So, how much really is "straight grain" important?...

Petros Andrikop · Nov 18, 2016

Hello all,
Sorry if this topic has been discussed before or it's just silly to talk about. I was wondering how much really is "straight grain" important in wood selection?..
Many times we hear that for e.g. shaft wood is selected by this criterion among others.
But really why a "straight grain" shaft is supposed to play better, or last longer in terms of "expected" performance if that is the case?...
Any data offered as proof or is it just "common knowledge" out of general experience?..
Thanks in advance for your time.
Petros

West Point 1987 · Nov 18, 2016

I've heard it said that Balabushka only wanted straight grain forearms because he felt that knots, sugar stains, run outs and any saple type grain patterns were at the end of the day imperfections that deadened feel, affected straightness or otherwise negatively effected hit. I would assume some feel that way about shaft wood, too...that said, I played with a highly figured curly maple shaft years ago that hit like a freight train and was very straight and stable, so....

CuesDirectly · Nov 18, 2016

Lumber Grades

Petros Andrikop said:
Hello all,
Sorry if this topic has been discussed before or it's just silly to talk about. I was wondering how much really is "straight grain" important in wood selection?..
Many times we hear that for e.g. shaft wood is selected by this criterion among others.
But really why a "straight grain" shaft is supposed to play better, or last longer in terms of "expected" performance if that is the case?...
Any data offered as proof or is it just "common knowledge" out of general experience?..
Thanks in advance for your time.
Petros

Grades on lumber are very important, whether it's building a cue or building a house.

If you're building a house, you will deal with lumber called Select, #1, #2, #3 and #4.

On the house, you can't use the 3 or 4 unless it's for blocking and forming things like concrete. If an Inspector sees you doing it, you will be forced to remove it.

Take an 8 foot board, if the grain runs from end to end, it may be a Select. If the grain runs from one side and off the other side within 1/3 of it's length, it's knocked down a notch. If it has a knot that is 1/3 of the width of the board, it's knocked down a notch, both defects same board knocks it down 2 notches.

Think of your cue the same way, if a cuemaker built your cue with knots in the wood, he won't be a cuemaker after you get done with him.

Same with shafts, it's a degraded piece of wood when the grain runs off, it should run straight from the collar to the ferrule, otherwise it's a weak piece compared to what it should be.

Do you want to get into ring count now?

Renegade_56 · Nov 18, 2016

I think consistent grain is really the big factor, and so, straight grain is the most common in that regard.

Bank it · Nov 18, 2016

It's funny as I was thinking about this earlier today when viewing a few Tascarellas which seem to use straight grain for his forearms about 90% of the time.

I see the "logic" behind the theory that figure in wood can be considered flaws but truthfully I've had a lot of cues with extremely figured maple forearms that not only look good but played great.

cueman · Nov 18, 2016

Straight grain is more important in shafts than forearms in my opinion. But tightness of grain is also a major consideration for me. And the wider the grain the straighter the grain as an average in higher end shaft wood. So if you want tight grain you will have more grain run out on average. And with more grain lines you have more places for sugar lines or other imperfections in the looks of the shaft. So you have to try and balance it out to what will still stay straight and play the best and still look okay. My experience is heavier tighter grain maple plays a little stiffer on average and gives the feel I like. So when choosing the end of the shaft that goes up front on really tight grain wood you try to put the straighter half up front before you start tapering.

qbilder · Nov 21, 2016

There's zero way to look at a shaft's grain count, cleanliness, and straightness of grain and know whether it's good or not. The only thing you can deduct from a shaft's aesthetics is whether it's pretty or not. I have seen my share of pretty junk, and ugly gold. It's not the rule or the standard, just an observation. On the flip I have seen it in reverse as well. Point being, a clock is right twice a day by default. In my experiences, that's about as precise as conventional cue maker wisdom when it comes to choosing shafts.

I REGULARLY use shafts that have wiggle or wave in the grain, just as I do beautiful straight grain. Turns out they stay straight & people play just fine with them. All that said, there is a point where if the grain is bad enough the shaft will be prone to warping and or cracking/splitting when flexed. As a general rule, I want to follow a grain in the center of the shaft from tip to joint. I don't care if it wiggles along the way, just as long as it reaches both points.

