Are You Capable Of Building A Heavy Version KW Shaft?

[Bavafongoul]

If this fellow got three 29" KW shafts, at 12.6 mm tip diameter, over/at 4.1 oz, he must be starting with some monster blanks. At any rate, it appears that your diligence paid off. Congrats on the new shafts.
Best regards
j2

Thanks……after I get the shafts, I’ll post more details but you hit the nail squarely on its head. 3.7-3.8 ozs isn’t uncommon but to get shafts this heavy, it does come down to the blanks. He purchased over four hundred last time and proceeded to remeasure and weigh each one categorizing the blanks by cue weight classification. It is a tedious process admittedly but really facilitates selecting the best wood for any precise cue specs. This isn’t his 1st attempt at doing this and already sold many hundred of KW shafts. It all starts by having and selecting the right blank to work with as you so aptly pointed out. He enclosed written specs with shipping but he texted me this today so I’m optimistic. The wavy KW is for a close friend.

 

[Bavafongoul]

My KW shafts arrived this week & I got to play with them. The bottomline for any readers possibly interested in Kielwood shafts is simply this. I wish I had done this years ago and all my cues had a Kielwood shafts. But since that’s not the case and I still prefer ivory ferrules despite not being able to order any living in CA, at least I now have 3 Kielwood shafts allowing me to attach a KW shaft to all 6 of the cues in my case. That works just fine and the ironic part is I’ve always only played with one of the original maple shafts built for my customs. The other orig. maple shafts are new and still unplayed. So I just replaced orig. unplayed maple shafts in my case with KW shafts so now I’m set. All my cues can now use a superbly made Kielwood shaft.

The cue makers that built the shafts did a wonderful job. My other KW shaft (radial pin) is 3.81 oz and 3.8 is my minimum shaft weight and 4.25 is the maximum. My target weight is 4.0 to 4.2 ozs. BTW, the shafts are 29”, 12.6 & 12.75mm, flat faced wood, not cored & sans any type weight inserts (just wood) and play as good as I hoped and imagined when I started this search six months ago. And to those cue makers that told me it couldn’t be done, i.e., 4 oz. KW shafts, a few of your peers disagree. I chose one that’s proven you are wrong.

I might be selling my 3.81 oz. KW shaft so I can order a 4.2 oz. version KW shaft built now that I found someone that can do what so many other cue makers told me they couldn’t do without adding weight to the collar or coring the shaft for a carbon insert. The heck with the front end mass difference of solid wood vs. cored. The shaft feels so much better than any cored Kielwood shaft I tried and I’ve tried a lot of different brands. This may not be your cup of tea but it sure happens to be the best flavor for my pool cue needs. The weight proportionality of a cue is of great importance.

 

[DJEnD]

Glad your mission was accomplished, it was an exciting read. All this reading is making consider a KW shaft as my maple is also 4.0oz and was initially worried about KW all coming in under 3.8oz.....You have given me something new to explore. Would you mind letting me know which maker is this?

 

[Bavafongoul]

I know that SCDiver2112 just made one and he told me awhile back he’s done this. I recall him making, or at least I think it was, building a curly wood version that was so friggin’ handsome I wanted it immediately but it was the wrong thread. Besides, I’ve seen his cue workmanship and it is spot on. He is a excellent cue maker but he didn’t make my last shafts. The cue maker that also was confident, to the point it almost seemed like he was boasting he could do it, impressed me. I picked him and he’s actually a terrific guy and builds maybe 75 cues annually but his workmanship is outstanding.

Jim Pierce has built and sold over 300 Kielwood shafts and strives to have a broad selection of blanks. He knows exactly what is needed for the finished shaft to reach 4 ozs and won’t undertake a build unless he has the right blank available in his inventory. I have a Barnhart radial joint KW shaft. 29.5”, 12.85mm and 3.81 ozs. It plays magnificent which is why I wanted 2 more shafts built so all the cues in my case can play with one. I’m even thinking of selling it so I can have Jim or SCDiver2112 build a radial Kielwood shaft just like the ones I just got. I like & trust Jim Pierce who made my two 4 oz flat faced KW shafts.