Are we seeing the end of wood cues?
- Thread starter thenaturalpoolplayer
- Start date
I'm just not sold on carbon fiber. Ive tried 2 for about two hours each and haven't fell In love with one. I did play with my brothers OB Fusion and did like it. It had excellent feel. Just don't see the benefits justifying the cost. Not yet anyway.
The idea that Little League baseball allowed the shift from wood bats to save money is pure B.S. - anybody here play LL baseball when it was ONLY wood bats- like in the 1960s- wood bats RARELY broke from play at the LL level - nobody threw hard enough to break many bats at all in LL and that is mostly still the case- the switch off wood was for kid's parents who could afford it to gain an edge and LL never stood up to the metal bat onslaught.
Another myth- in truth, most wood shafts turned by custom cue makers, if consistently kept in reasonable climate conditions- do not wrap to the point that play and accuracy would be affected to any noticeable degree for 99.9% of players. Most pool players should have way, way more concern about their stroke and their table approach than their equipment, most golfers and tennis players suffer from the same " equipment worry fatigue"-- when you keep looking for excuses instead of putting in the work according to the correct principles - you become a mouse on the treadmill of mediocrity.
Another myth- in truth, most wood shafts turned by custom cue makers, if consistently kept in reasonable climate conditions- do not wrap to the point that play and accuracy would be affected to any noticeable degree for 99.9% of players. Most pool players should have way, way more concern about their stroke and their table approach than their equipment, most golfers and tennis players suffer from the same " equipment worry fatigue"-- when you keep looking for excuses instead of putting in the work according to the correct principles - you become a mouse on the treadmill of mediocrity.
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It ain't just 11 year olds. The little league bats they use in that stuff on tv are nuclear. Mosconi, you are just using the weakest 7% of people using baseball bats to make your point. They can't break an ice cycle. Don't have the bat speed. It is about funding. High schools, middle schools, even colleges don't have the funding. Shit, I lived that life. Coached or played over 3000 games all over our wonderful country. Trying to help. I guess we can disagree. Sorry I strayed from pool. I'll bend a knee to all of you in pool. Not baseball.
I learned on wood. My shafts were always picking up little dings and when they did I felt them every stroke. It seemed I was always doing maintenance on them to keep a smooth shaft.
I switched from my Lucasi to a Cynergy, which had a very similar feel, and never looked back.
I don't knock wood or CF. I tried a few and liked the feel of the cuetec best and I really appreciate the maintenance free aspect.
I switched from my Lucasi to a Cynergy, which had a very similar feel, and never looked back.
I don't knock wood or CF. I tried a few and liked the feel of the cuetec best and I really appreciate the maintenance free aspect.
Wood has been around long time, if it’s not wood.
Let’s call in New School Cues, spend enough money on Pro Endorsement, advertising, hype, you can sell Ice Machine to Eskimo’s
Let’s call in New School Cues, spend enough money on Pro Endorsement, advertising, hype, you can sell Ice Machine to Eskimo’s
Tell me you know nothing about pool without telling me lol
I'm completely indifferent to CF. Haven't experienced anything to make me want to invest in one. I've hit several models and struggle to discover the love affair. The argument for owning one usually lands on hit consistency if it needs to be replaced. Now I personally have never hit 2 different but like modeled wooden shafts that were inconsistent enough to be able to notice, but YMMV.
All that said... The 10.5 Cynergy is an awesome CF shaft. If I was forced into buying CF. It would be that size/model. Only thing that comes close to a predator Z2 imo...
Must he his 10th account already
middleofnowhere
Registered
I should probably add a little bit to my own comment to clarify it. I'm not saying there won't be any market for fancy collectible cues. But the average guy in a pool room who's influenced by players that he respects we'll see the best players just playing with essentially off the shelf cues that are well within his price range. The idea of ordering a cue for quite a bit of money and waiting 2 years will just at a point become silly.
It may already seem silly.
middleofnowhere
Registered
Most players using them are not getting paid they use them my choice.Wood has been around long time, if it’s not wood.
Let’s call in New School Cues, spend enough money on Pro Endorsement, advertising, hype, you can sell Ice Machine to Eskimo’s
If it ain’t broke !