Another thing I quit worrying about is grain count. Tight grain vs wide grain means nothing if you weren't there to study the tree it came from. Tight grain could mean anything from a diseased tree to a quite healthy under story tree, drought, lack of sun, bad soil, etc. Once in lumber form, you'd have no idea if it's good wood or not, just that it has tight grain. Not the same with wide grain. Wide grain means the tree had ample sun, nutrition, and hydration. Chances are very good that wide grain indicates a very, very healthy tree. Furthermore, mineral stains indicate rich soil, which usually translate into healthy wood that makes heavy, dense, pingy shafts. And sugar maple has wait for it............sugar! Why would anybody trust sugar maple that has no sugar? Fact is that a good straight shaft can be pretty with straight, clean, tight grain. And it could also be wavy, wide grain with sugar lines or mineral spots. But something you won't likely ever see is a bad playing shaft that has lots of sugar &/or mineral staining. You'd be hard pressed to find a bad playing shaft that only has a couple grains per inch. I know my opinions don't fall into the conventional thoughts, but I have spent the last many years studying, logging, milling, kiln drying, and processing much of my own wood, and things I have learned changed the way I see shaft wood. Take it for what it's worth, which is nothing to anybody but me.

BarenbruggeCues · Nov 21, 2016

Shaft wood.....

Take it for what it's worth, which is nothing to anybody but me.

I don't believe this to be true.:wink:
I have some 4 growth ring shafts that play lights out IMO.

Mcues · Nov 21, 2016

Erik

Very interesting Erik please check your e-mail

Mario

Canadian cue · Nov 21, 2016

qbilder said:
There's zero way to look at a shaft's grain count, cleanliness, and straightness of grain and know whether it's good or not. The only thing you can deduct from a shaft's aesthetics is whether it's pretty or not. I have seen my share of pretty junk, and ugly gold. It's not the rule or the standard, just an observation. On the flip I have seen it in reverse as well. Point being, a clock is right twice a day by default. In my experiences, that's about as precise as conventional cue maker wisdom when it comes to choosing shafts.

I REGULARLY use shafts that have wiggle or wave in the grain, just as I do beautiful straight grain. Turns out they stay straight & people play just fine with them. All that said, there is a point where if the grain is bad enough the shaft will be prone to warping and or cracking/splitting when flexed. As a general rule, I want to follow a grain in the center of the shaft from tip to joint. I don't care if it wiggles along the way, just as long as it reaches both points.

Another thing I quit worrying about is grain count. Tight grain vs wide grain means nothing if you weren't there to study the tree it came from. Tight grain could mean anything from a diseased tree to a quite healthy under story tree, drought, lack of sun, bad soil, etc. Once in lumber form, you'd have no idea if it's good wood or not, just that it has tight grain. Not the same with wide grain. Wide grain means the tree had ample sun, nutrition, and hydration. Chances are very good that wide grain indicates a very, very healthy tree. Furthermore, mineral stains indicate rich soil, which usually translate into healthy wood that makes heavy, dense, pingy shafts. And sugar maple has wait for it............sugar! Why would anybody trust sugar maple that has no sugar? Fact is that a good straight shaft can be pretty with straight, clean, tight grain. And it could also be wavy, wide grain with sugar lines or mineral spots. But something you won't likely ever see is a bad playing shaft that has lots of sugar &/or mineral staining. You'd be hard pressed to find a bad playing shaft that only has a couple grains per inch. I know my opinions don't fall into the conventional thoughts, but I have spent the last many years studying, logging, milling, kiln drying, and processing much of my own wood, and things I have learned changed the way I see shaft wood. Take it for what it's worth, which is nothing to anybody but me.

I don't quite agree with your observations and this is why, It all boils down to the cellular structure of the wood. Tighter gain due to shorter growth seasons means the cellular structure of the wood is more dense making that wood harder and heavier. Now how that effects play ability is subjective so I won't argue that point. However I will argue that what may be important is evenness of growth. If a shaft has real tight grain on half it's thickness and then looser grain on the other half then that shaft will not absorb moisture consistently and that shaft will not be as stable. Reason being the cells are bigger on the part with looser grain and will therefore absorb greater moisture than the denser grain. IMO in the case of a shaft this is quite important because a shaft if very narrow and has a lot of surface area relative to its size. This makes it much more susceptible to warpage as compared to thicker part of the cue. It is also not protected nearly as well from moisture as any other part of the cue. I also have observed that warps in shafts tend to follow the grain so for that reason I don't believe that conventional thought or wisdom to be false. Consistency and straightness of grain have always been a huge factor in the grading of wood.

qbilder · Nov 21, 2016

Canadian cue said:
I don't quite agree with your observations and this is why, It all boils down to the cellular structure of the wood. Tighter gain due to shorter growth seasons means the cellular structure of the wood is more dense making that wood harder and heavier.

