Snakewood Sealer

billiardbum

billiardbum

Listen U Might Learn!!!
Silver Member
Question... I have worked with Snakewood for a while now and have had mixed results. The best sealer I have found is thin Super Glue right after it is turned as well as the ends. I am finishing up a cue with Snakewood butt sleeve and now I am down 2 butt sleeves at this point!!! I am over the Snakewood, but wondering if anyone has any other secrets on sealing the wood that I am not using? IF you want to send me private PM that is ok too. Thanks for all of your input :thumbup:

Oh and before you say it!! I did search the topic here and google and did not find much about it.
 
billiardbum said:
Question... I have worked with Snakewood for a while now and have had mixed results. The best sealer I have found is thin Super Glue right after it is turned as well as the ends. I am finishing up a cue with Snakewood butt sleeve and now I am down 2 butt sleeves at this point!!! I am over the Snakewood, but wondering if anyone has any other secrets on sealing the wood that I am not using? IF you want to send me private PM that is ok too. Thanks for all of your input :thumbup:

Oh and before you say it!! I did search the topic here and google and did not find much about it.
Click to expand...

Jim, I need to make up a snakewood butt sleeve real soon. I say make up as I would not use a solid piece. I believe it is more common now to pie laminate the snakewood. It should be ok in small pieces like inlays or even points however if left intact as solid or even cored it will crack. I have picked up a few finished cues at shows made out of snakewood and they where cracked. I am not saying that it will happen as I am sure there are some out there that are not cracked however I believe would not be the norm.

Jim.
 
I have a piece right now still covered in wax and it has checked and cracked. I have had the damn stuff crack, cored and covered in cyno as a sealer. I have lost the last two pieces I've tried to use despite taking great care. Basically snakewood can bite my furry butt!
 
snakewood is brutal

some will crack for sure and some will crack about 1/2 the time. i bought a log that was 25 years old, turned it over a 5 year period, 2 years after the cue was made it developed some hairline cracks. i had to sg and refinish, that was about 3 years ago its still doing fine.
i did recently get my hands on some great sw and i made 3 solid one piece butts, one cracked the 2 others did not.
the wood is very dense, but some say it can be stabilized, i do not know, i just use sg like you described and hope for the best.
 
Replies

Thanks for the replies, and the PM sent. Basically everyone has the same opinion on it for sure. Pie shaping the material is a good idea though... Rep for you!
 
I don't use Snakewood for sleeves much as I have had problmes also. If you can drill the butt sleeve out and then soak it in Nelsonite for a several hours and let it dry for at least several days. This allows the Nelsonite to penetrate from inside and outside. If it has not cracked after drying out and you glue it on the handle with fairly loose fit, it will most likely never crack. Never slide the Snakewood sleeve on as tight as you would other woods. You want zero pressure on the Snakewood when putting it on the tenon.

Also once it is on the tenon and turned down, never cut all the way through it for inlay work. For some reason Snakewood and Ivory sleeves both want to crack if you cut all the way through it when inlaying.

I used to keep a gallon pickle jar with Nelsonite in it just to soak Snakewood slabs and sleeves in. I would often leave them in overnight. Then let them dry for a few weeks before using them. If they did not crack while in the jar or while drying out, none of them ever cracked once in a cue, unless I cut all the way through for inlays. The key is that the Nelsonite has to penetrate the whole piece all the way through. I think once it does that, that the Snakewood is done doing whatever it is going to do moisture content wise and is fairly stable.

When you put the Snakewood in the Nelsonite it bubbles alot as it goes into the wood. So that shock may cause it to crack then, but my thought is that I would rather lose the piece before it is on the cue than afterwards.
 
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SG isn't going to seal very well. Try a thick coat of 5 minute epoxy. When coring, start with a small through hole seal it by wrapping in saran wrap. Wait a year, enlarge the hole, re wrap, wait a year, repeat 3 or 4 more times and see what happens. I've done three cues like this with no problem YET. You can also carefully build a butt sleeve by coring the dried piece with a 1" maple or purple heart dowel then milling 6 or 8 veneer thickness slots lengthwise through the snake wood into the dowel and gluing mahogany veneer into the slots. A little stain on the veneer edges and it is almost impossible to see.
 
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