Where is this weekly pool tournament with 60 players , Damn , put me in coach ……… 60 wanna be pool players wow
Anybody that thinks this is full of pure BS themselves. Little league (many) years ago switched to aluminum bats because they don't break. Evidently you never played a ton of baseball in the 60's and 70's
Well, I was at the pool hall last night for league night. Six 5-member teams playing, and about 95% of the players were using CF. I don't know what pool hall you're playing at, but it's not the norm.
CF/spliced/laminated/torrified shafts all came into being to cut production overhead losses due to culling and the lower overall quality of the better grades of maple to produce a quality shaft.
The splicing and laminating tech gave the ability to reduce overall stresses, separate or average out densities and internal stress bt/winter and summer growth of the wood.
Players 100% wouldn’t have just started paying 4-600$ for a plain maple shaft of the highest quality to high roll the bangers on shorter availability from some of the major manufactures like predator and such….
The “tougher” surface and exponentially more consistent finished product from cf can and was marketed to command such prices.
It was all business and economics not playability and capability of cf materials being that superior to wood.
If o ran a major production manufacturing cue company I’d 100% utilize CF as a main stay….and maybe a high end line of cues with wood shaft tech.
I think one day wood will become bioengineered and they will do things like grow high GPI maple blanks in a test tube in a matter of months or weeks...to me that doesn’t seem that far fetched in the distant future.
Someone’s got to use CF with all the makers out there , production and custom in quantity having exploded over the past 30 years there really just isn’t enough of the good stuff for everyone to be able to acquire it…..companies like McDermott and others own a lot of Forrest land they harvest their own from fwiw. Good cues don’t come from the same lots of wood processed for making chairs and counter tops and such….cues habe highly specific needs to be done well as we all know.
The splicing and laminating tech gave the ability to reduce overall stresses, separate or average out densities and internal stress bt/winter and summer growth of the wood.
Players 100% wouldn’t have just started paying 4-600$ for a plain maple shaft of the highest quality to high roll the bangers on shorter availability from some of the major manufactures like predator and such….
The “tougher” surface and exponentially more consistent finished product from cf can and was marketed to command such prices.
It was all business and economics not playability and capability of cf materials being that superior to wood.
If o ran a major production manufacturing cue company I’d 100% utilize CF as a main stay….and maybe a high end line of cues with wood shaft tech.
I think one day wood will become bioengineered and they will do things like grow high GPI maple blanks in a test tube in a matter of months or weeks...to me that doesn’t seem that far fetched in the distant future.
Someone’s got to use CF with all the makers out there , production and custom in quantity having exploded over the past 30 years there really just isn’t enough of the good stuff for everyone to be able to acquire it…..companies like McDermott and others own a lot of Forrest land they harvest their own from fwiw. Good cues don’t come from the same lots of wood processed for making chairs and counter tops and such….cues habe highly specific needs to be done well as we all know.
Played baseball every day possible during that timeframe- During my LL days in the 60s almost never saw bats break from regular play- most wood bats were thick handled- and wood bats were dirt cheap- metal bats were never introduced first by LL teams- they were BOUGHT by well heeled parents to give little Johnny an edge, and LL caved in when other parents demanded equal access, study your facts pal!Anybody that thinks this is full of pure BS themselves. Little league (many) years ago switched to aluminum bats because they don't break. Evidently you never played a ton of baseball in the 60's and 70's
The cost of wood bats at the LL level, given the number of wood bats that ACTUALLY broke during play was NOT greater than the cost of buying a whole new load of metal bats and watching them disappear - as often did and still do.
Next time you start calling people full of BS- try to be a little more respectful with your words - why the personal attack? I don't even know you. Fine to disagree- learn how to do it with a little less confrontation- or maybe hiding behind a screen makes that less challenging for you?
middleofnowhere
Registered
Most players using them are not getting paid they use them my choice.Wood has been around long time, if it’s not wood.
Let’s call in New School Cues, spend enough money on Pro Endorsement, advertising, hype, you can sell Ice Machine to Eskimo’s
All you said could be true. But you start by including torrified wood as "came into being to cut production overhead losses due to culling and the lower overall quality of the better grades of maple to produce a quality shaft".
I disagree with that part. Torrified shafts have to start with grade AA wood to produce a usable high quality shaft. And there is the add cost of the baking process.