This is the conventional wisdom I was referring to. To a narrow point it is precisely correct, but beyond that very narrow point it falls short. If it were true then we wouldn't be getting maple from UP MI and Canada that has wide grain. It simply can't grow that fast in such a short growing season, if what you say is correct. However, I can show you plenty shafts from way up north that have well under 10gpi. Furthermore, I shouldn't be able to cut maple down here in southern TN with 15-20gpi, but sure as can be it is here and not uncommon. The conventional wisdom simply doesn't account for fast growth, dense wood AND slow growth, lightweight wood. Furthermore, it doesn't account for a broad variance of wood quality growing in the same region.Things simply aren't that simple.

j2pac · Nov 21, 2016

qbilder said:
There's zero way to look at a shaft's grain count, cleanliness, and straightness of grain and know whether it's good or not. The only thing you can deduct from a shaft's aesthetics is whether it's pretty or not. I have seen my share of pretty junk, and ugly gold. It's not the rule or the standard, just an observation. On the flip I have seen it in reverse as well. Point being, a clock is right twice a day by default. In my experiences, that's about as precise as conventional cue maker wisdom when it comes to choosing shafts.

I REGULARLY use shafts that have wiggle or wave in the grain, just as I do beautiful straight grain. Turns out they stay straight & people play just fine with them. All that said, there is a point where if the grain is bad enough the shaft will be prone to warping and or cracking/splitting when flexed. As a general rule, I want to follow a grain in the center of the shaft from tip to joint. I don't care if it wiggles along the way, just as long as it reaches both points.

Another thing I quit worrying about is grain count. Tight grain vs wide grain means nothing if you weren't there to study the tree it came from. Tight grain could mean anything from a diseased tree to a quite healthy under story tree, drought, lack of sun, bad soil, etc. Once in lumber form, you'd have no idea if it's good wood or not, just that it has tight grain. Not the same with wide grain. Wide grain means the tree had ample sun, nutrition, and hydration. Chances are very good that wide grain indicates a very, very healthy tree. Furthermore, mineral stains indicate rich soil, which usually translate into healthy wood that makes heavy, dense, pingy shafts. And sugar maple has wait for it............sugar! Why would anybody trust sugar maple that has no sugar? Fact is that a good straight shaft can be pretty with straight, clean, tight grain. And it could also be wavy, wide grain with sugar lines or mineral spots. But something you won't likely ever see is a bad playing shaft that has lots of sugar &/or mineral staining. You'd be hard pressed to find a bad playing shaft that only has a couple grains per inch. I know my opinions don't fall into the conventional thoughts, but I have spent the last many years studying, logging, milling, kiln drying, and processing much of my own wood, and things I have learned changed the way I see shaft wood. Take it for what it's worth, which is nothing to anybody but me.

I would like to add something to this as well. Though I am not a cue maker, I think it's also important as a cue maker to gauge what may or may not be important or desirable to the customer, in terms of "perceived" shaft quality. Some players may not know anything beyond what they perceive to be a quality shaft. Some may consider nothing short of bleach white shaft wood, with level straight grain the only standard that they will accept, while others may consider a shafts feel and playability as paramount to it's appearance, to a certain degree. Just an observation from the cheap seats.

Best regards.
j2

qbilder · Nov 22, 2016

j2pac said:
I would like to add something to this as well. Though I am not a cue maker, I think it's also important as a cue maker to gauge what may or may not be important or desirable to the customer, in terms of "perceived" shaft quality. Some players may not know anything beyond what they perceive to be a quality shaft. Some may consider nothing short of bleach white shaft wood, with level straight grain the only standard that they will accept, while others may consider a shafts feel and playability as paramount to it's appearance, to a certain degree. Just an observation from the cheap seats.
Best regards.
j2

That's why a cue maker must make his buyers aware of his approach & philosophy before the cue is made. I never was shy about using wood other people wouldn't use. I believed if the cue played well, people would be happy. Over the years, my cues have become known for certain things, and pretty, white shafts isn't one of them.

