I've been working a lot lately with cocobolo and find that it tends to bend really nice and polite. This makes sense to me because it is an oily woods and heats up nicely. It works well and easy with no nasty habits like sudden chipout or cracking. Basically the stuff works like, well, wood. I do however have two big problems with cocobolo wood; 1) And the biggest problem for me is that the wood does not hold that beautiful deep rich red/orange color that attracts us to it in the first place. It tends to oxidize over time and turn a muddy brown color and that looks like something that came out of the rectum of a cow (not attractive) and (2), it can be a toxic wood to some people (not me yet) which can make working with it a nasty experience. .... And yes as stated above, it must be wiped with solvent just before gluing like any tropical oily hardwood. That said, I have forgotten that step a time or two and have had no glue problems. Yet. I love this wood, but as a first ukulele wood, maybe not such a great idea. It is beautiful, precious stuff in my eyes and it would be a shame to sacrifice it on what is basically a learning process. But then again, I've seen some first ukes that are near perfect works of art.