Do cue makers who make wood shafts still use a wood sealer dip?

straightline said:
I recall Nelsonite is or contains carcinogens. IOW, circa 50s chemicals. These stabilizers I believe, allowed manufacturers to crank stuff out and guarantee straightness. Probably not the whole story but straight shafts are high on my list of stick qualities.
Click to expand...
I don't want to hear anything about taper wobble or whatever fun phrase they've come up with to describe a crooked shaft nowadays. If it doesn't roll flat or spin smooth on rollers, I don't want it.
Played too many years with junk cues in bars. No Mo.
Picky like that. 😉
 
ShootingArts said:
We coulda been partners in crime! I needed some very heavy wall high grade steel tubing to make the front a-plates for my race car out of. I got confused with the measurements I needed for OD and ID and ordered twice the wall thickness I needed! They started questioning me hot and heavy because I seemed to be very close to rifle barrel dimensions!

I needed some stout stuff but it had to let me thread the interior and then screw 3/4" spherical rod ends in. Double the wall thickness and I was closer to a 3/8" hole and they do make a handful of rifles in .375 caliber!

They got over it when I realized what I was ordering wasn't what I wanted anyway but with long hair and a beard I was getting a lot of side eye for awhile.(grin)





Sealers I have dealt with don't penetrate very deep. I consider them a primer for whatever finish you are putting on the shaft. Stabilizers completely saturate the wood.

This is what I have found with products I have used, not the be all end all. Sealers go in from the sides of the shaft, stabilizers go in mostly from the ends traveling through end grain.

I like the esthetics of wood but I have long thought we needed something better for shafts. Gonna have to design cue butts to look better with black shafts but that shouldn't be hard.

Hu
Click to expand...
Never ceases to amaze me the amount of shit I've encountered over the years due to having long hair, mustache and beard.
I can empathize Hu.
 
Mensabum said:
Never ceases to amaze me the amount of shit I've encountered over the years due to having long hair, mustache and beard.
I can empathize Hu.
Click to expand...
That's been my problem on a number of occasions. Have long hair and a beard and I've looked like a biker since my mid twenties. In fact I'm almost 80 and I still do. My hair reaches the middle of my back my beard mid chest. It's not on purpose, but I also don't look friendly.

I once was pulled over suspected of stealing my own car. A cop saw me get in my car a Firebird Formula 400. that was usually parked in front of my building all day. I guess I didn't look like the owner. I also dressed pretty bad in those days.

Another time I was kept for like half hour on the side of the road after being stopped on suspicion. I was driving around my girlfriend's neighborhood at 2 am waiting for her to come home. I had about $3000. In my pocket.

I have to admit I was not very cooperative as they were rude to me. The One cop asked me about the money and I gave him no explanation other than it was mine. And he says "You better not be lying to me boy". That was it I didn't even care if they arrested me. In those days my lawyer was Joe Varon. Google him Florida.
I recently had contact with some cops I called after a break in. It took like 2 minutes to be sorry I even called them.
 
Last edited:
middleofnowhere said:
That's been my problem on a number of occasions. Have long hair and a beard and I've looked like a biker since my mid twenties. In fact I'm almost 80 and I still do. My hair reaches the middle of my back my beard mid chest. It's not on purpose, but I also don't look friendly.

I once was pulled over suspected of stealing my own car. A cop saw me get in my car a Firebird Formula 400. that was usually parked in front of my building all day. I guess I didn't look like the owner. I also dressed pretty bad in those days.

Another time I was kept for like half hour on the side of the road after being stopped on suspicion. I was driving around my girlfriend's neighborhood at 2 am waiting for her to come home. I had about $3000. In my pocket.

I have to admit I was not very cooperative as they were rude to me. The One cop asked me about the money and I gave him no explanation other than it was mine. And he says "You better not be lying to me boy". That was it I didn't even care if they arrested me. In those days my lawyer was Joe Varon. Google him Florida.
I recently had contact with some cops I called after a break in. It took like 2 minutes to be sorry I even called them.
Click to expand...

Man can I sing those songs! Got in a little trouble in the early seventies. A fight, some property damage. Just used the free bed overnight then called my brudda in law. "Look in the top of my closet and bring the cash." Three months pay or more for the cops. Some from my business, most from pool. The cops wanted to know where it came from. "I earned it." They were pissed, the only answer they got though. I figured it was my business if I earned it at my shop turning wrenches or on a pool table nudging balls around. As you can see by my avatar I was a clean cut American citizen.

Been storming everyday around here and I have a gimp in my giddy-up. My hair is longer than it has ever been! Tempted to let it grow until I hit eighty, might reach my belt!

Hu
 
middleofnowhere said:
Years ago it was becoming a common thing for cue makers to dip shaft wood in a product called Nelsonite. There may have been other products but that's the one that I believe Billy Stroud and Tim Scruggs for both using.
Click to expand...
Tried it....sent it to the round circular can.
IMO it does nothing but fill the pores with a substance that adds a little weight and deadens the tone of the shaft.
It'll give you a serious headache from the smell and continually permeates the shop with the stink every time you make a cut.
The negatives far out weigh the positives.
A piece of shaft wood is not going to stop moving just because it got soaked.
If the shaft is properly sealed when completed on both ends and along the length, with proper care you should have a winner if the builder was able to pick out a good piece of shaft wood and make the proper cuts and wait time to make sure it'll stay straight.
 
middleofnowhere said:
That's been my problem on a number of occasions. Have long hair and a beard and I've looked like a biker since my mid twenties. In fact I'm almost 80 and I still do. My hair reaches the middle of my back my beard mid chest. It's not on purpose, but I also don't look friendly.