The first thing I look for is the way it cuts. If the dust coming off is powdery or stringy, and or it tears out grain on the vertical grain, it's trash. I want to see curls of hard, crisp shavings. Next I look for is movement. Junk shafts will move within hours or even minutes, some immediately. If a shaft doesn't move & it cuts clean, doesn't have any huge mineral spots that would distract the player, then it's going on a cue. Before it goes on a cue, I match them first by weight, then tonal characteristics, and lastly by aesthetics.

j2pac · Nov 22, 2016

qbilder said:
That's why a cue maker must make his buyers aware of his approach & philosophy before the cue is made. I never was shy about using wood other people wouldn't use. I believed if the cue played well, people would be happy. Over the years, my cues have become known for certain things, and pretty, white shafts isn't one of them.

The first thing I look for is the way it cuts. If the dust coming off is powdery or stringy, and or it tears out grain on the vertical grain, it's trash. I want to see curls of hard, crisp shavings. Next I look for is movement. Junk shafts will move within hours or even minutes, some immediately. If a shaft doesn't move & it cuts clean, doesn't have any huge mineral spots that would distract the player, then it's going on a cue. Before it goes on a cue, I match them first by weight, then tonal characteristics, and lastly by aesthetics.

Couldn't agree with you more. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family Eric.
Best regards.
Joe P.

JoeyInCali · Nov 22, 2016

Canadian cue said:
I don't quite agree with your observations and this is why, It all boils down to the cellular structure of the wood. Tighter gain due to shorter growth seasons means the cellular structure of the wood is more dense making that wood harder and heavier. Now how that effects play ability is subjective so I won't argue that point. However I will argue that what may be important is evenness of growth. If a shaft has real tight grain on half it's thickness and then looser grain on the other half then that shaft will not absorb moisture consistently and that shaft will not be as stable. Reason being the cells are bigger on the part with looser grain and will therefore absorb greater moisture than the denser grain. IMO in the case of a shaft this is quite important because a shaft if very narrow and has a lot of surface area relative to its size. This makes it much more susceptible to warpage as compared to thicker part of the cue. It is also not protected nearly as well from moisture as any other part of the cue. I also have observed that warps in shafts tend to follow the grain so for that reason I don't believe that conventional thought or wisdom to be false. Consistency and straightness of grain have always been a huge factor in the grading of wood.

And in perfect world, all shafts would have two center holes on the the same ring that runs end to end .
But, we don't live in a perfect world.
That's why I like to start with 31" pieces.
After they are turned round, I can still chop the ends and re-center them as needed.
I just turned around 160 shafts the last 10 days.
My taper machine is manual one and the cutter is vertical to the wood.
Almost at eye level. Been doing this for 12 years now or so.
I can see what the wood does right in front of me while cutting.
And from years of observation and some knowledge passed on to me, I've set centering and cutting processes.

I only get my maple from one source. And from what I've got, the number of rings do not determine their weight really.
6-8 RPI's don't look so good. But, I have a few now that started as 10+ oz dowels.
And have a lot of really high ring counts that will not make it as shafts. Sometimes there are just bad guys that shouldn't be there but in 30" lengths, there's not much I can do. In those cases, I try to find the best 15"-17" long portions and whack them. They'd make great coring dowels. At 1" round still, there's plenty of room for re-centering manually for .720" cores .

galipeau · Nov 22, 2016

qbilder said:
Before it goes on a cue, I match them first by weight, then tonal characteristics, and lastly by aesthetics.

This has always fascinated me. I have gone through all my shafts and bounced them on the concrete, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Some sound good, others don't (from my very limited experience).

I suppose to be consistent in categorizing, you would need to test for tone at certain points in the turning process where the shafts are all at the same diameters. If it's not too much to ask, do you use anything besides your ear to sort these shafts by tone? I've always wanted to use a guitar or piano tuner to see what notes fall under...

@qbuilder: thanks for sharing your knowledge. It's always a pleasure to read.

@OP: I tend to lean towards Eric's sentiment. If the grain has a wiggle, most folks put that closer to the joint side where it's thicker, rather than the ferrule side, just to be safe. The shaft on my old Mali from the 80's has a nice fat grain wiggle towards the joint, but no real substantial of runout. It's still straight and very pingy, just how I like 'em.

MVPCues · Nov 22, 2016

You can't look at slow growth/high ring count and say the wood will be more dense and fewer rings will mean less dense. It doesn't work that way.

