Bring a cue from dry climate to humid climate?

I've had cues that have gone from dry to humid and back to dry environments, with a few years gap in between each move. Both production and custom cues. None of them have warped but I may have just been lucky. You're concern is a real one. Goodluck.

I wouldn’t worry about it. I think it will be fine. I received a cue from a maker in Milwaukee and I’m in west Texas and it’s still straight. The good cue makers seem to have a good handle on making those shafts real stable.

scassidy77 said:

I live in Nebraska where it is a humid climate. I'm looking at buying a predator shaft from a guy in Arizona, which is very dry climate.
I'm worried that it will warp after a few months of being here in Nebraska due to the difference in humidity. What's are your experiences and thoughts?
I moved from Nebraska to California for a year and brought a Mezz cue with me. After being in California for a few months I noticed my cue had developed a warp. So now I'm paranoid. It may have been coincidence perhaps. I have also purchased a couple custom cues from Philippines in the past which have both warped as well.

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The person to ask is Jay Helfert. The P.I. has ungodly humidity.

No issues for me moving all over the country, seriously, all 4 corners, middle, you name it.
Jason

It's a crap shoot. I bought a used JD Cue, from the Philippines, off of E-bay. Can't remember where it was shipped from. When I received it one shaft, that was very clean, was dead straight. The other shaft that was very dirty from a lot of play was very warped in a complete bow. It sat upright in a case in my closet for two years and when I pulled it out one day. It was almost straight. I put a new tip on it and now it is more than straight enough to play with and is my favorite shaft that came with the Cue. I live Northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. Humidity is usually on the low side. Shaft is made out of dark heavy wood with a lot of curl in it.

I haven't had any problems with shafts but a couple butts that went from the northeast to the southwest developed bows. One is quite bad actually but it does not affect the playability as far as I can tell. Going from dry to wet -No idea but good luck.

scassidy77 said:

I live in Nebraska where it is a humid climate. I'm looking at buying a predator shaft from a guy in Arizona, which is very dry climate.
I'm worried that it will warp after a few months of being here in Nebraska due to the difference in humidity. What's are your experiences and thoughts?
I moved from Nebraska to California for a year and brought a Mezz cue with me. After being in California for a few months I noticed my cue had developed a warp. So now I'm paranoid. It may have been coincidence perhaps. I have also purchased a couple custom cues from Philippines in the past which have both warped as well.

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Buy a carbon-fiber shaft.

Buy a Schmelke, if it warps, just buy anothern!

you seem to have had several cues warp on you.
could you be handling your cues badly...ie leave them in your car...leave them leaning against the wall etc??

No worries . I went to phiippines and no warping.

Cues travel from some of the driest desert climates to the hottest wettest ones and back again. They don’t warp.

scassidy77 said:

I live in Nebraska where it is a humid climate. I'm looking at buying a predator shaft from a guy in Arizona, which is very dry climate.
I'm worried that it will warp after a few months of being here in Nebraska due to the difference in humidity. What's are your experiences and thoughts?
I moved from Nebraska to California for a year and brought a Mezz cue with me. After being in California for a few months I noticed my cue had developed a warp. So now I'm paranoid. It may have been coincidence perhaps. I have also purchased a couple custom cues from Philippines in the past which have both warped as well.

Click to expand...

This is possible.
I travel around Asia and the US for work.
What I do to keep my cues straight is hanging the whole cue up snooker style when I’m not travelling.
I chose a snooker locker in my pool hall for that purpose.
I use a Predator 314-2 shafts on both my Mezz n Exceed butt.

That’s the best way to keep a cue straight and it’s convenient when you wanna play as cue is already screwed and u don’t have to unscrew after playing.
Good luck

seal your shafts before travel or relocation

Those that like to lightly sand or scour their shafts will have much more trouble with warping as a general statement. It doesn't take long to sand past most of the sealer a builder put on a shaft. After that, it depends on the shaft and natural tendencies. A very good shaft will have little or no warpage regardless. Another shaft treated just the same may rainbow.

