issue never has been about how to drill the hole, anyone with a gun drill can do that.

Seems like you are just looking for an argument. I suggest you not core your cues. No one wishs to convince you to do so, you do what you feel is best, everybody has their own ideas and that is as it should be.

 

[ScottR]

Seems like you are just looking for an argument. I suggest you not core your cues. No one wishs to convince you to do so, you do what you feel is best, everybody has their own ideas and that is as it should be.

tap, tap . . . . .

 

[Jon]

The issue never has been about how to drill the hole, anyone with a gun drill can do that.

Not True at all.

There are more things that can go wrong with a gun drill, that can go right.

 

[Sheldon]

You can make unstable woods like really heavily figured birds-eye and burls perfectly usable. ]

How does drilling a hole in it make it stable? The only stable part is the laminated dowell.

How long will it be stable? If coring turns out not to be all it is cracked up to be, the customer is the one who will suffer.

What about the different woods shrinking and expanding at different rates with the glue in the middle and the glue not expanding or contracting at all. What effect is that going to have on the cue?

How do you know that it is glued properly? It seems to me that when you push the dowell in you push the glue out.

[Again, like anything else, you can &$#* it up and do a poor job of coring and it will be crap. To do it right you need a gun drill or something similar. ]

The issue never has been about how to drill the hole, anyone with a gun drill can do that.

You speak as though you wish to remain ignorant. I won't be sucked into a petty argument.
If you wish to ask serious questions, please do so.

 

[Arnot Wadsworth]

You speak as though you wish to remain ignorant. I won't be sucked into a petty argument.
If you wish to ask serious questions, please do so.

I see - When the going gets tough you start calling me names instead of addressing the serious questions. Have a nice day Sir.

 

[JoeyInCali]

I see - When the going gets tough you start calling me names instead of addressing the serious questions. Have a nice day Sir.

Arnie, with due respect. Sheldon did not call you any names.

 

[X Breaker]

First off, I am not trying to take side because trying to learn more about cues is the only reason that I am here. I am, for one, very eager to learn more about the pros and cons of coring.

I was at Ernie's shop last year and I saw him bored all his ebony forearm. He has a special machine for the job.

On the other hand, Joey once said his ebony are all solid, i.e. unbored.

Since both of them are highly respected cue makers of our time, it leads me to believe that may be there are more to the topic that what I know.

Sheldon, have you ever come across any problem regarding coring? How long have you been doing it, if you don't mind me asking? How do you keep the unstable wood from moving even with a core?

Arnot, would you mind sharing with us is there any other method you use to stablize your wood and to reduce weight if you do not core any forearm?

Thank you.

Richard

 

[JoeyInCali]

I was at Ernie's shop last year and I saw him bored all his ebony forearm. He has a special machine for the job.

Any different than a lathe, gundrill and an air hose attached to it, Rich?
I think all these makes cores their cues.
Ted Harris, Paul Dayton, McWorther, Blud, Capone, Gina and Samsara.

 

[X Breaker]

Any different than a lathe, gundrill and an air hose attached to it, Rich?
I think all these makes cores their cues.
Ted Harris, Paul Dayton, McWorther, Blud, Capone, Gina and Samsara.

It was a very small little machine. But since I did not see the machine in action, I cannot really tell how it worked. All the ebony forearm I saw were already bored and were stored up in stacks. It was a very short machine with some sorts of a drill. I am not sure about the lathe. It did not seem like a lathe and there was no hose, but I am sure he used a mobile hose which can be attached to the machine when it is in action.

But you see, Ernie has all sorts of little machines that he built, he even had one for his leather wrap. He is a very smart man with a lot of creative ideas, which he is not in the habit of sharing.

I think Josey also bored his forearm but not all the time.

Thank you.

Richard

 

[X Breaker]

Another guy I saw with a laminated core on his cues is David Tice, a top notch cue maker from WA.

I was told by a pro player, Okumura-san in Japan that a solid un-cored ebony forearm plays better than a cored one. He speaks very highly of his Cognoscenti and he told me he loved the hit of the soild ebony.

Thank you.

Richard

 

[JoeyInCali]

Another guy I saw with a laminated core on his cues is David Tice, a top notch cue maker from WA. I am not sure if he does that on all his cues or just some of them.

I know that there is a company called Wildwood selling stabilized woods. Perhaps that would be another alternative to coring?

Thank you for your info, Joey.

Richard

I've seen one David Tice cue. Santos Sambajon shot with it. Very nice-hitting cue.
I don't like stabilized wood as handle and forearm. I think they just dull the hit no matter what. Kinda heavy too with all that acrylic .
I don't see anything wrong with bi-directional dowels either. Two different diameters of wood dowels. Both threaded; one from top and one from the bottom. I've seen x-rays of two big makers having them in their cues.

 

[macguy]

Any different than a lathe, gundrill and an air hose attached to it, Rich?
I think all these makes cores their cues.
Ted Harris, Paul Dayton, McWorther, Blud, Capone, Gina and Samsara.

You can add to that list Scruggs who told me personally "We are building the best cues we have ever built because of the coring". This was a few years ago and enough cues are out there to tell us if there are problems and it seems if you do it right they will be fine. I remember when Fiberglass boats were becoming popular many builders knocked them. They said they would crack, break up, not last, you could not build a 50 foot fiberglass boat and so on. Unfortunately most of those wood boat builders who said all that are out of business. That is not to say the cored cues are the future of cue building but it has it's place and most cue makers should at least have a working knowledge of it. But having said that it is the prerogative of all cue makers to build cues their own way based on their own philosophies while remaining open minded to new things.

 

[hadjcues]

If we could list down the different reasons why this wood should be core or not it would make things clearer for both parties I believe... just curious though...

I recently cored a cocobolo front with a purpleheart dowel... wonder how it would hit...

Hadj