does anyone know

Chopdoc said:
My own shafts look that way. But there is no "ridge" between the blued area and the finished area, and they have not been turned nor "peeled" at all.

I've played PI players as well, and never saw such a ridge.


.
Click to expand...

yes, I got some post and admitted that the ridge on that Cognoscenti cue is excessive, resulted from intensive "peeling" near joint-end.

and AzBer snowmon34 surely drew a line along that ridge in his pics also.

If the shaft is peeled, mostly the player would like it to be done very close to the joint-end, which makes the light original area to 1-2 inch long, while on unpeeled shafts, that area maybe 4-5 inches.
 
Last edited:
The small hands reason is ridiculous, taking 0.1-0.2mm off the shaft doesn't make your hands seem bigger.

The humid and sweat affect everyone, and every shaft. 'Tuning' the shafts down like that does not get rid of the problem (trust me, I tried more than a handful of shafts like that in Vietnam)

I still don't know why people here in Vietnam 'peel' and devalue their shafts. Its a myth that doing it improves their games :)
 
I actually discussed this in my earlier thread but i defined it differently, here's the link http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=279820&highlight=jive+shaft

Quite a few guys in China do it, and from how i see it it's not because of humidity because many guys up north where it gets freaking cold and dry do this as well. They claim it plays better...this is incredibly subjective anyway this "urban pool myth" has gone on long enough and many newbies just start doing it to their new cues and claim all the pros do it.

I've tried disputing this fact but to no avail. Anyway to each his own, i for one will not do it to my own cue. I sold one of my cues to a guy for 2 weeks cos i thought i didn't want it...it wasn't an expensive cue, a JD cue that cost me 400bucks but when i bought it back from him he "opened" the shaft and took away 0.1-0.2mm(by my estimation of the floating finishing where the finish and unfinish line is)...it still played the same so i was fine taking it back. But aesthetically it did bother me and i could feel the separation line. Subsequently when i sold the cue i described the shaft as "opened" and i had to eat some loss because of that.

Peeling or Opening the shaft is 90% Psychological...if you think it plays better then you'll play better that's all and if it benefits you then do it. The remaining 10% would be that some people prefer to feel the wood raw as opposed to feeling the friction of certain sealants or wax, for some it does help their stroke better cos it's smoother like how some guys are addicted to using powder. I've owned a few cues and some cues stroke very smoothly while some has more friction, i checked with these cue makers they they all claim it was just simple sealant or wax.

However i do not believe taking off 0.1 or 0.2mm benefits a smaller hand because it cannot be felt. UNLESS the taper has been changed entirely to make the entire shaft slimmer across the shaft which totally changes the way a cue maker designed the taper to be.

This is my 2 cent and i speak for nobody. Bottom line, whatever makes you play better is fine. I know of people who wear lucky undies or socks on important days. Enough said.
 
IMG_0597.jpg


The Second Cue from Bottom is the JD Cue that i'm referring to. Wish i took a close up pic of the separation line when i had the cue. It is really obvious and like i mentioned before there's like a 0.1-0.2mm bump line.
Having experienced the cue before and after peeling i can say for sure there was not difference in how it played at all. The shaft probably wasn't sealed with any wax to begin with so it played like a raw shaft should and i was already happy with it until "screaming murder" took place.

Notice the 2nd shaft from the top has a clear bluing and non blue line as well? That shaft wasn't peeled or opened at all, i assume the maker (Jon Spitz) added tape there during his shaft finishing process (Spitz cue plays good btw). So in a nutshell it's tough to determine from pictures whether the shafts have been peeled or not, i guess with this incident there's going to be a new norm on AZ in the WTS/WTB section...Peeled or Unpeeled Shafts :grin:
 
Jive,

thanks for your input.

Yes, to peel or not is a very personal choice, and depends on personal feeling. And you are spot on saying that the peelers want to feel the wood raw, without wax or sealer on it, that what I meant when talked about "finish layer", just could not find a name for it :D

believe me, when you have your shaft peeled down 0.1-0.2mm but remove the "finish layer" to the point 1-2inch from ringwork, it works wonder, especially for tight closed bridge players with a good follow through.

again, "whatever makes you play better is fine".
 
ctran said:
Jive,

thanks for your input.

Yes, to peel or not is a very personal choice, and depends on personal feeling. And you are spot on saying that the peelers want to feel the wood raw, without wax or sealer on it, that what I meant when talked about "finish layer", just could not find a name for it :D

believe me, when you have your shaft peeled down 0.1-0.2mm but remove the "finish layer" to the point 1-2inch from ringwork, it works wonder, especially for tight closed bridge players with a good follow through.

again, "whatever makes you play better is fine".
Click to expand...

Back when I was playing a lot I used to sand the finish back to where I felt comfortable. Some cue makers put way too high a finish on the shaft IMO. But I would make sure that the finish tapered to the wood. I could not stand to have a visible ridge like I have seen on some of these pictures.

Jerry Franklin reportedly said that light oil is all you need to seal the shaft and don't ever sand it. Once I get a shaft where I want it then that's all I do. I don't clean them.
 
I play pool and guitar. In both cases I prefer the wood (cue shaft and guitar neck) to be as unfinished as possible. I use 800-grit sandpaper to remove any gloss on the wood. The gloss always grabs my skin at the wrong moment. "Satin" finish allows a smooth glide.

Does this make me un-American?
 
ctran said:
Jive,

thanks for your input.

Yes, to peel or not is a very personal choice, and depends on personal feeling. And you are spot on saying that the peelers want to feel the wood raw, without wax or sealer on it, that what I meant when talked about "finish layer", just could not find a name for it :D

believe me, when you have your shaft peeled down 0.1-0.2mm but remove the "finish layer" to the point 1-2inch from ringwork, it works wonder, especially for tight closed bridge players with a good follow through.

again, "whatever makes you play better is fine".
Click to expand...

I would be a bit cautious of using this technique very often. If you are sanding the entire shaft repeatedly, you could end up warping it. Especially in a humid environment. When you expose a new layer of wood to the elements you never know how it might effect it.

Also if you are actually removing wood I would suggest using a lathe to turn it on. Sanding by hand will result in unevenness. (and turn it in a clock wise manner.)
 
Cdryden said:
I would be a bit cautious of using this technique very often. If you are sanding the entire shaft repeatedly, you could end up warping it. Especially in a humid environment. When you expose a new layer of wood to the elements you never know how it might effect it.

Also if you are actually removing wood I would suggest using a lathe to turn it on. Sanding by hand will result in unevenness. (and turn it in a clock wise manner.)
Click to expand...

Yes it must be done on a lathe. and mostly we only do it once for each shaft just to remove the oil/wax cover.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top