Dave B, thanks very much for posting this.
I am a 40+ year woodworker in millwork, some cabinets and furniture, and have handled many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of feet of hardwood lumber. However i have very little cue experience. Made a few shafts in the early 80's, picked it up again a couple years ago on the side. When i look at some of the wood FS ads on here, it's possible to think i'm in the wrong trade. If the market were a little deeper and the individual sales a little larger, a person might could make more selling cut-offs and trim wood than building product for furniture in some cases.
The fact of the matter is that for technical work, the grain and growth of any stick of wood needs to be mild and straight. Unfortunately, for marketing cues, desirable wood has to be "spectacular" in appearance, which mostly occurs in less than straight grain wood. Spectacular feature tends to happen in wood cut just off a knot, or near/through a cat face especially, or wherever there is a ton of stress in the tree. Just the opposite of what is ideal for a shaft. As an example, George B was famously a life long woodworker before starting to make cues, he knew and favored mild straight grain.
For grins and giggles i'll analyze the OP's 2nd picture from the top. Shaft #1/(leftmost) is one i'd take a small risk on. it has a repeat wave in the grain along the shaft that might balance out, or it might all curve one way, unless the shaft environment is very close to the build environment. A cuemaker would probably know that and take his own risk considering the grain. I actually think there is a strong chance it will kink, about 4 - 6" down from the top (hard to tell scale)
Shaft #2 the grain runs out wildly, and there is a bad stress section in the middle of a section about 6" down from the top. It is weak in that area and might even possibly fracture, either way the shape of the wood is asking for a kink.
#3 I don't like the first 2" of this blank, but the rest (from side shown) looks about as good as it gets if a person has to use BE in a shaft. Take a chance, cut slow, and maybe after end trim for a 29" or shorter shaft the first 1 - 2" won't kink with a tip or joint ferule. Decent piece of wood for section shown, thought the grain starts to reverse or wander at the bottom of the picture; chance for a long bow, depending on rest of shaft.
#4 - about ditto for #3.
Cuemakers require spectacular wood for demanding customers, so there is a market for it, and the market forces suggest taking chances on less than technically ideal wood. Less than ideal wood can be compensated to some extent in the build, (e.g. coring for butts) and possibly by "barbequing" the wood, though that may (or may not) positively affect other performance characteristics.
The only people the A^10th power grade or whatever fools is neophytes. I'd think you'd be better off just posting full pics of opposite sides (if not all 4). and labeling with a price for stuff sold at a premium, and let the customer make a decision reading the photos, how much risk they want to afford. Right now if a customer buys a bundle of your A^infinity blanks, they seem assured of getting spectacular figure, but the grain could make a portion of them un-usable.
For the barbecue process, I for one would prefer to see a published standard and some indication that you control it and hit the same standards each time. Do the above and you can build a solid market for knowledgeable people that want something different and "better". Right now you don't assure me that a.) you know or understand wood technically (so far i don't think you are cynical, so you probably care) and b.) that you will keep doing things the same to a standard based on considered factors, or publish changes as they occur in your process and why.
Essentially, if you don't do rigorous testing of the performance changes due to your specific barbequing process, you are asking your customers to do it. They will probably report or just guess for posting on here, based on much more subjective factors. So it all becomes opinion.
I am also curious to see an reference standards for shaft wood posted.
This is intended as suggestions for building a solid rep for quality among moderately knowledgeable customers, not a slam. At a given time i would buy one or more of your spectacular shafts for the reason that i know how much lumber a person has to go through to find that one. Your prices seem fair so long as a maker can ID which factors are important to their personal requirements for risk. Especially if you can show and build a rep for the barbeque process and how it objectively obviates any unfavorable characteristics in the wood structure. (test results, not opinion) At the present, i would probably not buy sight unseen.
smt
) and it is more stable. It will not cure short-grain/slash grain issues, may make them slightly weaker.