Persimmon Wood Cues????
- Thread starter greyghost
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I have a couple of 30 inch pieces that came from Hawaii, the stuff I have has some beautiful grain, it is very heavy, and i would certainly classify it as a Hardwood. I bought the stuff from one of the companies on line, it may have been Bell Forest, I think I bought the stuff 4 or 5 years ago, all I have done with it to date is turn it round and let it hang.
Take care
It's in the same family as ebony - Diospyros.
persimmon wood
Plentiful in the South, some people make pies from the fruit. Deer love persimmons. Find a straight small one and they make excellent walking sticks after drying for about a year. My small amount of research says they are the only American ebony!! They are supposed to have a small black piece buried sporaticly throughout, I suppose this would be the ebony part. Of course like many other woods there are probably 101 species of persimmon, so maybe I'm all wrong.
Plentiful in the South, some people make pies from the fruit. Deer love persimmons. Find a straight small one and they make excellent walking sticks after drying for about a year. My small amount of research says they are the only American ebony!! They are supposed to have a small black piece buried sporaticly throughout, I suppose this would be the ebony part. Of course like many other woods there are probably 101 species of persimmon, so maybe I'm all wrong.
no its not the same family, its the same genus......
as for the fruit yea they are all over the south, my family has a couple trees in their yard and both of my grandparents and great grandparents have the trees.....
matter of fact I'm going pick a huge basket full of them this thursday
kumquats (love these and there are 2 distinct kinds sweet and sour), persimons, figs, pears, satsuma oranges (best oranges on the earth)....thats the staples if you have any fruit trees in southern louisiana
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From contributor E:
Persimmon is very hard to season because of loggerhead worms, knot-release splitting that can go full length of the bole, discoloration, decay, cupping and warping when dried after milling, and of course, checking. The only way to prevent all of the above is to properly cure the wood in log form.
From Wiki:
In North America, the lightly colored, fine-grained wood of D. virginiana is used to manufacture billiard cues and textile shuttles. It is also used in the percussion field as the shaft of the Tim Genis Signature Timpani Mallet Collection. Persimmon wood was also heavily used in making the highest-quality heads of the golf clubs known as "woods" until the golf industry moved primarily to metal woods in the last years of the 20th century. In fact, the first metal woods made by TaylorMade, an early pioneer of that club type, were branded as "Pittsburgh Persimmons". Persimmon woods are still made, but in far lower numbers than in past decades. Over the last few decades persimmon wood has become popular among bow craftsmen, especially in the making of traditional longbows. Persimmon wood is used in making a small number of wooden flutes and eating utensils such as wooden spoons and cornbread knives (wooden knives that may cut through the bread without scarring the dish).
Like some other plants of the genus Diospyros, older persimmon heartwood is black or dark brown in color, in stark contrast to the sapwood and younger heartwood, which is pale in color.
Persimmon is very hard to season because of loggerhead worms, knot-release splitting that can go full length of the bole, discoloration, decay, cupping and warping when dried after milling, and of course, checking. The only way to prevent all of the above is to properly cure the wood in log form.
From Wiki:
In North America, the lightly colored, fine-grained wood of D. virginiana is used to manufacture billiard cues and textile shuttles. It is also used in the percussion field as the shaft of the Tim Genis Signature Timpani Mallet Collection. Persimmon wood was also heavily used in making the highest-quality heads of the golf clubs known as "woods" until the golf industry moved primarily to metal woods in the last years of the 20th century. In fact, the first metal woods made by TaylorMade, an early pioneer of that club type, were branded as "Pittsburgh Persimmons". Persimmon woods are still made, but in far lower numbers than in past decades. Over the last few decades persimmon wood has become popular among bow craftsmen, especially in the making of traditional longbows. Persimmon wood is used in making a small number of wooden flutes and eating utensils such as wooden spoons and cornbread knives (wooden knives that may cut through the bread without scarring the dish).
