Hi Guys..... Happy Monday evening. So, to give you some reasoning for that shaft. First understand that the great majority of snooker cues are made from white ash followed by hard maple (no clue of the percentages though), as are baseball bats from what I understand. I thought, several bijillion snooker players can't ALL be wrong. Plus it's incredibly pretty. A tad tougher to work with in the finishing stages but no real struggle.
For context and comparisons: Janka hardness scale which I'm sure most of you are familiar with. Soft maple - avg call it about 800......Teak - 1080. Pretty hard stuff, right? Red oak - 1220; harder still. White ash - 1320, white oak - 1335...damn close to the ash. Hard maple - 1445. Look at the disparity between the hard and soft maple. The hard maple is only moderately "harder" than the white ash. And, we've all seen purple heart shafts - those clock in at 2520. So, I'd been having a hankering to build one of my hybrid shafts using a portion of white ash thinking in spite of the prettiness it might really play very close to our beloved hard maple/birdseye maple. So I did. I built one from maple another from white ash. Same specs other than the wood species. Length, shaft weight, diameter, CF length vs. wood length, same tip exact same construction, same ferrule assembly, same damper etc. Went and hit with them. What I found, and this is 100% MY opinion is that both played beautifully. The only difference, and this is highly subjective, but I think the ash played a bit "softer" for lack of a better word. It didn't seem to have that slightly harder, higher pitched sound that I was familiar with the myriad of other maple shafts I'd ever played with. So, I offered it to a good customer who wanted a second shaft who was looking for a slightly softer hit and feel. The cue he plays with is a black and white ebony butt which is really REALLY hard material. When we first chatted I was going to build the shaft with the exact same dimensions as his first one but he asked for a slightly longer piece of wood so long as the CF was 18." The first one I built had a shorter piece of white ash so I asked if I could start it again......he agreed to the minor delay. FYI....I'm now playing with that first one and I absolutely love it. He wanted the blackness of the grain in the ash to be highlighted as well. I thought, if that grain looks one way it's going to clash with the black and white ebony, kind of like wearing a striped shirt with checkered pants. So I suggested he let me tinker with some ideas and he was on board. I got a piece of the black and white ebony, machined a piece 90 degrees from the center line of turning square which was then 90 degrees from the center line of the black and white ebony in the butt to counter the visual of the ash. Then for the hell of it to frame that color and texture I picked up some African blackwood which is perhaps my favorite (along with cocobolo and macassar ebony) What ended up happening is since the lines and texture of the black and white ebony rings ran contrary to the rest of the cue it gave the entire thing a very cool multi-dimensional look. That is not an extension you're seeing. If your eyes focus on the rings the white ash seems to be pushed to the background and vice versa. You'd have to see it in person. Anyhow, the customer really enjoys it, it plays beautifully and I fully intend to keep on using this white ash. It's such a warm addition to shafts in general I think. FYI......the photo attached here is the first shaft I built using white ash with some rings sheerly for the hell of it. So.........that's the story. Have a lovely evening all. GO VOTE!
