To core or not to core

Guerra Cues

Guerra Cues

I build one cue at a time
Silver Member
Hey folks,

I heard many stories about coring curly maple and Birdseye maple.
If the wood is seasoned should it be cored or no on both types of maple?
What are your guys thoughts?


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All woods have to be seasoned.
Seasoning has nothing to do with it. Non-seasoned woods will be susceptible to drastic expansion and contraction.
If the grain structure is not very good, I core them.
Heavily figured b'eyes, I core.
All curly maple, I core. How did the curls get there ?
 
Guerra Cues said:
Hey folks,

I heard many stories about coring curly maple and Birdseye maple.
If the wood is seasoned should it be cored or no on both types of maple?
What are your guys thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I only core birdseye if it's really hammered with eyes. Any burl would need to be cored. Curly I've never cored and never had a problem. I don't like to core because I want the cue to hit like the wood it's made of and not each one to play all the others.
 
Craig Fales said:
I only core birdseye if it's really hammered with eyes. Any burl would need to be cored. Curly I've never cored and never had a problem. I don't like to core because I want the cue to hit like the wood it's made of and not each one to play all the others.
Click to expand...


Funny... People like Joey core anything or almost anything, that just avoids trouble. With maple I was advised to core curly instead of bem and vice versa, confused to say the least. Just looking for some feedback :)
 
I am by no means an expert but I have been dabbling in cue repair and cue building for 19 years now. My thoughts are it depends on what you are after. If you want every cue you build to have similar balance, weight and hit, core everything. Use a variety of woods as cores to attain the end result you are looking for. If you want each cue to be slightly different based on your wood selection and construction techniques used don't core.

Remember if you do core:

Image04062011121627.jpg


Is your friend. That's right I got the bobble head and you don't. Some of you might have lasers, full size CNC equipment and 100 times as much wood as me. But you don't have a Gorilla Glue bobble head!!!!
 
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The way I look at it is, why wouldn't you core? I used to be a huge opponent to coring. Didn't believe in it because like mentioned I wanted my cues to hit like the woods I used. But something happened that changed my mind. I got good enough that all my cues hit the same, anyway, regardless of woods used. I choose & match wood according to tone in order to achieve a specific tone that I believe is best for playability. Once I got good at finding that tone, everything began hitting the same. So that brought me to question whether to core, or not to core.

Reasons to core include much higher confidence in stability, easier weight & balance control, added strength to weak or highly figured woods, manipulating(enhancing) tonal qualities in otherwise crappy tone woods, and the ability to successfully use nearly any wood imaginable.

Reasons not to core.......I dunno. Got no reasons anymore.

So the choice was easy for me. I took my abilities & skills as far as I could without coring and in order to further advance, I had to start doing it. It opened an entirely new & exciting realm of possibilities in my cues. I can core with different types of wood to achieve a desired weight & tone. I can use ultra strong & stiff woods to core softer & more flexible woods. I can take it even further by varying the size of the cores. It's a science. I'm still learning but I can say for certain that i'll never go back to not coring. I used to argue against coring and at that time, coring was not a benefit to me. Now i'm at a different level & coring is now a critical step in my cues. My techniques change with my knowledge & ability level. So for me personally at my level, coring is essential. 5 years ago, coring was not of any help to me because there were lots of things I still had to learn & never would have learned it if I had bypassed it with coring. Hopefully this makes sense & helps you figure out your own situation.
 
qbilder said:
The way I look at it is, why wouldn't you core? I used to be a huge opponent to coring. Didn't believe in it because like mentioned I wanted my cues to hit like the woods I used. But something happened that changed my mind. I got good enough that all my cues hit the same, anyway, regardless of woods used. I choose & match wood according to tone in order to achieve a specific tone that I believe is best for playability. Once I got good at finding that tone, everything began hitting the same. So that brought me to question whether to core, or not to core.

Reasons to core include much higher confidence in stability, easier weight & balance control, added strength to weak or highly figured woods, manipulating(enhancing) tonal qualities in otherwise crappy tone woods, and the ability to successfully use nearly any wood imaginable.

Reasons not to core.......I dunno. Got no reasons anymore.

So the choice was easy for me. I took my abilities & skills as far as I could without coring and in order to further advance, I had to start doing it. It opened an entirely new & exciting realm of possibilities in my cues. I can core with different types of wood to achieve a desired weight & tone. I can use ultra strong & stiff woods to core softer & more flexible woods. I can take it even further by varying the size of the cores. It's a science. I'm still learning but I can say for certain that i'll never go back to not coring. I used to argue against coring and at that time, coring was not a benefit to me. Now i'm at a different level & coring is now a critical step in my cues. My techniques change with my knowledge & ability level. So for me personally at my level, coring is essential. 5 years ago, coring was not of any help to me because there were lots of things I still had to learn & never would have learned it if I had bypassed it with coring. Hopefully this makes sense & helps you figure out your own situation.
Click to expand...

