Shaft out of something other than maple

[WestElder]

I have made solid wood furniture for many years but am just learning woodturning. I want to make a shaft for my favorite cue using something other than maple. I'm looking for wood that has some color and variable grain. Are there other woods that can make a low deflection shaft with low potential to warp?

David

 

[R2PQZ]

I have made solid wood furniture for many years but am just learning woodturning. I want to make a shaft for my favorite cue using something other than maple. I'm looking for wood that has some color and variable grain. Are there other woods that can make a low deflection shaft with low potential to warp?

David

Purpleheart or roasted maple. Just now turning roasted curly maple. Beautiful with sanding sealer applied. Considered low deflection.

 

[SSDiver2112]

I have made solid wood furniture for many years but am just learning woodturning. I want to make a shaft for my favorite cue using something other than maple. I'm looking for wood that has some color and variable grain. Are there other woods that can make a low deflection shaft with low potential to warp?

David

Roasted Curly Maple (Kielwood) looks and plays great. Purpleheart is better for a break shaft.

 

[Chopdoc]

Purple heart- especially for break shafts.

Laminates, dymondwood and others...

Joss once experimented with Lignum Vitae. I think it was good but there was a supply problem. White, dense, straight grain. I never played one but they have been discussed here. (EDIT: I think that is wrong. More likely it was Areno Blanco.)

Ash- snooker cues.

Raminwood. Cheap "garbage cues" endangered wood.

Varieties of spliced shafts. Usually something into maple.

Color? Tiger maple can look impressive in a shaft.

Think about this though, there is a reason cue makers look for the straightes grain for their shaft wood.

You might consider color pressure infused woods. Several makers have done those.

 

[JasonATX]

Here's an old thread that might give you some ideas: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/different-shaft-wood-besides-ash-maple.482816/

I've never seen a finished product, but Dominiak has a roasted purpleheart blank.

I know you said other than maple, but at least OB and Gold Rush have done a roasted birdseye shaft as well. Still trying to get my hands one of those.

 

[aphelps1]

Ash has been used before. You may be able to find that locally.

 

[epoxypop]

Here's an old thread that might give you some ideas: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/different-shaft-wood-besides-ash-maple.482816/

I've never seen a finished product, but Dominiak has a roasted purpleheart blank.

I know you said other than maple, but at least OB and Gold Rush have done a roasted birdseye shaft as well. Still trying to get my hands one of those.

Dominiak also has roasted radial laminated maple blanks

 

[Frosty]

Joss once experimented with Lignum Vitae. I think it was good but there was a supply problem. White, dense, straight grain. I never played one but they have been discussed here.

I never knew this. I know in some of their early cues they experimented with Areno Blanco. I had one of their first big pin flat face ivory jointed cues that both shafts were made of Areno Blanco.

It was an unusual wood, almost grainless. It played fabulously though. I was robbed of that cue at gunpoint in the mid 90’s in NYC, I was heartbroken over it then and now, never found another cue that hit like that.

I talked to Dan Janes about making another to replace it. He told that he and Bill had loved Areno Blanco as a shaft wood but supply problems such as you describe led to them abandoning using it.

 

[Chopdoc]

I never knew this. I know in some of their early cues they experimented with Areno Blanco. I had one of their first big pin flat face ivory jointed cues that both shafts were made of Areno Blanco.

It was an unusual wood, almost grainless. It played fabulously though. I was robbed of that cue at gunpoint in the mid 90’s in NYC, I was heartbroken over it then and now, never found another cue that hit like that.

I talked to Dan Janes about making another to replace it. He told that he and Bill had loved Areno Blanco as a shaft wood but supply problems such as you describe led to them abandoning using it.

Maybe that's what I was thinking of? Areno blanko.

I may have got the wood name wrong.