Cory Barnhart Roasted Maple Shafts (RMS), aka Kielwood.

[Bavafongoul]

I purchased a Kielwood shaft from Martin (Superiorcues.com) made by Cory Barnhart who refers to his shafts as roasted maple rather than Kielwood because of trademark reasons. Another thing that is very different is he only makes radial joint shafts so if you want a different thread you are out of luck. Aside from that, he makes a terrific Kielwood shaft and I can refer to it as such since the trademark doesn’t apply to me. CF shafts are not my cup of tea. Tried several and never fell in love with any but I sure do have a great romance taking place with my Barnhart shaft. Specs are: radial flat faced, 3.8 ozs, 12.85mm, extended pro taper……..I made sure to match the specs to the orig. Scruggs shaft I was leaving in my case since it’s my only radial joint cue. All my other playing cues have 3/8x10 and 3/8x11 threads and ivory joints.

The first thing I did was change the tip to match my other cues. It made a big difference and after doing that, my romantic connection with this shaft became a “torrid” love affair with my torrified Barnhart maple shaft. It feels wonderful and long distance shots on a 9’ table just aren’t as difficult anymore. The cue ball rolls straighter to my aim point and I can strike the cue ball with less velocity, even softly, and the cue ball rolls more straight than with my original Scruggs cue shafts. It is just a great shaft and I asked Cory if he’d make me a couple of more shafts for my other cues. Unfortunately, radial shafts is the only version he’s chosen to make so I need to find another cue maker who can duplicate the specs of my other cue shafts in a Kielwood version. I found out matching the shaft specifications of the cue shaft you are currently using is very important, at least for me. When I tried lighter Kielwood shafts, I didn’t care for them at all just like with CF shafts.

I am a firm advocate on the importance of maintaining proportional weight between the cue shaft & cue butt, whenever I played with a cue that didn’t meet a specific ratio, I’ve generally been disappointed with the way the cue plays, aside from maybe it having too hard of a tip. I also frown on the use of weight bolts unless it can be positioned in the butt and always less than 14 grams. (no more than 2 headless 7 gram weight bolts). If the cue maker can’t build a cue butt within a 1/2 oz. of my specified butt weight without exceeding it, I just don’t even order the cue. My last cue Bob Owen made was ordered to have a 14.5 ozs butt weight (sans weight bolt). My cue butt weighs 14.564 ozs.

Great cue makers can produce cues and shafts that are marvelous and far superior to what others make. For some reason, and I don’t know why, Cory Barnhart’s roasted maple shafts play better than any other CF or Kielwood shafts I’ve tried. If you have a radial shaft you were ever thinking or replacing with a low defection shaft but wanted the feel and look of wood, Martin still had a few Barnhart RMS available. When I am at the pool hall later today, I’ll take some photos but pretty much everyone knows what a Kielwood shaft looks like. The fit of the shaft (.840) on my Scruggs cue is seamless too. I’m telling you kiln roasting a maple shaft changes it’s properties enormously….if you are ready to make a change, just contact Martin.

 

[j2pac]

I purchased a Kielwood shaft from Martin (Superiorcues.com) made by Cory Barnhart who refers to his shafts as roasted maple rather than Kielwood because of trademark reasons. Another thing that is very different is he only makes radial joint shafts so if you want a different thread you are out of luck. Aside from that, he makes a terrific Kielwood shaft and I can refer to it as such since the trademark doesn’t apply to me. CF shafts are not my cup of tea. Tried several and never fell in love with any but I sure do have a great romance taking place with my Barnhart shaft. Specs are: radial flat faced, 3.8 ozs, 12.85mm, extended pro taper……..I made sure to match the specs to the orig. Scruggs shaft I was leaving in my case since it’s my only radial joint cue. All my other playing cues have 3/8x10 and 3/8x11 threads and ivory joints.

The first thing I did was change the tip to match my other cues. It made a big difference and after doing that, my romantic connection with this shaft became a “torrid” love affair with my torrified Barnhart maple shaft. It feels wonderful and long distance shots on a 9’ table just aren’t as difficult anymore. The cue ball rolls straighter to my aim point and I can strike the cue ball with less velocity, even softly, and the cue ball rolls more straight than with my original Scruggs cue shafts. It is just a great shaft and I asked Cory if he’d make me a couple of more shafts for my other cues. Unfortunately, radial shafts is the only version he’s chosen to make so I need to find another cue maker who can duplicate the specs of my other cue shafts in a Kielwood version. I found out matching the shaft specifications of the cue shaft you are currently using is very important, at least for me. When I tried lighter Kielwood shafts, I didn’t care for them at all just like with CF shafts.

I am a firm advocate on the importance of maintaining proportional weight between the cue shaft & cue butt, whenever I played with a cue that didn’t meet a specific ratio, I’ve generally been disappointed with the way the cue plays, aside from maybe it having too hard of a tip. I also frown on the use of weight bolts unless it can be positioned in the butt and always less than 14 grams. (no more than 2 headless 7 gram weight bolts). If the cue maker can’t build a cue butt within a 1/2 oz. of my specified butt weight without exceeding it, I just don’t even order the cue. My last cue Bob Owen made was ordered to have a 14.5 ozs butt weight (sans weight bolt). My cue butt weighs 14.564 ozs.

