hit properties of woods

socks

socks

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
what are some of the softer hitting woods? also if you could expand on that with the hit properties of some of the more common woods used in forearms, as in hard hitting, soft hitting, more tonal, etc. some particular woods of interest: tulipwood, cocabola, bacote, padauk, olive wood, ebony, black palm, and the various maples (birds eye, curly, quilted). if there are any other woods please, by all means, elaborate. thank you.

also, or rather, if you where to make the softest hitting and least tonal cue you could, what wood/joint material combs would you use?
 
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Both lists from hard to soft.
Softer hit: Maple, Wenge, Padauk, Black Palm edit:Zebra, Makore, Teak, Curly Cherry.
Harder Hit: Bubinga, Ebony, Bloodwood, Cocobolo, PH, Bocote. EDIT:Morado
You can change the tonal chars by combining any hard fore arm and any soft handle. All of the above is IMO and what I have found works.
Don't know much about tulip and olive.

Kellyguy knows a boat load about the chars of woods. He knows way more than me.
 
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I would encourage you to read the old Wood of the Month posts that used to run on this forum. Just do a search and you should find them. They had a lot of good information on various woods from many experienced cuemakers.
 
I use 2 books and the web. Encyclopedia of wood and world woods in color. They both have a bunch of properties strengths and weaknesses of the woods inside. I can only go by what I have worked with.


Chris I couldn't find that thread when searched. Any more info??
 
Click on my link. It's actually the Wood of the Week threads. I linked the Index. I should have titled it, I will be more diligent in the future. Apologies.
 
RocketQ said:
Both lists from hard to soft.
Softer hit: Maple, Wenge, Padauk, Black Palm edit:Zebra, Makore, Teak, Curly Cherry.
Harder Hit: Bubinga, Ebony, Bloodwood, Cocobolo, PH, Bocote. EDIT:Morado
You can change the tonal chars by combining any hard fore arm and any soft handle. All of the above is IMO and what I have found works.
Don't know much about tulip and olive.

Kellyguy knows a boat load about the chars of woods. He knows way more than me.
Click to expand...


Hey John. I appreciate the kind words, and I do know a fair amount about wood identification, the physical properties of different cue woods, and species information. However, I must admit that when it comes to describing the hits of these woods, particularly when they are mixed and matched in cues regarding tonal qualities, there are some folk here who know a lot more than I. I would respectfully yield to them.

I certainly agree with you regarding changing the feel by having a hard front and soft handle, and vice versa.

Kelly
 
i want to thank everyone for the great info. those WOW threads are nice. wish someone would start those back up and get the woods i listed as well as some others in there.
 
i think Rocket got you going in the right direction except i wouldn't call maple or Wenge soft.i ahev played with some Maple that was hard as a rock.one thing that needs to be pointed out is that same species can have different hit.in other words Maple #1 can hit hard while Maple #2 hits soft.
 
socks said:
what are some of the softer hitting woods? also if you could expand on that with the hit properties of some of the more common woods used in forearms, as in hard hitting, soft hitting, more tonal, etc. some particular woods of interest: tulipwood, cocabola, bacote, padauk, olive wood, ebony, black palm, and the various maples (birds eye, curly, quilted). if there are any other woods please, by all means, elaborate. thank you.

also, or rather, if you where to make the softest hitting and least tonal cue you could, what wood/joint material combs would you use?
Click to expand...

The shaft, ferrule, tip and joint will have more effect on the cues hit than the wood in the cues butt. The above components are what you feel when the cue is struck, the wood in the cues butt mainly transmitts tone or the harmonics of the that is transmitted through the shaft.

To acheive a soft hit, I would recommend a soft tip, Ivory, Plastic or a PVC Ferrule and nicely extended (about 16 inch ) pro-tappered shaft.

Do not be confussed, a cue can have a very solid yet soft hit, and the shaft / joint is what will effect this the most.
 
masonh said:
i think Rocket got you going in the right direction except i wouldn't call maple or Wenge soft.i ahev played with some Maple that was hard as a rock.one thing that needs to be pointed out is that same species can have different hit.in other words Maple #1 can hit hard while Maple #2 hits soft.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Yes you are right. I was calling maple and wenge soft in ref to the woods that are in the hard section. I play with a wenge and maple cue... Hits good. however if I chenge the wenge with cocobolo or bubinga it hits great. Then again I like a hard stiff hit lite cue.

I love the WOW link. Anything I can learn about wood helps.
 
i agree.Cocobolo is opne of the best forearms you can have period.i read lots of those guitar Luthier reports and charts on tone woods,and several of them claim Cocobolo to be better than Brazilian for tone and obviously cheaper.also they say that Brazilian in the old days was known as being the best tone wood period,but now the wood is no good.your chances of finding a good quality piece of Brazilian are like hitting the Lotto.what he was saying is that he was sure some good pieces surface but they are immediately gobbled up.there is no way a piece would make it to me for instance.some of them also claim Cocobolo to be a better tone wood anyway,and much denser as we already know.there are sevral woods that are up on the Brazilian level as far as tone.
 
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