I've got two shafts from different Espiritus and they can't be more dissimilar.
One shaft is slightly yellow, and always has a glass-like smooth finish quality to it. I'll refer to this shaft as shaft 1.
The other is a much "whiter" wood, but despite how many times I give it to my cue guy to clean and seal, it's never anywhere near as smooth and glass-like as my first shaft. I'll refer to this as shaft 2.
Shafts 1 and 2 have roughly the same number of growth rings. #1 has a few more per inch, but that's not a huge difference (is it?). Both have 12.1 mm tips with 15" pro tapers. Both are 3.7 ounces.
I much prefer the feel of shaft 1. It glides through my bridge smoother than any shaft I have. Shaft 2 on the other hand tends to accumulate a lot of chalk in its pores as you can see in the picture. Even if it starts out "nice and white" it soon picks up enough chalk that it looks dirty and cheap. Edit: At the time of the picture for shaft 2, the shaft was just cleaned/sealed and had only hit a single rack of 9-ball.
Question: What qualities in the wood make them so different? If one had a much higher concentration of growth rings I'd attribute the difference in wood to that... but they don't. Shaft 1 is more yellow which leads me to believe it wasn't vacuum kiln dried -- would this affect the quality of the wood? If I were to have another shaft made, how would I go about specifying the wood so that I'd get another one like shaft 1?
Many thanks to all replies.
One shaft is slightly yellow, and always has a glass-like smooth finish quality to it. I'll refer to this shaft as shaft 1.
The other is a much "whiter" wood, but despite how many times I give it to my cue guy to clean and seal, it's never anywhere near as smooth and glass-like as my first shaft. I'll refer to this as shaft 2.
Shafts 1 and 2 have roughly the same number of growth rings. #1 has a few more per inch, but that's not a huge difference (is it?). Both have 12.1 mm tips with 15" pro tapers. Both are 3.7 ounces.
I much prefer the feel of shaft 1. It glides through my bridge smoother than any shaft I have. Shaft 2 on the other hand tends to accumulate a lot of chalk in its pores as you can see in the picture. Even if it starts out "nice and white" it soon picks up enough chalk that it looks dirty and cheap. Edit: At the time of the picture for shaft 2, the shaft was just cleaned/sealed and had only hit a single rack of 9-ball.
Question: What qualities in the wood make them so different? If one had a much higher concentration of growth rings I'd attribute the difference in wood to that... but they don't. Shaft 1 is more yellow which leads me to believe it wasn't vacuum kiln dried -- would this affect the quality of the wood? If I were to have another shaft made, how would I go about specifying the wood so that I'd get another one like shaft 1?
Many thanks to all replies.
