Dieckman<------Dale, not quite sure what you meant about me when you said "<once upon a time>". I am still alive and kicking and still building butterflies. Perhaps rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated ?? The ones pictured so far in this tread are what I call band saw or weird butterflies are are designed to be joined tenon in mortise but not a true butterfly which is done on the table saw and has a core [a truncated pyramid] that runs from the front to the back.
I am a little busy right now but hope to post some pictures and text soon.
Stiffness, at least in my mind, comes more from the joint diameter size more than anything although it is my experience the butt constructed as a full butterfly is much more stable than a tenon/mortise cue in terms of bendage and twistage.
The ACA certainly does not view the butterfly butt very favorably. Were I want to join [no thank you] I could not submit the butterfly I made for the Smithsonian as they would reject it. My friend Paul Fanelli to they would reject.
Stay tuned.....
I got the impression from you, actually. More precisely from your website.
Last time I checked, which admittedly has been a while, there was
a pic of roughly a dozen butt blanks. Of the flame laminated type.
To somewhat paraphrase, you stated that these were the last that
would ever come from you, as you were not going to make any more and
the only way someone could get that particular type of butt would be
if one of your former students were to make it for them.
Glad to hear you have not forsaken the noble art of the glued-up butt.
That was what I was refering to, not any unfortunate demise.
I suppose you and I are going to have to appear before the semantics police...
IIUC - what you are calling a wierd butterfly is actually spliced, whereas,
the truncated type is made up of laminated layers of wood and veneers.
I wouldn't describe that as a 'splice'. But then, no pun intended,
I wouldn't call the dreaded 4 point 'half splice' a splice either, because it
also is made up of several pieces angled and tapered then glued together,
instead of like the 'full splice' 4 point, which is 2 pieces of wood that are
finger-jointed together - sort of.
Pay your money - take your choice.
I would certainly concur that the stiffness of a butt is much more determined
by the profile than by which woods are used, tho your comment is more clear.
I warned you I care way too much about terminology...and not nearly enough about spelling
Dale(also not dead)
) Even watching snooker players on American pool tables you can see the insane precision they shoot with and tons of cue power without having to jump up and down like a rabbit. I wonder if their construction is that much better?