maple or ebony forarm?
- Thread starter egon
- Start date
W e i g h t
Maple is a light weight and light color. Ebony is much heavier and normally very black but it can differ greatly. You will get some saying they play different but a cue built properly will play great with ebony or maple. Just choose what you like the aesthetics of.
Solid Ebony forearm will balance a cue very well. Maple forearm is so light that the cue is not as well balanced (weighted further back - weight bolts).
Solid Ebony gives a stiff hit, Maple will give a softer hit.
A cored ebony forearm will give a nice hit.
I could be wrong but this is what I've found with what I've built so far.
Solid Ebony gives a stiff hit, Maple will give a softer hit.
A cored ebony forearm will give a nice hit.
I could be wrong but this is what I've found with what I've built so far.
Maple has less compression resistance strength with the grain than ebony. Ebony give or take has about 33% more compression resistance strength with the grain than maple......the % varies but basically maple is around 7k PSI and ebony is around 12k PSI
maple can hit just as stiff as ebony......it depends on the taper and the mass
given two butts with same tapers that are on the thinner side the ebony will of course be stiffer.........with say a plain maple butt cue I use a more conical taper and make it somewhat oversized.......the added mass accounts for the lesser compression strength resistance of the maple and gives it the extra spine it needs.......
Tho ebony has more spine than maple it also FLATTENS the hit..........ebony doesn't DRIVE the ball as well as some other tone woods such as rosewood and purpleheart IMOP.
In the design of the cue your in a way trying to build a kenetic energy spring.......you provide the initial power the cue flies forward and makes contact.
During this contact the energy of the collision creates a wave that traveles through the tip, down the shaft,through the joint, forearm, handle, sleeve and then to the buttcap where it then reverses itself and goes right back out how it came in through the tip where as the ball is then propelled forward.
Its a percussion instrument that can be "tuned" to how you want the notes to sound (how the cue works the CB)
That wave of energy has crests, troughs and nodes that can be adjusted to adjust the spine, hit and overall playability of the cue.
The wave can be dampened, it can be magnified, it can be neutrally affected by the construction.
You just need to know the KIND OF HIT your looking for.....that doesn't mean its got to be made out of "X" wood...........you can make ebony hit like maple and maple hit like ebony (to a degree i don't mean perfectly) but the inherent design of the cue will be changed from wood to wood if we are talking building out of solid one piece butt construction.
Hell one of the one piece maple cues I made not long ago hit very similar to an ebony FS into maple cue i had from a john davis blank.......the maple cue was more oversized tho.....it def had more meat to its bones to be able to achieve that similar hit.
weight bolts are not needed in maple cues unless if your looking for the 20+ oz range IMOP........if I were to keep the full maple cue the same diameter as an ebony one....yea sure I'd need a weight bolt in the end i'd guess.......but i oversize it and add a heavier pin and joint collar........
brass joint and pin are bad arse for full maple butts if you ask me........and it matches great.....sad you don't see makers using brass joints much more.....it was nice to see one that i made 5years ago for an old friend about a month ago it still looked classy as all heck.
hope that helps,
-Grey Ghost-
maple can hit just as stiff as ebony......it depends on the taper and the mass
given two butts with same tapers that are on the thinner side the ebony will of course be stiffer.........with say a plain maple butt cue I use a more conical taper and make it somewhat oversized.......the added mass accounts for the lesser compression strength resistance of the maple and gives it the extra spine it needs.......
Tho ebony has more spine than maple it also FLATTENS the hit..........ebony doesn't DRIVE the ball as well as some other tone woods such as rosewood and purpleheart IMOP.
In the design of the cue your in a way trying to build a kenetic energy spring.......you provide the initial power the cue flies forward and makes contact.
During this contact the energy of the collision creates a wave that traveles through the tip, down the shaft,through the joint, forearm, handle, sleeve and then to the buttcap where it then reverses itself and goes right back out how it came in through the tip where as the ball is then propelled forward.
Its a percussion instrument that can be "tuned" to how you want the notes to sound (how the cue works the CB)
That wave of energy has crests, troughs and nodes that can be adjusted to adjust the spine, hit and overall playability of the cue.
The wave can be dampened, it can be magnified, it can be neutrally affected by the construction.
You just need to know the KIND OF HIT your looking for.....that doesn't mean its got to be made out of "X" wood...........you can make ebony hit like maple and maple hit like ebony (to a degree i don't mean perfectly) but the inherent design of the cue will be changed from wood to wood if we are talking building out of solid one piece butt construction.
Hell one of the one piece maple cues I made not long ago hit very similar to an ebony FS into maple cue i had from a john davis blank.......the maple cue was more oversized tho.....it def had more meat to its bones to be able to achieve that similar hit.
weight bolts are not needed in maple cues unless if your looking for the 20+ oz range IMOP........if I were to keep the full maple cue the same diameter as an ebony one....yea sure I'd need a weight bolt in the end i'd guess.......but i oversize it and add a heavier pin and joint collar........
brass joint and pin are bad arse for full maple butts if you ask me........and it matches great.....sad you don't see makers using brass joints much more.....it was nice to see one that i made 5years ago for an old friend about a month ago it still looked classy as all heck.
hope that helps,
-Grey Ghost-
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