Tulip wood
- Thread starter Rodney
- Start date
I normally stay away from coring forearms, but if I was going to core one, Tulipwood would be at the top of the list. It is pretty unstable, so I feel coring it is the way to go. I have stayed away from tulip wood forarms because of how unstable it is. The only way I have had any success with it is by dipping it in nelsonite after every turn. Coring would probably eliminate having to do that.
Chris
www.cuemsith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Chris
www.cuemsith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
dave sutton
Banned
i made a solid tulipwood cue for my wife about 2 years ago. its still straight as an arrow but is did shrink some. nothing a refinish cant fix. i would trust whatever chris says. its also on the heavy side. with a ss joint cue weight is 20 oz
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i have a different opinion of Tulipwood from what i jave read and the few pieces i have worked with.i believe it is as stable or almost as stable as the other Rosewoods.the "movement" is rated as small in all of my books,and i have never had a problem with it moving.
i will say that it is tough to find fully dried and maybe that is what Chris was referring to.i believe once it is dry though that it is pretty stable.it is rated as more stable than Maple in all the bokks anyway.
i did have a really freaky knotty piece crack on me with at one of the knots,but again it was only air dried and it didn't crack until i started cutting on it.
i will say that it is tough to find fully dried and maybe that is what Chris was referring to.i believe once it is dry though that it is pretty stable.it is rated as more stable than Maple in all the bokks anyway.
i did have a really freaky knotty piece crack on me with at one of the knots,but again it was only air dried and it didn't crack until i started cutting on it.
I have made at least 2 dozen Qs with Tulip forearms & have never had any problems. On my web site you can find my brothers Q(# 8). It's 16 years old & he plays with it every week. Q #19 is a Q I made for myself & a freind still plays with it, daily. I have never cored a Q. Just lucky, I guess...JER
My experience with tulipwood has been this. It's extremely hard to find kiln dried stock...very dense wood and takes forever to air dry complete enough to use for cues. I've had 1.5 squares in the shop for years and still get a fair amount of moisture coming out when I cut it on the band saw with a brand new blade. The right pieces are extremely beautiful wood but I will only use it as point stock and/or cored handles and butt sleeves. Both of these are cut oversize and allowed to air out even more before milling square the points and using them. The butt sleeve or handle segments I always punch a hole through it and leave sit for as long as possible before truing cuts and assembly.
cueman said:
I have built quite a number of cues with tulipwood and had no problems. I only use wood that has seasoned in my air conditioned shop for over 3 years. The stock I am using now has been seasoning from 6 to 12 years.
I know I am in the minority as to the use of seasoned wood but in my opinion nothing stabilizes a cue like time hanging/resting. It requires a very large investment in money to let the wood sit for many years but I believe that is the way to go.
I have never cored a piece of wood.
Good Cuemaking,
I only use wood that has seasoned in my air conditioned shop for over 3 years.
I just torture them.
No AC but I live in SoCal.
Temperature ranges from 40's to 90's. Sometimes 100's.
Humidity hovers around 40%, and some weeks it gets down to the 20's.
I just torture them.
No AC but I live in SoCal.
Temperature ranges from 40's to 90's. Sometimes 100's.
Humidity hovers around 40%, and some weeks it gets down to the 20's.
I live in New England, where the temps go from 0 degrees, 10% humidity in the winter to as much as 95 degrees with 70% humidity and as of right now, no AC in the shop or wood storage area. I have a few pieces of tulip that I have cut and have been hanging for about a year right now, they still spin straight, but are still around 1-3/8" dia. Still deciding to core or not.
Looking to install a dehumidifier in the shop for the summer.
Dave
Looking to install a dehumidifier in the shop for the summer.
Dave
if it is totally waxed you need to srape some wax off the sides and leave the ends and let it sit for awhile.
if it is big then cut it up to cue size or as small as you can and it is still big enough.it will dry faster in smaller sizes.you can seal the ends with CA.
i think 3 years is extreme overkill.Tulipwood is pretty satble to begin with and when cut to size it will dry pretty fast.
if you are going to core,go ahead and core then it will really dry fast.
if it is big then cut it up to cue size or as small as you can and it is still big enough.it will dry faster in smaller sizes.you can seal the ends with CA.
i think 3 years is extreme overkill.Tulipwood is pretty satble to begin with and when cut to size it will dry pretty fast.
if you are going to core,go ahead and core then it will really dry fast.
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I don't trust it. I'd use it as an uncored forearm, but it would have to be a peice that has proven to me that it'll stay stable. Before all of this tulip sneaky boom, I had an idea to build some tulip into birdseye & curly sneakies. Of nine blanks, three are still on the fence of becoming a cue. The rest were cut up & sections of wood salvaged. It was a total waste. If one of the three left actually becomes a cue, then I might break even on the chance. But it's not looking good. The blanks have been getting thins cuts for aroun 2 years, and are STILL moving. I live in the desert, with 10%-15% humidity on average. Wood dries very fast here. The tulip seems plenty dry, and logic dictates that it should be well past the equalization process considering the time it has been here in the desert. But still, it moves. Other peices in shorter components seem to hold just fine, but long stuff & thin stuff is not stable in my shop. I love tulip. It smells like a sweet female's perfume, but just like anything femenine, I don't trust it.
It really has a lot of movement and it ten years is not enough to stop it.
There are random pieces that are more stable but they're rare and I don't know how to identify them beforehand.
I use it for butt sleeves, points and windows but only after years of drying and then only after the sleeve has had an over size hole bored and has sat for at least a year. It has to be re-bored just before use. I always have a few aging.
Point wood should be cut slightly oversize then pressed down for straightness and dried for at least a year. Rotate occasionally. Recut before using.
I stopped using Nelsonite in the mid 90's, a few years aging works better.
There are random pieces that are more stable but they're rare and I don't know how to identify them beforehand.
I use it for butt sleeves, points and windows but only after years of drying and then only after the sleeve has had an over size hole bored and has sat for at least a year. It has to be re-bored just before use. I always have a few aging.
Point wood should be cut slightly oversize then pressed down for straightness and dried for at least a year. Rotate occasionally. Recut before using.
I stopped using Nelsonite in the mid 90's, a few years aging works better.
some woods just should be cored a little extra work to insure no problems down the road i also treat my coring dowels twice before using them and the cored forearm i also treat (resolute ) then i glue them together and retreat again i have found this works very well i have not really had the time to build very much. as far as tulip wood i personally have not had issues with it .
Yeo said:
IMO it would be best to air dry in a cool dry place out of direct sunlight.