conically-tapered pool cue dimensions calculator- exists?
- Thread starter evergruven
- Start date
In my experience it is NOT.
First, the stroking area of the shaft is tough to handle when you have a closed-bridge and have a long fluid stroke.
Secondly, the bottom of the butt becomes too fat while the middle is skinny.
Many many moons ago, cue makers figured out have a COMPOUND taper is the best way to go.
The shafts today have 3 to 5 angles. One angle for the stroking area of the shaft, one angle at the joint to closely match the butt's angle. Then the angle or angles between those two end points.
A compound taper butt will have a different taper for the forearm and the handle . The ones who know what they are doing will figure out a stiff taper forearm and a nice handle that does not get too fat or too skinny when you move your grip up and down.
Conical tapers on cue is good for break cues imo.
Sure, some prefer the conical tapered shafts, but they are not even close to the majority.
A lot of possibilities
Back when the world was young I remember house cues with the butt section close to the size of a softball bat. However when you start with multiconic design, the shaft could in theory go to the size of the butt a few inches from the tip then be a straight dowel from there back! You can keep cutting the taper further and further back until you get something you like.
I'm going to rain on your parade a little bit here. Ronnie O'Sullivan is in the top handful of people to ever swing a snooker cue, some will say the best ever. Back when the IPT came to town with mucho dinero to play pool I think they gave him a personal invite, very possibly some inducements to come play pool. He tried pool with his snooker cue for months, I don't remember if it was six months, a year, more or less. At any rate he gave it a fair trial seeing as he was a master with a snooker cue it made sense not to change boats in midstream. However, he eventually acknowledged that a snooker cue wasn't the best for him to play pool with and he went to a pool cue.
Even with a european or conical taper a jointed cue basically needs three tapers, a constant angle from tip past the playing area, a rapidly growing section of shaft so you have room to put a joint in the cue, and then back to only a slight taper in the area you hold.
I have seen single taper one piece cues and I have played with them. They can be made to work. They feel kinda funky if you use a closed bridge, not too bad with an open bridge.
In a redneck joint that had destroyed sticks everywhere somebody had cut down a constant taper ash cue. It was about a foot shorter than it started life and the tip was huge, maybe 18 or 20mm and no idea where the leather for the tip came from. It was also straight as a die and didn't have a loose weight in it like many of the cues in that place did so I started playing with it. Not ideal but it was playable on a bar table.
Pretty much every concept for a cue has been tried. I played with one that had 28-30" of zero taper and the shaft curved like half of a bow to shoot arrows with. That eight or ten inches of warp in the shaft gave some idea why that style of cue never caught on! Maybe it would work with the composite shafts or cues.
Nothing wrong with experimenting for yourself then you know the how and why of how a pool cue is built and how it works. After all of the effort you are very likely to end up with one of the two most common designs, they work.
The new composite shafts are interesting because now you can have a taper on the outside and another taper on the inside. It might be possible to make a zero taper shaft, at least zero on the outside, that works. I don't like jumping on new bandwagons but I have a feeling these are going to take over the serious player's market with just a few stubborn outliers staying with wood. It isn't any of the usual marvelous properties touted, they are little better than the best wooden shafts, maybe no better than individual shafts. What they do offer is 360 degree consistency in a shaft and you should be able to get multiple very close to identical shafts, something very hard to do with wood. The shafts can be turned the same out of wood but the properties of the wood itself will vary.
Have fun and keep us updated.
Hu
Back when the world was young I remember house cues with the butt section close to the size of a softball bat. However when you start with multiconic design, the shaft could in theory go to the size of the butt a few inches from the tip then be a straight dowel from there back! You can keep cutting the taper further and further back until you get something you like.
I'm going to rain on your parade a little bit here. Ronnie O'Sullivan is in the top handful of people to ever swing a snooker cue, some will say the best ever. Back when the IPT came to town with mucho dinero to play pool I think they gave him a personal invite, very possibly some inducements to come play pool. He tried pool with his snooker cue for months, I don't remember if it was six months, a year, more or less. At any rate he gave it a fair trial seeing as he was a master with a snooker cue it made sense not to change boats in midstream. However, he eventually acknowledged that a snooker cue wasn't the best for him to play pool with and he went to a pool cue.
Even with a european or conical taper a jointed cue basically needs three tapers, a constant angle from tip past the playing area, a rapidly growing section of shaft so you have room to put a joint in the cue, and then back to only a slight taper in the area you hold.
I have seen single taper one piece cues and I have played with them. They can be made to work. They feel kinda funky if you use a closed bridge, not too bad with an open bridge.
In a redneck joint that had destroyed sticks everywhere somebody had cut down a constant taper ash cue. It was about a foot shorter than it started life and the tip was huge, maybe 18 or 20mm and no idea where the leather for the tip came from. It was also straight as a die and didn't have a loose weight in it like many of the cues in that place did so I started playing with it. Not ideal but it was playable on a bar table.
Pretty much every concept for a cue has been tried. I played with one that had 28-30" of zero taper and the shaft curved like half of a bow to shoot arrows with. That eight or ten inches of warp in the shaft gave some idea why that style of cue never caught on! Maybe it would work with the composite shafts or cues.
Nothing wrong with experimenting for yourself then you know the how and why of how a pool cue is built and how it works. After all of the effort you are very likely to end up with one of the two most common designs, they work.
The new composite shafts are interesting because now you can have a taper on the outside and another taper on the inside. It might be possible to make a zero taper shaft, at least zero on the outside, that works. I don't like jumping on new bandwagons but I have a feeling these are going to take over the serious player's market with just a few stubborn outliers staying with wood. It isn't any of the usual marvelous properties touted, they are little better than the best wooden shafts, maybe no better than individual shafts. What they do offer is 360 degree consistency in a shaft and you should be able to get multiple very close to identical shafts, something very hard to do with wood. The shafts can be turned the same out of wood but the properties of the wood itself will vary.
Have fun and keep us updated.
Hu
Another perspective:
For the past 15-20 years I've used a cue with a 10mm tip (like a snooker cue) and a conical taper that's straight from tip to buttcap. I use an open bridge (and a very loose closed bridge when I need one), so the conical shaft doesn't bother me when stroking, and I get the advantages of lower squirt and a better view of tip/ball contact with the stiffness of a normal cue. So for me, all upside.
pj
chgo
For the past 15-20 years I've used a cue with a 10mm tip (like a snooker cue) and a conical taper that's straight from tip to buttcap. I use an open bridge (and a very loose closed bridge when I need one), so the conical shaft doesn't bother me when stroking, and I get the advantages of lower squirt and a better view of tip/ball contact with the stiffness of a normal cue. So for me, all upside.
pj
chgo