I once was pulled over suspected of stealing my own car. A cop saw me get in my car a Firebird Formula 400. that was usually parked in front of my building all day. I guess I didn't look like the owner. I also dressed pretty bad in those days.

Another time I was kept for like half hour on the side of the road after being stopped on suspicion. I was driving around my girlfriend's neighborhood at 2 am waiting for her to come home. I had about $3000. In my pocket.

I have to admit I was not very cooperative as they were rude to me. The One cop asked me about the money and I gave him no explanation other than it was mine. And he says "You better not be lying to me boy". That was it I didn't even care if they arrested me. In those days my lawyer was Joe Varon. Google him Florida.
I recently had contact with some cops I called after a break in. It took like 2 minutes to be sorry I even called them.
Click to expand...
There's an assault on law enforcement officer on my record from my drunken wild days and whenever I get pulled over, it ain't nothin nice.
Always multiple vehicles - locked and loaded. You'd think they'd mellow after 25 years.
I sure have.😉
 
Frosty said:
Likewise I’m sure
Click to expand...
yap
Certain things will die out in the next 10-20 years.
New comers today want SVB cuetec, they don't care about 5K custom cues....
Custom cue making will die as collectors will die, there are no young collectors, it's not something they care about. This things are true to other areas like audiophiles for example, these are just things young people don't care about.
An emerging young player sees all the pros using CF and that what he wants.
From a cue maker point of view, seeing all the waste of shaft wood that fails, it is more economic to get CF blanks and use it for default shaft, and if the players wants it anyway, well the demise of wood is coming sooner than you think, at least for shafts.
I have a small collection of cues, a little over 20 cues, some of them are warped by now, just a waist of money... Full composite cues will be the next evolution. You already have cheap full CF cues and you have becue and Cuetec that offer them as well, other companies like JFlowers do hybrid butts, my guess is that the big breakthrough will be when Predator will introduce such line of cues, trust me, it'll happen.
Old players that prefer wood, will either die or just quit the game, the demand will get lower and lower to a point that makers won't carry wood as an option, it won't be economic.

This might sound apocalyptic right now, but don't forget that the first CF shaft (that matters) was released only 10 years ago and now 90% of the players used it. 10 years from now, it's all CF, including the cue butt.
 
skor said:
yap
Certain things will die out in the next 10-20 years.
New comers today want SVB cuetec, they don't care about 5K custom cues....
Custom cue making will die as collectors will die, there are no young collectors, it's not something they care about. This things are true to other areas like audiophiles for example, these are just things young people don't care about.
An emerging young player sees all the pros using CF and that what he wants.
From a cue maker point of view, seeing all the waste of shaft wood that fails, it is more economic to get CF blanks and use it for default shaft, and if the players wants it anyway, well the demise of wood is coming sooner than you think, at least for shafts.
I have a small collection of cues, a little over 20 cues, some of them are warped by now, just a waist of money... Full composite cues will be the next evolution. You already have cheap full CF cues and you have becue and Cuetec that offer them as well, other companies like JFlowers do hybrid butts, my guess is that the big breakthrough will be when Predator will introduce such line of cues, trust me, it'll happen.
Old players that prefer wood, will either die or just quit the game, the demand will get lower and lower to a point that makers won't carry wood as an option, it won't be economic.

This might sound apocalyptic right now, but don't forget that the first CF shaft (that matters) was released only 10 years ago and now 90% of the players used it. 10 years from now, it's all CF, including the cue butt.
Click to expand...
The lower cost and availability is a real plus for CF. I used to look at tennis, golf, fishing equipment and so on and be jealous. In one day in most other sports I could buy the same equipment the pros use no problem.

Pool, forget about it. Wait 2 years for a cue and it costs a small fortune. All the new players from here going forward can just buy a cue and play. I think CF is a real advancement. New players today don't know how lucky they are.
 
Last edited:
Chili Palmer said:
I believe it, I have built quite a few cutting boards, it's amazing how much mineral oil an 18" x 24" cutting board will soak up, sometimes it would take 24 hours. That HAS to have an affect on shaft weight at some point?
Click to expand...
You would think it would add at least a few tenths but I really don't remember. Neither one impressed me stabilizing wood and I didn't like using them. I gave most of the stabilizer away, with appropriate warnings!

Hu
 
Frosty said:
No it doesn’t. Some such as myself would rather quit than use anything other than wood.
Click to expand...
Perhaps it has something to do with my learning how to play with wood, but there's a tactile sensation, an awareness I get from wood that resonates from the tip on contact, all the way down the cue to my other hand - that I need, that I've gotten used to. Without it, my game suffers.
Reading braille is the closest thing I can parallel it with.
Call me crazy. 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top