I did…….. Jacoby took awhile to make the shafts and unfortunately there was a miscommunication on their part. I was notified about 4-5 weeks ago the shafts were done and were only 3.6 ozs. Obviously, that was an enormous miss and I notified Jacoby Cues I was not interested and would find another cue maker to attempt this and they understood why.
So my search started over and I selected Jim Pierce to build my Kielwood shafts. Right after hiring Jim, SCDiver2112 notified me he had built exactly what I wanted and more than once. Had I not already selected Jim, I’d probably have had him build my shafts. The photos of his workmanship looked excellent. Ironically, after Jim started building my shafts, Jacoby contacted me and said they actually had built two 4 oz. flat faced wood KW shafts and did not have to add any weight, The person originally notifying me the shafts were 3.6 ozs confused my order with a different one.
I did not want 4 KW shafts so I stuck with Jim Pierce who built the shafts in 3 weeks, not 20-22 weeks. Jacoby, even with the size of their operation, built the shafts in under 3 months and that included being in Las Vegas for 2 weeks exhibiting. Jim has built and sold over 300 KW shafts and I can attest why. The shafts he made are handsome, exactly built to my specs, straight as a tautly pulled string, and play wonderful. I could not be more pleased with the price, workmanship and especially, turnaround time building my Kielwood shafts. And I found Jim to be accessible, friendly, more than competent and also a excellent cue maker having seen and personally tried his pool cues that a few of my friends own. Richard Hsu makes a beautiful looking KW shaft but his build time and pricing seem totally absurd to me.
Indeed, I spent a lot of time trying to get my KW shafts built and learned a lot of cue makers were dead wrong telling me that a uncored KW shaft under 13mm and 29” length weighing a min of 4 ozs. couldn’t be built without adding weight to the finished shaft because torrefication would make the shaft too light. That never made any sense to me when I have seen maple shafts over 4.5 ozs. from different cue makers over the years. All it takes is the right wood. I firmly believed this despite the skepticism from so many others but they were dead wrong and I was absolutely right.
I have six (6) cues in my cases with 3 different big pins (radial, 3/8x10 and 3/8/11). I now have 3 Kielwood shafts that will fit on my cues so I am delighted. I admit to be stubborn minded and relentless at times but persistence paid off. My ego feels better because it feels great to be right whereas others were so wrong. My wallet feels better because I saved many hundreds of dollars. Lastly, the shafts play every bit as great as I anticipated uncored KW shafts would.
Tsunami KW shafts are among the prettiest I’ve ever seen until SCDiver2112 built a curly maple KW shaft that was dazzling. Looks are not nearly as important as compatibility and he can build what I want. It just so happens I met Jim Pierce first and he just knocked it out of the park building my two KW shafts. Plus, Jim’s turnaround time was fast, workmanship was impeccable and pricing is very competitive. Nope, I’m thrilled and also saved a lot of money vs. ordering Hsu’s KW shafts.