Great cue makers can produce cues and shafts that are marvelous and far superior to what others make. For some reason, and I don’t know why, Cory Barnhart’s roasted maple shafts play better than any other CF or Kielwood shafts I’ve tried. If you have a radial shaft you were ever thinking or replacing with a low defection shaft but wanted the feel and look of wood, Martin still had a few Barnhart RMS available. When I am at the pool hall later today, I’ll take some photos but pretty much everyone knows what a Kielwood shaft looks like. The fit of the shaft (.840) on my Scruggs cue is seamless too. I’m telling you kiln roasting a maple shaft changes it’s properties enormously….if you are ready to make a change, just contact Martin.

You can't go wrong with Martin.

 

[Bavafongoul]

You can't go wrong with Martin.

I played today with this cue and Barnhart shaft. It really does play better than the original TS shafts that I’ve played with a very long time. I wish I could convince Cory to build me a couple of more roasted maple shafts using a different pin but he remains steadfast in his cue making approach building only radial thread joints. I might get another just as a backup it plays that great. My close friend is likely getting two Kielwood shafts from Schmelke this week: 5/16x14 and 3/8x10. I have two cues with 3/8x10 pins so I’ll try the Schmelke shaft to compare with my Barnhart roasted maple shaft I’m delighted with.

 

[j2pac]

I played today with this cue and Barnhart shaft. It really does play better than the original TS shafts that I’ve played with a very long time. I wish I could convince Cory to build me a couple of more roasted maple shafts using a different pin but he remains steadfast in his cue making approach building only radial thread joints. I might get another just as a backup it plays that great. My close friend is likely getting two Kielwood shafts from Schmelke this week: 5/16x14 and 3/8x10. I have two cues with 3/8x10 pins so I’ll try the Schmelke shaft to compare with my Barnhart roasted maple shaft I’m delighted with.

You could have Corey build a couple of roasted shafts in radial, and then have someone competent plug/tap them for a different pin thread.

 

[Bavafongoul]

You could have Corey build a couple of roasted shafts in radial, and then have someone competent plug/tap them for a different pin thread.

Great suggestion and another person recommended doing that. Spoke to my cue maker and he couldn’t endorse the idea versus doing it the correctly. Now if you wanted to salvage a shaft so you could use it, that’s an option to consider.
Knowing how I am, he felt that when you start altering the original fitting, I’m better off having a shaft made to fit my cue.

 

[j2pac]

Great suggestion and another person recommended doing that. Spoke to my cue maker and he couldn’t endorse the idea versus doing it the correctly. Now if you wanted to salvage a shaft so you could use it, that’s an option to consider.
Knowing how I am, he felt that when you start altering the original fitting, I’m better off having a shaft made to fit my cue.

If you wanted to take a shot at it, you could always just try it on a single shaft, and see how it goes. In the end, you might be right...I was just thinking out loud.

 

[Bavafongoul]

Well, about a 1/2 dozen players have switched to playing Kielwood shafts since I got my shaft from Superior Cues.
It would be presumptuous to think they may not have switched to KW were it not for seeing and trying my setup.

However, they hadn’t previously expressed any interest in trying a different shaft & 2 of them were playing CF shafts.
Cory builds a great RM shaft but he is pretty set in his ways as much as I am so I appreciate his unwavering approach.

I have 2 more KW shafts underway from a different cue builder; if you haven’t tried a KW shaft yet, make sure you do.
If you have a pool cue under construction, ask your cue maker about switching to KW shafts instead of original maple.

 

[Bavafongoul]

This past Monday I checked on the status of my KW shafts underway since they were supposed to be completed in July.

The following day I was told the first shaft is just about ready to ship and the other shaft will follow quickly. But
……..there is always a butt with pool cues and also when things don’t go as planned….but……the shaft turned out much lighter than anticipated and than what I requested. And it really wasn’t close so understandably my order was cancelled.

Very deflating experience since there was so much confidence initially expressed from the cue builder this could be done. So I started to contact other builders that had been previously, or currently, suggested as cue makers that likely can build what I want. Surprisingly, the initial response was you must core the shaft and might still to add weight at the collar. Well, I’m opposed to doing either and want a Kielwood shaft with just a short ferrule, tip and flat faced wood joint.

A couple of builders told me it wouldn’t work and the shaft will turn out much lighter than I want which happens to be 4 oz. min., 29” and 12.75mm. Since I am not a cue builder, I didn’t debate that or challenge why since I’m just looking to have a couple of shafts built. However, it made little sense to me why that was so and so I kept searching for someone.

Well, it only took 24 hrs. and I’ve ordered 2 KW shafts sans any weight being added. The cue maker has already made KW shafts heavier than what I want built and the shafts are all wood without any coring or weight being added. So even though it’s initially back to square one, this time the pieces on the board are moving fast. Despite being check mated on my prior KW shafts order, this time it looks so much more promising. This turned out to more difficult to get done than I expected.