WOW #3 Bocote

R

RSB-Refugee

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Bocote is a brown to reddish-brown wood with dark brown figuring. It is very hard and durable. It is in the family, Boraginaceae. I have found that there are several species with the same common name. Cordia alliodora that grows in Northern Florida, Cordia elaeagnoides from Mexico and Cordia gerascanthus from Mexico and Guadeloupe. I believe, it is the latter that we are concerned with. It has an oily waxy look and can be finished to a natural sheen. I found one source that said, it is difficult to dry, being susceptible to checking and end splitting. I have often heard, that bocote is a great wood for 'the hit'. I think it would make a nice plain-jane, since it has such nice figuring. As always, feel free to correct, or add any information that I may have overlooked. Photos of extraordinary examples, are always appreciated.

Tracy
 
It smells like mustard but hits like a baseball bat. :)
 
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Tracy,

I just wanted to say thank you for starting WOW. It's interesting to read about the characteristics of the different woods from the cuemakers, ie. I didn't know Bacote smelled liked mustard.

Pretty neat segment. Keep it up!!

Jim
 
jhendri2 said:
Tracy,

I just wanted to say thank you for starting WOW. It's interesting to read about the characteristics of the different woods from the cuemakers, ie. I didn't know Bacote smelled liked mustard.

Pretty neat segment. Keep it up!!
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:o You're welcome. I am just thankful, that a lot of cuemakers have signed on for contributing. I am also thankful, to Blud for the idea and Mike Howerton for starting the Ask The Cuemaker forum.

Tracy
 
Bocote is a wood that plays vastly different depending on the weight of the piece of wood. The real heavy bocote has a flatter hit similar to ebony. But if you get the lighter pieces it has a lively hit kinda in between purple heart and maple. It does not make much noise when you strike the side of it with your hand and absorbs vibration better than most woods in it's weight class. It has a little end give or end compression and that is what makes it hit nice, and produce a fair amount of cueball action. Bocote will darken with age like cocobolo does so you should finish it with a UV resistant finish to maintain the vibrant color. Calling it "reddish brown" doesn't seem right to me about the color. I would call it more of a brown to blondish brown with dark brown streaking. My son plays with a one piece butt made out of bocote. For wrapless cues like sneaky petes I feel Bocote into maple makes one of the best hitting cues. The weight of a bocote into maple sneaky pete usually hits close to a 19 ounce cue with no weight bolt.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
Bocote.....

Other Common Names: Anacahuite, Baria (Cuba), Siricote, Cupane, Amapa asta (Mexico), Canalete (Colombia, Venezuela), Louro pardo (Brazil), Loro negro (Argentina).

Bocote is one of the not true rosewoods wich can be used even if the grain is not straight. Because of the nice figure wich can be found in some pieces, cuemakers like to use it aswell as cabinetmakers and gunmakers.
Again, It is so dense that there's no difference between straight grained or highly figured wood. The hit is about the same.

Cueman described the wood very well and there's not much more I can tell you about it you might not have known.

It's easy to work, it polishes well, finishes well... just one of the easiest woods to work with...

TIP: Try to avoid the wood to heat up while turning. When the wood becomes shiny where you turned, bored, drilled or tapped it, you can forget about using glue.... it just won't stick!
Start with smaller diameters and gradualy increase the diameter of the drills. This will prevent the shining...

Tom Penrose
 
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cueman said:
...For wrapless cues like sneaky petes I feel Bocote into maple makes one of the best hitting cues.QUOTE]

I just had a wrapless bocote cue made and you're right about the hit. I've never found a cue that hit as solid but with as much feel in it.
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You bet the wood is solid...

You could go to mexico on a holliday and have a look at the great Haciendas... A lot of them are built with bocote.

Tom Penrose
 
NICE pieces Joey!
As you know I just had my bocote cue made by Qb and the thing hits like a Mack truck. By far my favorite wood.

Thanks for these threads.

