Wood species
Amaranth
Other names: Pau Roxo, Purpleheart, Amaranto, Viola.
Amaranth grows in Central and South America as far south as Brazil. It is a relatively thin (trunk thickness up to 80cm) tree up to 25 metres tall. The distinctive feature of amaranth is the colour of the wood: from violet-burgundy to deep purple with white-cream and pinkish-brown sapwood. Amaranth wood is characterised by high density and hardness. It is a very resistant species. It can withstand dynamic loads and strong stresses.
Traditionally amaranth is used where high durability under dynamic loads and high stresses or aesthetic effect is required. The billiard cue assumes both the former and the latter.
In the Russian Empire ‘’purple tree‘’ amaranth has been known for quite a long time. It was used in the artistic parquet of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
Wenge
Botanical name: Milletia laurentii.
A tree from Africa, growing mainly in Zaire. Wenge is a very solid and heavy type of wood. Enough to say that it is completely resistant to fungal diseases, and termites avoid wenge: even these well-known woodworms are unable to cope with it.
The wood is dark brown with frequent thin veins that form a fanciful pattern. Wenge is highly resistant to pressure and bending, which makes it ideal for billiard cues.
In addition to billiard production, wenge is used for making jewellery boxes, statuettes, for interior decoration and furniture making.
Hornbeam
Botanical name: Carpinus betulus.
Hornbeam is our most common ‘billiard’ wood. Hornbeam grows in Europe, Asia Minor and Iran; it also grows in the Caucasus, Carpathians, Crimea, south-western and western parts of the CIS. It is one of the relatives of birch, but much harder and denser. Hornbeam is 20-30 per cent superior to oak in bending strength, stiffness and resistance to splitting. It has a hard, strong and dense wood with a whitish-grey colour. Fresh wood spoils easily, but after proper processing and prolonged drying it becomes durable and acquires new properties: hornbeam becomes harder than oak.
Hornbeam finds the widest application in carpentry. It is not only used for making billiard cues, but also for musical instruments, furniture and parquet.
In our cues hornbeam is used exclusively for making the shaft and in inlays.
Ipe
Other names: Amapa (Mexico), Cortez (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), Guayacan (Panama), Guayacan polvillo (Colombia), Flor Amarillo (Venezuela), Greenhart (Surinam), Madera negra (Ecuador), Tahuari (Peru), Ipe (Brazil), Lapacho negro (Paraguay, Argentina).
Ipe is a tree from the tropics of South America and the Antilles. It grows in almost any area: both in the mountains and in swampy lowlands. It is a tall tree with a thick trunk. There are specimens up to 50 metres tall and up to 2 metres in girth.
The wood is olive-brown to black in colour. The ipe often has lighter coloured stripes. The wood is resistant to fungal diseases and termites.
Of all the woods used in the manufacture of billiard cues, it is the most ‘working’. Ipe is used for railway sleepers, in construction and for flooring in industrial facilities.
Macassar
Botanical name: Diospyros tomentosa.
Macassar grows mainly in the Indian peninsula and its neighbourhood. It is one of the varieties of ebony. The wood of macassar is extremely spectacular: black, with brown or purple stripes, with a fine homogeneous structure. Macassar is a dense and hard wood. It is one of the few woods that sinks in water.
It is used in decorative items, inlays. It is a very expensive and valuable type of wood.
Rosewood
Other names: Indian rosewood, Bombay ebony.
A tree from eastern India, Indonesia, Thailand and Burma. Rosewood reaches a height of up to 25 metres, with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 metres. The wood of black rosewood is dark in colour, usually dark brown with slightly lighter veins, and may have a slight purple or lilac tint. Red rosewood is light brown in colour and can also have purple, lilac, pink hues, sometimes brightly coloured.
As a decorative material it is known for more than 200 years. In the modern world it finds the widest application in finishing of rooms: from parquet to decoration of cabins on ultra expensive yachts. Rosewood is also used for furniture, canes, boxes, decorative objects and musical instruments. The wood is much harder than oak, does not shrink much, and polishes well.
Sucupira
The botanical name is Bowdichia virgilioides (Diplotropis purpurea).
It grows in South Americaa (Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela). Trees reach a height of up to 25-30 m and a diameter of about 0.6 m, sometimes there are trees up to 1 meter thick. The trees can be up to 250 years old.
The sapwood is dull brown to reddish-brown in colour, with light yellow marks, especially visible on smooth cuts. The texture is coarse. The fibres are wavy and random. Sucupira is not only beautiful but also very practical. It is difficult to dry, but the density in the dry state is about 990 kg/m3. Very heavy, hard and very resistant wood, contains oily substances.
Ebony
Botanical name: Diospyros celebia.
Ebony grows in South India, Ceylon, and Africa. It is the stunted tree used in the production of cues. The largest specimens slightly exceed 10 metres with a trunk diameter of just over a metre. Ebony resembles a large shrub more than a normal tree. The wood is black in colour with a slight metallic sheen and is well polished.
It has a very high hardness and density. Sinks in water. It is the most expensive wood in the world. The price for 1 cubic metre can reach up to 100 thousand dollars.
It is believed that the tree has healing properties. Therefore, furniture made of ebony is usually not upholstered. In Europe in the Middle Ages it was believed that in dishes made of ebony poisons lose their power, tinctures on ebony were used as elixirs of youth, up to the end of the 19th century was used to treat sexual disorders in men, made from the infusion of parts of ebony.
Ebony is used to make furniture and decorative items. Furniture and musical instruments are inlaid with it. Ebony is used in construction. However, it is a material available only to very rich people.