I have some very nice, older american beech, air dried, 8/4 pcs. I am considering using some for one pc butts as it seems close to hard maple in density and stable in many tests. It was coated on the end grain and seems very straight grained. Anyone have any experience here? I am new to complete cuemaking and wondered if this is a good wood to get my feet wet with?
Has anyone used Beech?
- Thread starter olsonsview
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olsonsview said:
The US Forest Service says it is practically the same density as hard maple, but the shrinkage is higher, and hardness and shear strength is lower. And care must be taken when gluing whatever that means. I have never heard of it used, but maybe some of the cuemakers have tried it out.
Kelly
olsonsview said:
Try It!! If you want to be a good cuemaker, you try a lot of different things. That is why you see the range in cues from 600+ inlays in Thomas & Bender cues to the "wood only" cues. I built two cues out of peach wood for an old friend - he used to climb around a peach tree when he was a kid -when it blew down his 70 yr old mom had her pastor help her cut it up and they sent me the wood. It cured in my shop for several years, and I had just enough good wood for the two cues.
Jack
www.johnmaddencues.com
I would stay away from one piece butts for the most part. If I made a one piece butt it would be made from SEASONED, VERY SEASONED, Purple Heart, East Indian Rosewood or Maple. It must be incrementally reduced in size over a period of years and all warped pieces discarded.olsonsview said:
I would suggest that in the beginning you stay in the realm of tried and true woods such as Maple, Ebony, Purple Heart and East Indian Rosewood. We dip every piece of wood in Nelsonite every time we cut it and that helps greatly. Even with these woods some just warp for seamingly no reason so you must just take it in stride all the way to the trash can.
There is a lot of wood out there that is just not suitable for cues. In the long run these woods will come back to hurt your reputation if you use them. Be careful and conservative as you advance. Follow your instincts and when that little voice says "be careful or don't take this job" listen to it. It is better to have someone say something to the effect that "he would not work on my cue" than to have that same person say "he ruined my cue".
I personally do not like Beech because it is less stable than many other reasonably priced woods.
There are quite a few great cuemakers visiting this forum that will shart their experience with you if you just ask.
Just my opinion.
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