Quote:
"You retapered the shaft into an hourglass shape? one day you will hear a big *SNAP*. Thanks, Jon"
Actually, it's not an hourglass shape. The retaper starts from about 4 inches from the tip and goes for about 12 inches for a uniform 11 to 11.2 mm ( I suppose, I rigged up a primitive caliper of sorts to make sure the taper in this area is uniform) and then gently retapers back up for the next 4 inches or so. It's plenty strong, and plenty flexible too. I've been shoorting with it like this for several months already. No problems, glides perfectly through my gloved hand, draws the cue ball with ease, makes stop shots a breeze. I asked a pro who plays sometimes at Chris's in Chicago to play with it a bit and to give me his honest opinion and he shot some pretty weird shots with it and came away with a great bit grin on his face... "Nice".... I kept the original 12.75 mm tip and didn't take it down, as I had been told that a larger tip was more accurate, and would help me pot more balls. While I don't know if that is really true, I thought I'd experiment with this concept. What I have now is the results of testing 4 different versions. By the way, this cue moves the cue ball around the table with ease, and I love the hit. I have a Talisman hard tip on it too...
As for it snapping, maybe if I stomp it or something, but I break with it, and so far no problems... The degree of flex is about the same as the shaft on a pre-red-dot Meucci Originals cue a friend uses.