This is a VERY helpful, informative, and intuitive post for me at least!!

Thanks!

Gary
 
I core everything now. It wasn't a matter of stability for me. I wanted a certain hit and balance that could not be achieved without coring. I am very happy with my results.
 
qbilder said:
The way I look at it is, why wouldn't you core? I used to be a huge opponent to coring. Didn't believe in it because like mentioned I wanted my cues to hit like the woods I used. But something happened that changed my mind. I got good enough that all my cues hit the same, anyway, regardless of woods used. I choose & match wood according to tone in order to achieve a specific tone that I believe is best for playability. Once I got good at finding that tone, everything began hitting the same. So that brought me to question whether to core, or not to core.

Reasons to core include much higher confidence in stability, easier weight & balance control, added strength to weak or highly figured woods, manipulating(enhancing) tonal qualities in otherwise crappy tone woods, and the ability to successfully use nearly any wood imaginable.

Reasons not to core.......I dunno. Got no reasons anymore.

So the choice was easy for me. I took my abilities & skills as far as I could without coring and in order to further advance, I had to start doing it. It opened an entirely new & exciting realm of possibilities in my cues. I can core with different types of wood to achieve a desired weight & tone. I can use ultra strong & stiff woods to core softer & more flexible woods. I can take it even further by varying the size of the cores. It's a science. I'm still learning but I can say for certain that i'll never go back to not coring. I used to argue against coring and at that time, coring was not a benefit to me. Now i'm at a different level & coring is now a critical step in my cues. My techniques change with my knowledge & ability level. So for me personally at my level, coring is essential. 5 years ago, coring was not of any help to me because there were lots of things I still had to learn & never would have learned it if I had bypassed it with coring. Hopefully this makes sense & helps you figure out your own situation.
Click to expand...

This kind of evolution is why we all need to be cautious about declaring certain things regarding cue making as absolutes and concrete rules. Beyond having a certain level of proffessional courtesy for others, who knows if some aspect of cue building that we have our minds made up on 100% and believe to be correct might change over time. And who is to say it can't change again.

It takes a certain blend of ingredients to be a cuemaker. I think the first one to mention is insanity. After that, the ones who stick with it have a whole lot of stubborness. There is also a bit of arrogance that often comes into play. Possibly above all, for the successful ones, is a quest for knowledge in all things cue related. One never knows if something that we are 100% right about (in our own mind and for our cues) gets changed along that path of knowledge quest.

Just IMO, ofcourse.

Kelly <reserves the right change my mind about this subject in the future :p>
 
ratcues said:
I core everything now. It wasn't a matter of stability for me. I wanted a certain hit and balance that could not be achieved without coring. I am very happy with my results.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I totally agree with Ryan and I full core every cue on a 30" dowel and when I am at finish dimension I can control the exact weight and balance by placing a weight bolt behind my pin and (also in the butt in some rare cases). I sell every cue without a rear weight bolt although the 1/2" 13 tpi threaded pocket is there for the option.

If some one wants a certain weight I can nail it by placing the butt, my pin, bumper, forward weight bolt, & the shaft on the scale. I only have to factor in the weight of the wrap, epoxy and the clear coat.

When I first started making cues I kept a spreadsheet collating the data of specific wood combos. That was hit or miss and just got me close and any weight add was a function of the A-Joint 1/2" or 3/8" bolt using steel or aluminum and in the end to add weight I had to aft load the cue which I don't like to do.

When weight is added to the forward or aft section of the moment arm envelope it balances out like an algebraic equation. The A-Joint bolt complicates the equation as it shifts the fulcrum. Today I rarely put a rear weight bolt in a cue because I build my cues with a forward balance point about 1" to 1.5 forward of what is considered standard. Some people may not like that and they have the option to buy someone else'e cue or it is a simple modification by placing a rear weight bolt to bring the balance back a tad.

Rick G
 
Does South West core their cue?

Hidy Ho <-- novice butting into a thread with a dumb but earnest question

P.S. Fascinating answer Eric. I remember when you were a non-core guy and am fascinated to read your evolution as a cue maker and your reasoning for changing your stance on coring (not that I really understand it all).
 
I only use a core of about 4" on each end, to reduce or increase weight. ie a short Maple core into Ebony to reduce the overall weight. Most of my cues are not cored at all...JER
 
Guerra Cues said:
Hey folks,

I heard many stories about coring curly maple and Birdseye maple.
If the wood is seasoned should it be cored or no on both types of maple?
What are your guys thoughts?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...



You are going to get many answers to this question, and none are completely wrong or right. Different cue makers have different ways of doing things, and when you are the one responsible for your work and reputation I think most people try to do what is best.

I beleive that using cored of laminated parts will give you the best stability when using certain woods, such as, those you have asked about.

However, I also beleive that cored cues in general are more stable over time than none cored because of the stress relief that coring creates.

JIMO
 
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