Would like some suggestions from cuemakers

Snapshot9

son of 3 leg 1 eye dog ..
Silver Member
I am having a cue made next year, and I want Amboyna Burl to be my main wood. I talked to my cuemaker, Bob Owen, and asked him about woods that could go with Amboyna Burl. I also asked him about what he fills it with to get the proper hit. He said Rock Maple to fill it, and said he has other woods that could go with Amboyna Burl, and mentioned Desert Ironwood.

I looked up Desert Ironwood, and it is vanilla and kind of a dark brown. The brown, I feel, is too dark, and I do not want a vanilla type wood as the other wood. I, also, do not want Ebony or BEM. Personally, I think a tan colored or dark tan colored wood would look good and highlight the Red Amboyna Burl. Plus I don't think it should be too figured since the Amboyna Burl is highly figured.

So, are there any suggestions for a wood that would go good with red Amboyna Buirl, complement and highlight it. I plan to have points and veneers, some ivory, and the other inlays haven't decided yet.

Oh yeah, I am a little different, and I like something a little different, I prefer a Southwestern styled cue. (Southwestern like New Mexico or Arizona, not necessarily like Southwest cues).
 
I must admit that I like ebony to highlight a red amboyna, but if this is not to your tastes, maybe a dark East Indian rosewood or Brazillian rosewood with a lighter set of points would look nice. And as Double D stated, there should only be one diva in a cue.

Alan
 
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Doing cue now with Amboyna Burl into Curly Walnut and Curly Purpleheart.
 
Bubinga and koa look pretty nice with ur wood selection. I'm partial to african blackwood and burl myself.
 
Holly would give you an nice cream colored wood to inlay into the Amboyna if you want the Ivory look. I know you don't want to take away from the Amboyna, but my choice would be to go with a light colored Burl like Buckeye or Spalted Maple. I would not lay a boring looking wood into it for inlays.
 
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Ambuyna with maple core in front will weigh very light.
It's gonna need a heavy handle to weigh more and hit better.
Burls are horrible in the hit department.
 
i would use snakewood

the colors go from a light cream to a light brown, and the grain patterens would really blend together great, snakewood points into the burl forearm, with tan, cream color and brown veneers. natural color linen fiber rings, but then i am a jewelry designer, so
 
I'm with Cueman on this one. Why use a boring piece of wood for inlays? I made a forearm not long ago using redheart and tulipwood into walnut. I regret not using figured walnut. It's pretty, but figure in the walnut would have made everything more interesting instead of distracting from the highlighted wood.
 
Just an update

In researching all these woods you have suggested, I have boiled it down to about 3 woods. I mainly wanted a brown tone of wood to go with the red Amboyna Burl. (I seem to like reddish browns for some reason, it flows over to cases too ... lol)

Choice One: Zebrawood
Choice Two: Pau Ferro (although I am a little concerned about clashing red tones)
and if I wanted to go lighter, I would go for Coffee Burl.

and just an FYI, the www.WestPennhardwoods.com website has pretty good examples of all of the hardwoods.

Oh, and what is happening is what I was afraid would happen. I want 2 cues now. I got a quote for a player that I just can not pass up, so I may go for the wood combinations in the player, and the cue I having made next year was to be my dream cue, so I may end up with a different combination of woods next year.
 
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Would like

Ok, you picked Bob to make your cue. So let Bob come up with the
combo's for you to choose from. Bob is a respected cuemaker, and I respect his work.
Wood isn't consistant in color or pattern. He has it right in front of him, not some dream
on a internet website. What other people think doesn't matter, it's what you and Bob think.
Let the professional you decided on help.
Remember, free advice is worth what you paid for it.
 
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Well ...

I had to come back to reality a little, so I decided to have Bob build me a
player's cue. I went down to his shop today, and looked at woods, cues, veneers, etc. I know I am a little 'early' considering it won't be started until February, but having a cue made excites me, kind of like sex .... lol

Here's where I am at now:
Amboyna Burl (cored 3/4" and rock maple filled) for the points and handle
Veneer colors (natural/purple/teal green/natural
Segmented handle with matching rings /double rings top and bottom of handle
Desert Ironwood for the forearm and butt sleeve (the brown not the white)
Forward Balanced (about 19")
Hoppe ring at the bottom
2 12.75 mm shafts, 1 with Hercules tip and 1 with Moori tip.
SS 5/16 x 14 joint
 
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