Edwin Reyes was a very good cue builder in the Philippines. He kept his woods for export in a separate climate controlled room to dry them beyond what they could normally be dried there. Typical builders don't go to that much trouble and the cues from the Philippines have a pretty bad reputation for warping although I am sure there are some equally careful builders still there. A fellow imported a bunch of cues from the Philippines to Louisiana which is pretty wet itself and most or all warped badly. Could have been climate, could have been the builder since I don't know whose cues he bought or if he just grabbed up everything cheap.

Sudden changes are hard on a cue. A case provides some protection but I am always unhappy flying with one in a cargo hold. The cargo holds of airplanes generally undergo extreme changes very fast.

To summarize, seal your shafts and put a little sealer on the endgrain of your cue shafts and butts. Don't cut or clean through the sealer. Cross your fingers! My playing shaft warps very slightly and straightens with the seasons. Once I would have obsessed over that, now I just play.

Hu

I live in the US & Thailand & take cues back & forth several times a year.

Never had a problem...

I ordered a Dominiak a few years ago. I believe he's in New York. So the cue came from
a moist climate to Colorado, a very dry climate. The shafts were nice and straight when I
got them. It didn't take long for them to bend and twist and shrink. There is a definite
shoulder from the ferrule to the shaft, the shafts have warped,
Not anything I blame William for, he straightened them once but they warped again. Only
thing I can imagine is it's a climate thing. If your wood hasn't dried completely or
something like that it's bound to be reshaped by the climate. I can only imagine that from
dry to moist would have the same effect.

I’ve purchased 5 shafts from SW, 2 originals that came with the cue and 3 additional shafts directly from Laurie. I live in humid South Florida and I’ve noticed some slight changes in the straightness on all of them from when I first received them. I would say it is a real concern, but difficult to predict.


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Does your cue or shafts have any exposed end grain, meaning if you look at the end of them do you see wood or something other than wood of you see phenolic, ivory etc. and the cue has a decent finish on it then you have pretty good moisture barriers. Most cues are turned down over extended periods of time to reduce warping during fabrication which allows the woods to be relaxed and in the shape they "want" to be in once the finish is applied it takes quite a bit of wet to dry to wet to dry and so on before the woods want to go somewhere else. If your joints have exposed end grain (you see wood) then the moisture can find its way into the wood much easier but even with that most cues are fine with humidity. Years ago I carried 20-30 cues with me while travelling for work. I had a home in Arizona one in Oklahoma and a cue shop in Sacramento. So cues traveled to those locations and everywhere along the way often and I don't remember ever having a problem

With my experience (moving from Nebraska to Idaho) and given the other comments on here I would say it's a crap shoot what happens. I purchased a Huebler in 1994'sh and moved to Idaho in 2004. It's been in a case in a closet for almost 14 years. Started playing again last July and it was still straight as an arrow bought a new cue a couple of months later and put that one back in the closet. I rolled it last week and it was straight, I rolled it 2 nights ago and it now has a slight bend in the middle of the shaft?

I have a POS cue I won from a pool hall in Omaha back in the late 80's or early 90's and it's had a roll since day one, hasn't changed in the 14 years I've been in the desert.

Purchased a Ned Morris (Made in CA, I bought it out of Oregon) back in September and it's still straight as an arrow.

Purchased a custom cue (Dzuricky) from Pennsylvania 4 months ago and both shafts are still straight.

Purchased a Huebler 4 months ago from Ohio with a bent shaft and I swear it's beginning to straighten out here in the dry climate of SW Idaho.


I seriously think it's simply the wood. I don't see how a cue maker could prevent mother nature from doing her thing. It's either going to happen or it's not. (EDIT: having sealer on the shaft may or may not help, my old Huebler shed its sealer long ago and I've never had it refinished, not blaming that, just giving all the facts).

Hey Chilli...I saw your other thread about Bautista cues from the Philippines. Makes me wonder as that's a humid climate, then going to Idaho...I wish you luck on that one. I believe it's a craps shoot, and depends on how dry the wood is before a finish is applied. You may have good luck and I hope you and everyone else does too. I've personally seen three Philippines cues here in Omaha that you could shoot around a corner with. Yikes!