You don't know what conditions caused the slow growth. You don't know if there was a nutrient shortage or a water shortage causing the slow growth. You don't know if the tree was allocating most of its resources to height growth instead of diameter growth due to canopy structure of the stand competing for sunlight.

Trees store non structural carbohydrates in various forms of carbon (sugars, starches, etc) when they have a positive carbon balance. If they have a positive carbon balance they will grow some and they will store some for future needs. Trees know that soil and climate conditions change and so they plan for the future. When growing conditions are not ideal, the stored carbon will be converted to energy for survival and growth. Depleted tissues after the stored carbon is used up is less dense. The pores that stored this carbon are now empty. All hardwoods have these pores. Some have them evenly distributed through all tissues (diffuse porous, which maple is), and some have the concentration of pores in early wood (ring porous). Sugar maple happens to plan for the future very well and can handle several years of a negative balance because of how well it stores sugars and locks in sap.

If the carbon balance continues to be in the negative for several years in a row, a tree will become suppressed and essentially be on life support until it succumbs or conditions improve. It's biological processes shut down. Tissues will be weakened. Growth rings per inch might be very high, but it is still a tree producing poor wood. This is obvious in the endgrain of crappy dowels. The pores in the tree are huge because it is starving, and huge pores means less dense.

On the other hand, if the growing site is good (plenty of nutrients, correct amount of water) the tree might be growing and storing a little carbon up every year. Stand dynamics and the tree class (how tall it is compared to the other trees) would influence whether it is putting on a lot of height growth but little diameter growth, a lot of diameter growth but little height growth, or some of each. It can be a very healthy tree but exhibit some different rings per inch count due to the pecking order of the tree in the stand and how content it is.

Each site has what is called a basal area carrying capacity. The further away the stand is from that carrying capacity, the harder the trees work to get there. If there is close spacing (higher trees per acre), the trees will grow taller with little diameter growth until there is natural mortality. If there is wider spacing (fewer trees per acre) the trees will grow faster in diameter with less height growth until the basal area carrying capacity is reached. If the trees are still maintaining a positive carbon balance, tissues are still strong and dense. The concept that trees grow to maintain a certain basal area per acre is a simple and fundamental law of silviculture.

When you throw in that trees typically are not perfectly round so rings per inch varies by azimuth and some areas of the tree are hit first when stored carbohydrates are needed for energy, there is a LOT of chaos introduced. I tend to think that slow diameter growth is better than fast diameter growth for pool shafts IF ALL OTHER THINGS are equal, but that is impossible to tell between two dowels and so rarely true. The correlation is so weakened by all of the possibilities that the result is there are many 8 rings per inch shafts that would out perform many 20 rings per inch shafts.

Sheldon · Nov 22, 2016

qbilder said:
There's zero way to look at a shaft's grain count, cleanliness, and straightness of grain and know whether it's good or not. The only thing you can deduct from a shaft's aesthetics is whether it's pretty or not. I have seen my share of pretty junk, and ugly gold. It's not the rule or the standard, just an observation. On the flip I have seen it in reverse as well. Point being, a clock is right twice a day by default. In my experiences, that's about as precise as conventional cue maker wisdom when it comes to choosing shafts.

I REGULARLY use shafts that have wiggle or wave in the grain, just as I do beautiful straight grain. Turns out they stay straight & people play just fine with them. All that said, there is a point where if the grain is bad enough the shaft will be prone to warping and or cracking/splitting when flexed. As a general rule, I want to follow a grain in the center of the shaft from tip to joint. I don't care if it wiggles along the way, just as long as it reaches both points.

Another thing I quit worrying about is grain count. Tight grain vs wide grain means nothing if you weren't there to study the tree it came from. Tight grain could mean anything from a diseased tree to a quite healthy under story tree, drought, lack of sun, bad soil, etc. Once in lumber form, you'd have no idea if it's good wood or not, just that it has tight grain. Not the same with wide grain. Wide grain means the tree had ample sun, nutrition, and hydration. Chances are very good that wide grain indicates a very, very healthy tree. Furthermore, mineral stains indicate rich soil, which usually translate into healthy wood that makes heavy, dense, pingy shafts. And sugar maple has wait for it............sugar! Why would anybody trust sugar maple that has no sugar? Fact is that a good straight shaft can be pretty with straight, clean, tight grain. And it could also be wavy, wide grain with sugar lines or mineral spots. But something you won't likely ever see is a bad playing shaft that has lots of sugar &/or mineral staining. You'd be hard pressed to find a bad playing shaft that only has a couple grains per inch. I know my opinions don't fall into the conventional thoughts, but I have spent the last many years studying, logging, milling, kiln drying, and processing much of my own wood, and things I have learned changed the way I see shaft wood. Take it for what it's worth, which is nothing to anybody but me.