Koop
 
I never really used to be much of a fan of bocote untill i saw Koop's QB cue, thats some intense bocote! I'd love to have a hit with one!
 
deep said:
I never really used to be much of a fan of bocote untill i saw Koop's QB cue, thats some intense bocote! I'd love to have a hit with one!
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If you're ever in the Boston area, look me up and have a go with it! I'd be willing to bet you'd like bocote after you hit with it... ;)

Regards,
Koop
 
I have a plain Jane Mexican Bocote cue. I had it made to be a players cue. It has a leather wrap, ss joint, and ivory ferrules. The feel and hit is the best I have use felt. The wood was recommended by the cuemaker because I told him that I wanted a great cue and was not interested in anything fancy because I have fancy cues but just wanted a good beater. He said that the wood is hard to work with because it is so oily.
 
Tom,
If you ever burnish a piece of wood to where it is shiney but still need to glue it first try roughing it up with course sand paper. If the burnishing cooked the oils in the wood like on Cocobolo or Ebony then just wipe it with laquer thinner and it will give you a surface that will bond.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
cueman said:
Calling it "reddish brown" doesn't seem right to me about the color. I would call it more of a brown to blondish brown with dark brown streaking.
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Chris,
There seems to be a lot of bad information on the net about woods, which is why, I really appreciate input from you and others.

cueman said:
My son plays with a one piece butt made out of bocote.
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
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How much does a one piece bocote cue weigh? Is it stable enough to trust that it wont warp?

Tracy
 
cueman said:
Tom,
If you ever burnish a piece of wood to where it is shiney but still need to glue it first try roughing it up with course sand paper. If the burnishing cooked the oils in the wood like on Cocobolo or Ebony then just wipe it with laquer thinner and it will give you a surface that will bond.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Click to expand...


Hi Chris,

I understand that you can rough up ebony and cocobolo with thinner, but you can forget that with bocote. The wood is not a rosewood and thus has specific caracteristics.

Unlike rosewoods, bocote never takes the glue after it has been "burned". Because I know this, I put it in a post to give other people a tip.

Besides that, you should know that roughing up "burned" wood with thinner is not the right solution. It's only temporary. And when the thinner has completely evaporated, the structure of the cells of the wood takes it's shape right the way it was.

The only solution is to use sharp tools, turn little by little. And never overrush
to make cues quicker, but crappier...

Tom Penrose
 
sharp tools

As a side note to what Tom said about sharp tools a properly sharpened high-speed steel tool will give you a keener sharper cutting edge than carbide.
 
Penrose Cues said:
Hi Chris,

I understand that you can rough up ebony and cocobolo with thinner, but you can forget that with bocote. The wood is not a rosewood and thus has specific caracteristics.

Unlike rosewoods, bocote never takes the glue after it has been "burned". Because I know this, I put it in a post to give other people a tip.

Besides that, you should know that roughing up "burned" wood with thinner is not the right solution. It's only temporary. And when the thinner has completely evaporated, the structure of the cells of the wood takes it's shape right the way it was.

The only solution is to use sharp tools, turn little by little. And never overrush
to make cues quicker, but crappier...

Tom Penrose
Click to expand...
Are you using wood cutting tools to shape your cues instead of metal lathe tools? I used the term burnished which would not be quite burned but more shiney. And yes I think roughing it up is the answer. And what the thinner does is remove the oils from the surface so you can get a good glue bond. If you are tapering your cues with a scraping type of cut with either wood or metal cutting tools I would suggest investing in a router to taper your cues with so you quit burning them. I have never had any kind of gluing problems with Bocote and I can not picture anyone using modern cue building techniques having any either. Some times when cutting a tenon it might burnish the wood slightly and my methods definitely take care of the problem on all woods I have dealt with including Bocote.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
RSB-Refugee said:
Chris,
There seems to be a lot of bad information on the net about woods, which is why, I really appreciate input from you and others.
How much does a one piece bocote cue weigh? Is it stable enough to trust that it wont warp?
Tracy
Click to expand...

His cue weighs just over 19 ounce. It is really stable. Most pieces of Bocote weigh more so we try to pick out the lighter weight pieces for one piece butts and put the rest in 18 inch turning squares. The nice part is the lighter colored highly figured pieces that are the prettiest are also the lightest in weight.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
I have a piece of bocote that I want to make into a one piece butt. Is bocote and an ivory joint as good as a combo as some of the other popular woods?


Andy
 
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