Mineral lines on OB-1 shafts

Shawn Armstrong

Shawn Armstrong

AZB deceased - stopped posting 5/13/2022
Silver Member
I just dove back into playing with low deflection shafts, and decided to give an OB-1 a try. I borrowed my friend's shaft, and played a few weeks with it. I noticed a definite improvement in my game. Anyways, I decided to buy one myself, and went to the local rep for OB-1. I picked through the 6 shafts they had in stock, and found the straightest, cleanest shaft I could. I was shocked at the number of dark mineral spots in these shafts. I don't need my shafts to be snow white, but a dark spot definitely bothers me during my stroke. Perhaps there should be tighter quality control at OB-1. If I'm shelling out $220 for a shaft, I do not think there is any place for dark mineral lines in the shaft. Save those for the sub $100 shafts, or start labelling these shafts as factory 2nd and knock some $$ of the price of the shaft. Just a pet peeve. I was playing in a tournament with the new shaft yesterday and had to keep rotating the cue to avoid the dark spots.
 
That's weird, I've not seen that problem before. I own an OB1, have seen a few more, and even a few OB2's...and not one had a problem like you describe.

You mentioned something about factory seconds...if the guy you were buying from was NOT an authorized dealer, maybe you WERE buying a factory second (at full value). Hope that's not the case.
 
Nope - authorized dealer. My friend's shaft has a few, but his are towards the joint end, so not an issue. Mine, on the other hand, are in the 10" near the ferrule. Absolute eyesore to say the least. I love the way the shaft performs, but the dark brown spot is like looking at a fat ass in stretch pants. It's just ugly.
 
I have seen this also. I know a guy that plays with an OB shaft and his has a spot like this in about the middle of the shaft. After a while a good amount of play you cant see it anymore because of the chalk on the shaft. Not that it has a lot of blueing but just the little bit it has covers it up.
 
lfigueroa said:
I've often wondered if the any of the cue guys have a fix for this kind of problem, like maybe a wood bleach, or even drilling it out a bit and using some wood filler...

Lou Figueroa
hey, it could work
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The inside of the shafts have somekind of foam or rubber in them.
 
$TAKE HOR$E said:
I have seen this also. I know a guy that plays with an OB shaft and his has a spot like this in about the middle of the shaft. After a while a good amount of play you cant see it anymore because of the chalk on the shaft. Not that it has a lot of blueing but just the little bit it has covers it up.
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I guess it's too bad for me, then, that I am near OCD about keeping my shafts clean. My shafts do not turn blue.
 
I would wait for the reaction of OB products on this one and see what they say and offer.

I have hit with only one OB-1 shaft locally, it was fine and - in your case, more importantly: I have read only good things about their customer service.

I'd greatly recommend you getting in touch with them and although your problem is easily understandable, I'd still suggest giving them a call and only after that making this public.
 
I'm not trying to be an a$% or anything, but why did you buy a shaft with these spots, if you knew they were going to bother you this bad?
 
s'portplayer said:
I'm not trying to be an a$% or anything, but why did you buy a shaft with these spots, if you knew they were going to bother you this bad?
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I screened all the shafts the dealer I went to had in stock. Some of them had taper rolls. The other possible candidate had one of these mineral marks right near the ferrule. To drive to the next nearest dealer would be over an hour's drive. I looked at every shaft they had in stock, including the ones that weren't the right thread type. There was one Uni-loc that was near flawless, but my cue is a 5/16-14 thread.

Why did I choose this shaft? I was playing in a tournament on the weekend, and also had some action set up as well for this weekend. I was borrowing a friend's OB-1 the past 3 weeks, and he needed it back. I decided to take the plunge and buy one. I refuse to order any more product online, as they typically ship all their crap up to Canada, because they know it will cost too much in shipping plus brokerage to ship the crap back for exchange or refund. Anyways, of my choices, I picked the best of what was presented to me. I was just shocked at the number of shafts, near 70% of what was in stock, that had these "beauty" marks. I'd rather rotate the shaft due to one mark rather than finding the clean spot due to 3 spots. It's not that I picked out the one with the most annoying mark. I was just voicing an opinion that a vast majority of the OB-1s I have seen up here (Canada) seem to have mineral markings. When this happened to Predator, they marked them as seconds.
 
Not A Jerk

I'm not trying to be a jerk or smart a$$, but if a spot on the shaft bothers you then you should adjust your focus.

In other words that should be the least of your worries
 
I have several shafts that have marks like that on them. I've never really considered them a nuisance. I guess I haven't really paid too much attention to them.
 
ne14tennis said:
I'm not trying to be a jerk or smart a$$, but if a spot on the shaft bothers you then you should adjust your focus.

In other words that should be the least of your worries
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Thanks for clearing that up. So, quality control will now be allowed to go out the window because I should learn to not focus on that little mark going in and out of my closed bridge. My apologies for bringing it up. Pardon me if I expect good quality work for 2 days pay. My bad.
 
Shawn Armstrong said:
Thanks for clearing that up. So, quality control will now be allowed to go out the window because I should learn to not focus on that little mark going in and out of my closed bridge. My apologies for bringing it up. Pardon me if I expect good quality work for 2 days pay. My bad.
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Royce Bunnell from OB Cues posts here under the name RBC. Send him a pm and I'm sure he will handle the issue for you.
 
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