Ash Shaft

B

Bumpa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hi -

I refinished/retipped the old cue below. It works OK for my newby game. It has an ash shaft that is smooth except for soft grain indentations I can feel when stroking. I am thinking about filling the indentations with clear epoxy and sanding off the high spots.

What other options do I have?

My other old cues have straight-grained maple shafts. I prefer maple. Why would a cue maker choose ash instead of maple for a shaft?

Thank you.

Rick

CUE-SPALDING1-11-11.jpg
 
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you may find you like it better. ash is still used in snooker cues, it has a stiffer hit.
 
I once resurfaced a propeller blade (yes, an airplane) with CA and talcum powder (in accordance with their manual). Good luck getting the profile right. You're probably better off learning to live with it. The whole process is a pain.
 
Chop -

I think this is just an inexpensive Chinese pool cue. But what do I know? Tip size is 12 mm.

Thank you.

Rick
---------------
> By the taper, that look like a snooker cue......
> What is the tip size? Is it small?
 
Well I figured it was such a thing, but that don't mean you can't fix it up and make it shoot nice. And it don't mean it's not a snooker cue.

12mm? Big for snooker, smallish for pool. In betweenish. By the taper I am thinking it was intended for snooker and that's why it is ash. But you can shoot pool with a snooker cue and snooker with a pool cue, that is well proven.

Have a great day! :thumbup:
 
I think flex is the difference in Play- maple or Ash.

A super glue finish wood seal the grain- but speak with someone like Mr. Sheldon Lebow first. az member cuemaker . You could use 5 coats of bowling alley wax too ,sanding lightly between layers. mark
 
Or you could swell the dents out and forget all the magic lotions and cremes.

KJ
 
Bumpa said:
Hi -

I refinished/retipped the old cue below. It works OK for my newby game. It has an ash shaft that is smooth except for soft grain indentations I can feel when stroking. I am thinking about filling the indentations with clear epoxy and sanding off the high spots.

What other options do I have?

My other old cues have straight-grained maple shafts. I prefer maple. Why would a cue maker choose ash instead of maple for a shaft?

Thank you.

Rick

Hi,

Danger Will Robinson. Watch out for the Ash Boring Beetle, once they find your shaft it is a death sentence.:rotflmao1:

Rick
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The Ash has quite different hardness between the ring wood and the pith.
Usually sanding just cuts the soft wood leaving the ring grain even more prominent.
The best way is to hand work the areas of the ring wood that are prominent with a fine nail file or some other metal abrasive but not touching the softer wood.
Trying to apply something to fill and resand is just going to go back to where you are now, unless you set it up and can recut the shape .They call it wearing a shaft out when the grain is left above the softer wood.
 
Guys -

Update -

I mixed talcum powder with my water-based clear in a 1:4 ratio by volume and applied two coats. Looked like a rough mess when it dried. I sanded the shaft with 400 and 1000 sandpaper and finished buffing with coarse paper from a brown paper shopping bag.

Low spots are filled, and high spots are cut down. The shaft now feels smooth and hard with no distractions while stroking and aiming at the cue ball. I am pleased.

Having spent many years building and flying model airplanes and using talcum powder mixed with butyrate dope as a filler in balsa wood, I forgot about that.

So thank you all for the tips and helping me resurrect a cheap stick I will enjoy playing with.

Rick
 
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