Hello Bryan,
may be you contact DBK for the information on black dyed hornbeam: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1123557&highlight=dyed+black#post1123557
So, after i'm playing my new cue a little bit longer, my impressions.
Our local cuemaker have made the shaft thinner, since it had too conical taper for me. Now its near my ideal :) I have had problems with longer cue, but now I'm feeling more confident. The deflection is really small, I can't...
The second is mine :) Unfortunately my english doesn't allow me to write all my expressions with it, but it try.
Very stiff hit with clear nice sound (predator player wouldn't like it ;) ) Very directly and precisely. Good english transfer with low deflection, very gut behavior on strong shots...
Don't forget Dmitri "DBK" Komarov's work:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1202464#post1202464
And this too: http://www.variant-billiard.ru/img/proshop/display-1.jpg
First of all, my opinion has nothing to do with my and cuemakers nationality. This is a question of taste. And I don't knock anybody, don't get me wrong. They do very good job, but I don't like their butterfly splice cues, that's all.