question

Although the coloring certainly looks like palm, I've never seen any that had grain just like that. All of the palm that I have used, looked man made until you touched it. It always has some grain fibers going across at an angle to the straight grain. These do not have any of that figure what-so-ever. I haven't used much Red Palm so maybe it is different than the black, which I have used on a number of cues (at least 20).

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Dick
 
Obviously red palm & wenge CAN have similar visual characteristics, but there's a clear difference if you know what to look for. Palm grain is made up of what looks like thousands of tiny fibers of grass, with the end of each fiber looking like a sliced piece of bamboo. This creates "dots" all over the wood. Wenge doesn't have that. The closest wenge gets to the "dots" is birdseye figure, which I have shown a pic of. Clearly, it's different enough to tell the difference between typical palm grain and irregular figured wenge grain.

Wenge has more of an oak or lacy grain figure & doesn't have the bold bunched up fiber look. Colors can range from red to black & all in between. But clearly, there's a difference between it & palm wood. Get 20-30 pieces of each through your shop & on your lathe & you'll easily identify the differences. Otherwise, they do kinda look alike to most people. Hope this helps
 
I see your point Eric.
I don't deal with it much, but I do have a few pieces of both.
Mine look much different than the pics I've seen here.

Lee
 
LPCUSTOMCUES said:
I see your point Eric.
I don't deal with it much, but I do have a few pieces of both.
Mine look much different than the pics I've seen here.

Lee
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You probably have the dark, almost black variety with fine grain. Wenge is extremely broad in color and grain. It's been a staple wood in high production cues for 100 years but for some reason we don't see a lot of it in custom cues. I like it, but don't really use it much. Dunno why.
 
Great pictures Dick and Eric. I knew that the piece in question looked like it had finer grain than palm, and the pics of the wenge look dead on.

I think we should have a "What wood is this" contest every week, and I am nominating Eric as the host. :clapping:
 
qbilder said:
You probably have the dark, almost black variety with fine grain. Wenge is extremely broad in color and grain. It's been a staple wood in high production cues for 100 years but for some reason we don't see a lot of it in custom cues. I like it, but don't really use it much. Dunno why.
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Yes your right.
I have black palm. Its very dark.
The wenge I have looks almost like American rosewood, but darker.
I know it depends on the way it was cut also.

Thanks for clarifying.
Lee
 
Here are a couple pics of the darker Wenge...
 

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It's been a staple wood in high production cues for 100 years but for some reason we don't see a lot of it in custom cues. I like it, but don't really use it much. Dunno why.
Click to expand...

Wenge.......super cue wood....a real bi tch to work with and finish. I would guess that's why:grin:
 
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