Like some other plants of the genus Diospyros, older persimmon heartwood is black or dark brown in color, in stark contrast to the sapwood and younger heartwood, which is pale in color.
aaaaand... it will make your lips pucker. 
aaaaand... it will make your lips pucker.
only if they aint ripe.....put them in a paperbag out of the sunlight for a few days....
its one of the sweetest of fruits
As long as you peel them carefully!
Fully ripe persimmon goes well with vanilla ice cream.
I believe Dickie has said before that in years past the Chinese (or was it Japanese?) used to buy persimmon wood, ship it home, process it and dye it black and sell it back to us as ebony. As already stated, it IS ebony.
It is mostly sap wood, but there are small black streaks in it. If a tree gets large enough, which isn't often, there could be a solid black portion in the center. I think Crisp had his eye on a very old and very large persimmon tree once, but I don't know if anything came of it.
I found persimmon 4/4 lumber once at an exotic wood supply place but passed on it as my money was always spent on other goodies they had.
Kelly
I believe Dickie has said before that in years past the Chinese (or was it Japanese?) used to buy persimmon wood, ship it home, process it and dye it black and sell it back to us as ebony. As already stated, it IS ebony.
It is mostly sap wood, but there are small black streaks in it. If a tree gets large enough, which isn't often, there could be a solid black portion in the center. I think Crisp had his eye on a very old and very large persimmon tree once, but I don't know if anything came of it.
I found persimmon 4/4 lumber once at an exotic wood supply place but passed on it as my money was always spent on other goodies they had.
Kelly
Eric Wynne
Banned
I used to live out at Cherokee Lake in Tenn. and had a lot of persimmon trees around the water . When the fruit got ripe people would eat squirrel , possum , and raccoon till their eyeballs popped out . The wildlife would gorge themselves and their meat was tender and sweet . Don't knock what you haven't tried . Must be aged and treated for use . Probably cored for sure . Brittle without support . 18 " pieces are possible , but who processes persimmon for turning ??? Buy some and let me know ....
Hi,
I used to hit my persimmon wood driver 280 yards. Now I hit a new tech metal wood about 260. I think the difference is the extra 8" in my waste line.:grin-square:
Still I love the sound of the golf ball hitting that persimmon. I think I will build a cue with persimmon wood.
Thanks for the thread.
Rick G
Still watching it. It's healthy & producing so i'm not gonna rush it. Persimmon trees in Ohio are much slower growing than in the south so a 15-20" tree is VERY old. The tree i'm watching has been on the property for as long as anybody knows. My old man tells me he used to eat persimmons from that tree when he was a small boy, 60 years ago, and the tree doesn't look any different than it did back then. I'm hoping for black heart but it's iffy. When I cut it, i'll age it a year in the pond then allow it to dry a while in log form before milling. So it's gonna be a LONG time before any ever becomes a cue. In the mean time, i'm cutting a couple smaller trees to learn from so I don't screw up the good one.
I'm gonna have to screw with my mom and pitch her the idea of cutting down her tree (not for real) and watch her head explode.....she just gave me two big walmart bags full of the fruit
Pecan trees
I was wondering the same thing about pecan trees...
I was wondering the same thing about pecan trees...
Pecan is much more stable, and very attractive if old enough. But the smaller, younger trees are pretty bland. It looks like hickory without the color. The older stuff has much larger & darker heart.
Pecan is oily also.....not nearly as much as say cocobolo tho.
We of course grow alot of it here. My uncle cut two of the trees out of the many in his yard when he built his home and had his cabinets made out of them......very old trees very very pretty wood, it is dark but his had a slightly pink sheen to it almost opalescent with the gloss finish on it.
I still think I could make a super badddddd arse full length jumper out of Crepe Myrtle.....its rigid as all hell and very light.....actually when you cut into it the wood will get a purple tint to it when it hits atmosphere. Pretty much looks like holly tho when its white.
Had some big monster pieces of it in Tulsa that I brought up one year but didn't season them right and they checked like it was going out of style.