Agreed!
I've seen way too many UGLY and/or low grpi shafts play really well. I know people who have curly maple shafts and swear that they hit better than anything, and the grain in those is as far from straight as it gets.

qbilder · Nov 28, 2016

MVPCues said:
You can't look at slow growth/high ring count and say the wood will be more dense and fewer rings will mean less dense. It doesn't work that way.

You don't know what conditions caused the slow growth. You don't know if there was a nutrient shortage or a water shortage causing the slow growth. You don't know if the tree was allocating most of its resources to height growth instead of diameter growth due to canopy structure of the stand competing for sunlight.

Trees store non structural carbohydrates in various forms of carbon (sugars, starches, etc) when they have a positive carbon balance. If they have a positive carbon balance they will grow some and they will store some for future needs. Trees know that soil and climate conditions change and so they plan for the future. When growing conditions are not ideal, the stored carbon will be converted to energy for survival and growth. Depleted tissues after the stored carbon is used up is less dense. The pores that stored this carbon are now empty. All hardwoods have these pores. Some have them evenly distributed through all tissues (diffuse porous, which maple is), and some have the concentration of pores in early wood (ring porous). Sugar maple happens to plan for the future very well and can handle several years of a negative balance because of how well it stores sugars and locks in sap.

If the carbon balance continues to be in the negative for several years in a row, a tree will become suppressed and essentially be on life support until it succumbs or conditions improve. It's biological processes shut down. Tissues will be weakened. Growth rings per inch might be very high, but it is still a tree producing poor wood. This is obvious in the endgrain of crappy dowels. The pores in the tree are huge because it is starving, and huge pores means less dense.

On the other hand, if the growing site is good (plenty of nutrients, correct amount of water) the tree might be growing and storing a little carbon up every year. Stand dynamics and the tree class (how tall it is compared to the other trees) would influence whether it is putting on a lot of height growth but little diameter growth, a lot of diameter growth but little height growth, or some of each. It can be a very healthy tree but exhibit some different rings per inch count due to the pecking order of the tree in the stand and how content it is.

Each site has what is called a basal area carrying capacity. The further away the stand is from that carrying capacity, the harder the trees work to get there. If there is close spacing (higher trees per acre), the trees will grow taller with little diameter growth until there is natural mortality. If there is wider spacing (fewer trees per acre) the trees will grow faster in diameter with less height growth until the basal area carrying capacity is reached. If the trees are still maintaining a positive carbon balance, tissues are still strong and dense. The concept that trees grow to maintain a certain basal area per acre is a simple and fundamental law of silviculture.

When you throw in that trees typically are not perfectly round so rings per inch varies by azimuth and some areas of the tree are hit first when stored carbohydrates are needed for energy, there is a LOT of chaos introduced. I tend to think that slow diameter growth is better than fast diameter growth for pool shafts IF ALL OTHER THINGS are equal, but that is impossible to tell between two dowels and so rarely true. The correlation is so weakened by all of the possibilities that the result is there are many 8 rings per inch shafts that would out perform many 20 rings per inch shafts.

Interesting read. Thank you!

qbilder · Nov 28, 2016

galipeau said:
This has always fascinated me. I have gone through all my shafts and bounced them on the concrete, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Some sound good, others don't (from my very limited experience).

I suppose to be consistent in categorizing, you would need to test for tone at certain points in the turning process where the shafts are all at the same diameters. If it's not too much to ask, do you use anything besides your ear to sort these shafts by tone? I've always wanted to use a guitar or piano tuner to see what notes fall under...

I don't use anything but my ear. I keep thinking I will get some equipment for tone testing, but never seem to do it. I don't bounce them, though. I bump them against my palm and let them vibrate like a tuning fork. Holding your ear close, you can easily hear the hum pitch, as well as feel it in your hand. It's quite easy, actually, which is why I haven't yet bothered investing in equipment.

Another maker I know uses a different method to do the same thing. He measures the flex. The shaft has to exhibit a particular range of flex. Too much or too little & it's junk. Has to be just right.

So, how much really is "straight grain" important?...

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