WOW #4 Bloodwood

[RSB-Refugee]

This weeks featured wood is, bloodwood. It is scientifically known as Brosimum Rubescens. It is a South American hardwood. It is a very hard and tough wood but machines well. It is a slow drying wood, that has very small movement. It is resistant to steam bending. It sounds to me like it is a very stable wood. Bloodwood darkens over time so a UV finish should probably be used, unless you are going for a dark look.

I found a couple very interesting links at www.wflooring.com. The first is a TABLE with quite a few woods and their corresponding Janka Hardness ratings. The number is how many pounds of force that are required to drive a 1/2" steel ball a specified, but I forget, distance into the wood. Blood wood is a very hard wood with a rating of 2900, that is 230% of red oaks rating and twice as hard as hard maple.

The second TABLE, I found, tells how uniform in color a wood is from board to board and also its color fastness, how much it changes in color. It is not surprising that purpleheart has the least color fastness, but that will come in the future.

I would guess, that bloodwood should be a perfect wood for cues. Does it have a good hit? Please share your experiences and photgraphs of examples. The photos are a favorite part of these threads, for me.

Tracy

 

[cueman]

I don't have a lot to add about Bloodwood except to say it is fairly heavy. The hit is in between bocote and ebony. It has a smooth grain so it is easy to finish. Color loss is fairly slow so finishing fast is not that critical. It is real stable. Not sure why it is not more popular. Best guess is pink Ivory is a little prettier and many other woods have fancy grain where as bloodwood doesn't really have a grain pattern, it is just a solid color. I haven't built a bloodwood cue in probably 12 years.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com

 

[RSB-Refugee]

I don't have a lot to add about Bloodwood except to say it is fairly heavy. The hit is in between bocote and ebony. It has a smooth grain so it is easy to finish. Color loss is fairly slow so finishing fast is not that critical. It is real stable. Not sure why it is not more popular. Best guess is pink Ivory is a little prettier and many other woods have fancy grain where as bloodwood doesn't really have a grain pattern, it is just a solid color. I haven't built a bloodwood cue in probably 12 years.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com

Gabon ebony is just a solid color too. and it gets plenty of use. I just thought it was odd that something as durable as bloodwood, is used so little. A hit somewhere between bocote and ebony, sounds like it might be good. I hope we get some bloodwood cues, to look at this week.

Tracy

 

[Pancerny]

I've used it for points before and have a nice board aging in the wood corner. Not much character in the wood, but it's hardness and stability make it great for half-spliced points. It's fairly tight grained too so it takes a finish well.
Mike

 

[hadjcues]

I don't have a lot to add about Bloodwood except to say it is fairly heavy. The hit is in between bocote and ebony. It has a smooth grain so it is easy to finish. Color loss is fairly slow so finishing fast is not that critical. It is real stable. Not sure why it is not more popular. Best guess is pink Ivory is a little prettier and many other woods have fancy grain where as bloodwood doesn't really have a grain pattern, it is just a solid color. I haven't built a bloodwood cue in probably 12 years.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com

I agree it's pretty heavy... Does it have to be cored to lighten it up? Planning to use it as a forearm and the target weight would be 19oz with a maple handle

Thanks

 

[jhendri2]

I finally get to contribute to WOW...cool . THis is the best segment on AZ. No Flames just great info. Anyway here's a picture of my Wes Hunter. It's Ebony with 10 Bloodwood points:

I just had a set of Bloodwood/Ebony JP's made for it. I love the color of the wood.

Jim

 

[Cue Crazy]

Nice cue,

I like the the combination of colors also. The ring work also. I bet a leather wrap would look really good on It.

Greg

 

[jhendri2]

Nice cue,

I like the the combination of colors also. The ring work also. I bet a leather wrap would look really good on It.

Greg

I thought about have Wes put a leather wrap on it. Since it was one of his magazine cover cues, I thought leaving it original would be best.

A leather wrap would be nice though.

Jim

 

[Cue Crazy]

You did the right thing. I would opt to keep It original also. It looks great just the way it is anyhow. The linen matches very well. I just see It, and picture leather for some reason. I really do like the colors, they seem to jump right out of the ebony.

Greg

 

[timbo.hobo]

All I know about bloodwood is that if you need a nice, clean, red base color, it would be the number one pick, like a what ebony is to someone who wants a black base color. I drew this on photoshop a while back, some of you may still remember it:

Tim.

 

[Poolschool]

That is sweet!!! How long did that take to do on photoshop?

 

[timbo.hobo]

Thanks man.
The actual drawing took maybe only 1-2 hours. Trying different design elements, tinkering with the look, then trying deciding on a final design, that took like another 6 hours...hehe I had lots of time back then

Sorry this is a little off topic! I'd love to learn more about bloodwood, some more facts from the pros would be awesome!

Tim.

 

[Penrose Cues]

Bloodwood has a lot in common with purpleheart... The grain looks identical, the figure looks identical, the species work, finish and glue just aswell...etc

Both parts of the trees of these species being used is the heart of the tree. The spinewood is exactly the same and has the same figure and grain structure. Maybe those two species are family of each other...

The major difference, next to it's color of course, is the hardness. Bloodwood is softer and heavier than purpleheart...

TIP: Just like purpleheart, the color of bloodwood can be darkened with heat. So if you want the piece of bloodwood to get deeper and richer in color, warm it up by hanging it in the sun...

Tom Penrose