I was just curious what wood is the "lightest" while still being strong/stable enough to be used for cue building (with the assumption that it would not be cored, as this would make it heavier).
thoughts?
thoughts?
lightest wood suitable for cue building
- Thread starter nineballsafety8
- Start date
Thanks Gary!
Do you know weight wise how they compare?
for instance, if you were to make a solide one piece butt... how many ounces lighter would you guess the overall cue would be than a similar cue made of Birdeye?
Do you know weight wise how they compare?
for instance, if you were to make a solide one piece butt... how many ounces lighter would you guess the overall cue would be than a similar cue made of Birdeye?
already found that on google... however, hardly any of the woods I would want to use are even in that list...
So far it is looking like ALDER might be the best option... not all that pretty, but it is a good tone wood (used in high end guitars), and is about half the weight of maple.
This is for a full length jump cue project BTW
Padauk.
Decent tone wood.
Pair it with a heavy rosewood handle.
Zebrawood is another but not as stable as padauk.
Decent tone wood.
Pair it with a heavy rosewood handle.
Zebrawood is another but not as stable as padauk.
Take a look at the Janka scale for hardwoods to determine possible candidates with respect to density. Finding the specific gravity of potential species would also work I think. There's also a book titled Mechanical Properties of Wood. It's written as I recall by the Forest Products Division of the USDA. I talked at length with the guy who wrote it and the book talks about using wood as an engineering material which is what you're doing. While they don't specifically discuss pool cues they do get into the science of "hardness" and weight as well as the modulus of rupture and elasticity ALLLLL of which can be determining factors in what wood you select. Just my opinion.....
Harder & stiffer than what maple? Sugar maple is far harder & stiffer than walnut. Hard maple janka rating is around 1450, where black walnut is 1010. Not even comparable. Maple is even harder than white oak. Aside from maybe a few obscure desert shrub species, the only domestic wood that trumps sugar maple is hickory, maybe locust but not sure about that one. Regardless, maple is among the hardest woods in the USA while walnut is middle tier.
I guess his choices will be determined by what he's using the wood for. The Brits as I recall use ash for the shafts of snooker cues but the tapers are dramatically different from a pool cue shaft. I think we probably use maple as shaft wood is because of its straightness of grain, it's elasticity and ability to be machined. Hell....for a butt you could use damn near anything you want. Give balsa wood or bamboo a try. Although they're not wood per se. You could use a tightly rolled up newspaper for a butt if you wanted, I suppose. And while you're waiting for your opponent to miss you can catch up on the headlines.