Why does everyone ( well almost ) love maple shafts?

JoeyInCali

JoeyInCali

Maker of Joey Bautista Cues
Silver Member
They get dinged up, turn blue , warp when stored inside the car , get sticky when powder dries with sweat , etc.
For sure we can just use graphite shafts. Or carbon fiber, or titanium or aluminum.
 
JoeyInCali said:
They get dinged up, turn blue , warp when stored inside the car , get sticky when powder dries with sweat , etc.
For sure we can just use graphite shafts. Or carbon fiber, or titanium or aluminum.
Click to expand...

I want to play with a shaft that needs to be taken care of! If I bang my shaft around, I have to fix the dents/dings. If I never keep it clean it looks dirty. I guess what I'm saying is I like to take pride in my equipment and I want to take care of it.

Does that make any sense to anyone else? :confused: I don't know. But it makes sense to me.:)

That and I hate the feel of other materials used in shafts probably because a maple shaft is what I started with 20-some years ago and that feel is what is imbedded in me as the "right" feel. :thumbup:
 
JoeyInCali said:
They get dinged up, turn blue , warp when stored inside the car , get sticky when powder dries with sweat , etc.
For sure we can just use graphite shafts. Or carbon fiber, or titanium or aluminum.
Click to expand...



Those shafts are just exactly what they are, Maple is so much more. From color, weight, straightness of grain, growth rings, no two are exactly the same, which is why there is the allure of the "Holy Grail" of shafts to be sought after.
 
I like the feel of the maple hit. And nothing wrong with getting a shaft a little dirty. I keep mine clean, but it still has that dark shade from chalk/whatever that stops abrubtly a few inches from the joint. My hands and the shaft are always clean enough so that I never need the glove or the hand chalk.
 
we now have better materials then wood. George Washington had wooden teeth, but you don't see anybody with wooden teeth today. after all it is the 21st century. LOL:rolleyes:
 
Why try to reinvent the wheel? Not that people won't try to...
I have a laminated shaft that fits my Jacoby. I don't use it much. Not since I bought a Josey. ;)

I've yet to try a shaft made of artificial material that I like the feel of...
 
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The sailors lament!

If god wanted fiberglass boats he would have made fiberglass trees!

The same can be said about cue shafts IMO!!

I do like the concept of the new McDermott G Core shafts and think that they may have a winner this time.
JMO though, FWIW...
Dan
 
feedback, tonality, feel, .. the same reasons musicians and musical instrument makers choose it.. maple has personality:grin-square:
 
When a wooden shaft gets a small ding, you can fix it with a drop of spit--try that with Graphite, fiberglass, or aluminum.

The wooden shafts only turn blue if you use blue chalk--:) If you don't like your shaft turniing blue, use red/black/grey/green chalk, for example.
 
I was curious when the fiber wrapped wood shafts came out... TINK... Tunk.... STIFFed!!!
Aluminum shafts.... VERY LOUD TINK.... think of baseball bats wood vrs aluminum.

Different kinds of wood for the shaft... hard rock maple and ASH... both have some great qualities.

I still can't get over the TINK...
 
Are we limiting the discussion to maple versus all non-wood materials...or is it open to ash?

Maybe a snooker-type shaft is in our future? We've already gone from 13-1/4mm shafts (for the old cloth) to 12-3/4mm (advent of simonis & 314) to 11-3/4mm (advent of Z2 & OB2). Maybe we will find ash more to our liking...not just for playability, but aesthetically?!?!?

That heavy grain of ash (arrows) gives the snooker boys a visual clue of the straightness of their stroke.
 
I like to show the tree who's boss. Just because they are taller doesn't mean anything to me....
 
I want a solid steel shaft with no feedback. I want it to weigh around four pounds. That way, when I miscue, I can tear not only the felt, but chip away at the slate also. I would also like a ceramic tip so I can hear the KLINK! Then, with my steel shaft, I won't get airbarrelled either.
 
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