Older Cue Butts

cueball2010

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Do older cue butts hit harder? I was reading that older cues are more dense and thus hit harder. For example: a used cue that is 10-20 years old?
 
It really depends on the cue..

I've played with some older cues that felt like trash, and I've played with some that felt amazingly solid.

Depends who made and with what.
 
Do older cue butts hit harder? I was reading that older cues are more dense and thus hit harder. For example: a used cue that is 10-20 years old?
It depends on two things, first who built the cue, and second what materials were used in the cues construction. When you wanna talk about old wood, we have to mention the old Brunswick cues from the 1920s and 1930s. When I was building cues whenever I could buy one piece cues like that I would purchase them. And I would convert them in playing cues mainly sneaky Petes or break cues, but I would convert them. Because the wood was like you know 80 to 100 years old, and if it was still straight, it wasn't gonna warp because it had passed the test of time.

So basically, in my opinion when you're talking about old cues, you're talking about cues that are 50+ years old and those cues most of the time will hit very hard and they'll be very strong. However, the production cues of today that are made in China they'll never pass the test of time because of the materials in the craftsmanship in them.

I hope this helps
 
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I find that older cue butts are just flat out heavier than today or even the last couple of decades.
Back in the 20’s-40’s, 50’s, 60’s & 70’s, table cloths varied & were commonly woolen vs. worsted.

Balabushka design cues & cues of that period customarily used a lot wider butt sleeve with a bumper.
It was common to see butts weighing high 15 ozs to high 16 ozs. range & maple shafts in the mid 4 ozs.

The older cue butts were also just thicker, i.e., more wood, so all things considered, cues were heavier.
My ‘85 Runde Schon directly reflects this @ 20.5 ozs., plus piloted steel joints & 13 mm shafts seemed
to be the norm for most players. And it was a custom build Bob undertook after we met at a trade show.

Cues were a lot heavier during the periods earlier referred to & the reasons why no longer applies to cues.
 
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a heavier cue will hit and feel harder. density wont be the factor. but may affect its weight.

as craig said old cues have stood the test of time and wont warp so right there that is the wood to use if you can get it.

but players now want looks in a cue rather than demanding hit.
 
a heavier cue will hit and feel harder. density wont be the factor. but may affect its weight.

as craig said old cues have stood the test of time and wont warp so right there that is the wood to use if you can get it.

but players now want looks in a cue rather than demanding hit.
Thanks very much for your kind words and yeah. I certainly agree with you that for some people the way a cue looks is more important than the hit.
 
If you look at select cue butts from makers like Gus Z and a few others in the 60s and 70s where birds eye maple was used, you can note, upon close inspection, often, not always,much smaller 'eyes' in the BEM. It was a denser wood then what you see later on in cue building. Cue butts of even similar diameters to cue butts made in later years were heavier.
 
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