What exactly is Mexican Sunwood

PegLeg

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have seen a few cues on eBay listed as Mexican Sunwood. I like the color and looks of these cues. What exactly is Mexican Sunwood?
 
I wasn't going to mention his name because it is a lightening bolt for controversy. :eek:

Yeah but that lightning bolt has struck so many times its lost all its voltage.

Want a good playing cue? Stick with what you know and what most reputable cuemakers use or recommend.
 
Yep! It's more commonly know as MAPLE!!!!!!!!!!LOL

Eyeless birdseye is a any typical birdseye maple board that has areas of wood where the curly, mottled figure is evident but without the eyes. Basically, there can be a board with birdseyes on one side, or one end, or an area in a birdseye board where there are no eyes. It's still wood from a birdseye maple log, the exact same wood but without the actual eyes. There's nothing rare or unusual about it. It's found in every birdseye log. It's just a totally different figure than can be found in any other wood or type of maple.

Turn a birdseye maple cue to where you can see the curly area on the spine, between where the birdseyes form on the face grain. It's a look that is somewhere between quilted maple & curly maple but not exactly like either. It's caused by grain growing/forming around the eyes & this causes wrinkles in the wood. As the tree grows larger & the eyes spread out like a tatoo on a skinny chick that gets fat, then there are wrinkled areas that get stretched out & have few or no eyes on it. This is eyeless birdseye. Nothing mysterious, nothing spectacular, just a sub-category of figure that can be found in maple. It's still birdseye maple, just a section cut from the log or board that doesn't display the eyes, only the wrinkles. I hope that clears things up a bit.

As for sunwood, I haven't heard of it.
 
Elebenty thousand cuemakers around the world would call it low grade birdseye and wouldnt use it in anything but low end cues.
Youre taking a grading issue and wanting to turn it into a selling feature. I can appreciate your enthusiasm for woods. Most everybody here shares that. But eyeless birdseye is very low grade birdseye maple any way ya slice it.
Correction-Elebenty thousand and one. Some guy just got a new lathe from harbor freight.
Eyeless birdseye is a any typical birdseye maple board that has areas of wood where the curly, mottled figure is evident but without the eyes. Basically, there can be a board with birdseyes on one side, or one end, or an area in a birdseye board where there are no eyes. It's still wood from a birdseye maple log, the exact same wood but without the actual eyes. There's nothing rare or unusual about it. It's found in every birdseye log. It's just a totally different figure than can be found in any other wood or type of maple.

Turn a birdseye maple cue to where you can see the curly area on the spine, between where the birdseyes form on the face grain. It's a look that is somewhere between quilted maple & curly maple but not exactly like either. It's caused by grain growing/forming around the eyes & this causes wrinkles in the wood. As the tree grows larger & the eyes spread out like a tatoo on a skinny chick that gets fat, then there are wrinkled areas that get stretched out & have few or no eyes on it. This is eyeless birdseye. Nothing mysterious, nothing spectacular, just a sub-category of figure that can be found in maple. It's still birdseye maple, just a section cut from the log or board that doesn't display the eyes, only the wrinkles. I hope that clears things up a bit.

As for sunwood, I haven't heard of it.
 
I have used bem, quilt and flame or tiger stripe maple in all kinds of different instrument projects. I am not going to get into what comes from what and so on. Bottom line there are hard and soft maples and figure can come in either species. If a board without figure, whether it be sugar,red, big leaf western or whatever, is plain or clear maple. Same with figured wood. Only with figured it becomes quilted,curly or birdseye maple. It also depends on how the board is cut as to how much figure is how. There are other names such as blistered, flame, tiger stripe.....etc. Spalted maple is another figure used a lot, but really is wood that had started to decay from disease. So the more figure, the more desireable it is. Its the same in instruments as it is with cues.
 
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Not sure, but Mexican sunwood looks a whole lot like mahogany in color and grain. Seems Mr.Perry is the only person using the term sunwood though.:confused:
 
the DP I owned was advertised as a Mexican Sunwood Cue. It was orange in color and was fairly bright. I was really so upset with the rest of the cue that it totally made me ignore any of the good features of the cue.
 
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