Coring a cue?

2

219Dave

Pool is my therapy
Silver Member
Hi all. I've played pool for a while, but am new to the custom cue world. Can you guys please explain to me when you do and when you do not core a cue? Is it to make the cue stiffer hitting? If the wood isn't structurally sound? To make a heavy wood (like ebony) lighter?

More specifically, I'm thinking of having a cocobolo (or maybe BEM) plain jane made for me. I want a linen wrap, 12.75 shaft and around 19.3-19.5 ounces. Can't really tell you how stiff I like the cue. I am currently playing with a Viking F-98 with 314-2 shaft.

What would be the advantages and disadvantages of coring the cue that I want made?

Thanks in advance for the info,

David
 
they do it for weight and b/c the straight grain Maple or whatever they use for a core is likely to be more stable than the cored wood.i think to use a solid piece of Cocobolo they would have to know for certain that the wood is old and stable.i do think most cuemakers could make a solid Cocobolo forearm cue to your weight specs though.
 
Coring the cocobolo will make your cue lighter and feel more balanced like a maple cue would. If you want it to hit like cocobolo and can live with a more forward balanced cue don't core it. If you want it to look like cocobolo and play a little more like maple then core it. It only makes it hit stiffer if you are coring a light weight or burl type of wood. It softens the hit of Ebony, cocobolo and other harder, heavier tone woods. Coring is also done to help keep woods from warping that are prone to warping. Adds strength to other weaker woods or burls. One of the down sides to coring is it makes the cue much more prone to cracking. Especially when inlaying the forearm or cored handle.
 
TellsItLikeItIs said:
Another internet myth!!!!!
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Not a myth. A fact. When you cut all the way through a thin piece of wood to do inlays it is much more prone to cracking. Butt Sleeves for instance are much more prone to cracking than than solid handle wood. How much more then will a forearm with only .100" to .175" wall thickness be prone to cracking?
 
cueman said:
Not a myth. A fact. When you cut all the way through a thin piece of wood to do inlays it is much more prone to cracking. Butt Sleeves for instance are much more prone to cracking than than solid handle wood. How much more then will a forearm with only .100" to .175" wall thickness be prone to cracking?
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You are making an all inclusive statement that cored cues are prone to cracking. You may have
troubles with yours cracking but that doesn't mean everybody does.

Wouldnt it be more accurate to say it is possible rather than it is? Of course its also possible the
whole front will break in two on a non-cored cue. Do you think that particular possibility is moreso
with a cored cue? I don't.

Its interesting to me that those that do not core certain cues are the first to criticize the technique.
Its being done by some of the best makers in the business (not just because they can but for particular
reasons) yet theres still a few die hards that take the time to be critical of it, but dont take the time to
study the technique and realize the benefit (especially to the customer).

When was the last time you saw a non-cored cue warped? When was the last time you saw a cored cue
warped?

Why would you want to cut an inlay all the way through the parent wood anyway?
 
dave sutton said:
lol...:rolleyes:

must be nice to tell mosconi how to play pool:D

chris pm sent
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Even Mosconi made a mistake occasionally. One he made was when he was 7 years old~~~~~He challenged Ralph Greenleaf! And lost.
 
Cored Cues

Hello:

Not to start an argument, but I have cored about 50 cues and have never seen one crack. The outer wood (and the core) MUST be throughly seasoned and machined correctly. To see how it is done go to the "HOW WE MAKE A CUE" at www.denalicues.com.

Bob Flynn
 
QMAKER said:
Hello:

Not to start an argument, but I have cored about 50 cues and have never seen one crack. The outer wood (and the core) MUST be throughly seasoned and machined correctly. To see how it is done go to the "HOW WE MAKE A CUE" at www.denalicues.com.

Bob Flynn
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Nahhh, no arguments, just differences in opinions. Thanks for sharing your shop tour. Well equipped and very well organized.
 
i can't beleive i am actually reading people say that a piece of wood that is solid is just as likely to crack than a piece of wood which has a 3/4" hole drilled all the way through it.i am not saying that cored wood should crack,but it is common sense to believe it would have a better chance of cracking than a solid piece
 
masonh said:
i can't beleive i am actually reading people say that a piece of wood that is solid is just as likely to crack than a piece of wood which has a 3/4" hole drilled all the way through it.i am not saying that cored wood should crack,but it is common sense to believe it would have a better chance of cracking than a solid piece
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I'm not seeing how once it is cored it is any different than a solid piece of wood. I cut points into them and even at the very ends where there isn't much material left, you can't separate the inside from the outside. When cutting with the tool bit, even when only a couple of thousandths from the core itself, nothing comes chipping off.
 
masonh said:
i can't beleive i am actually reading people say that a piece of wood that is solid is just as likely to crack than a piece of wood which has a 3/4" hole drilled all the way through it.i am not saying that cored wood should crack,but it is common sense to believe it would have a better chance of cracking than a solid piece
Click to expand...
Seen any of those flat lam shafts split after someone bent it?:)
 
i was wondering which would add more weight, a purpleheart coring dowel or a flat-lam coring dowel?
 
Pancerny said:
Weigh the core and you'll have your answer.
Mike
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yeah i agree, i don't have a scale though. i was asking because i've read posts where a seller had a cue for sale with a purpleheart core and i've seen ones with a flat-lam core and nothing was mentioned about the weight difference either of these would make, and figured this was the perfect post to ask.
 
TellsItLikeItIs said:
You are making an all inclusive statement that cored cues are prone to cracking. You may have
troubles with yours cracking but that doesn't mean everybody does.

Wouldnt it be more accurate to say it is possible rather than it is? Of course its also possible the
whole front will break in two on a non-cored cue. Do you think that particular possibility is moreso
with a cored cue? I don't.

Its interesting to me that those that do not core certain cues are the first to criticize the technique.
Its being done by some of the best makers in the business (not just because they can but for particular
reasons) yet theres still a few die hards that take the time to be critical of it, but dont take the time to
study the technique and realize the benefit (especially to the customer).

When was the last time you saw a non-cored cue warped? When was the last time you saw a cored cue
warped?

Why would you want to cut an inlay all the way through the parent wood anyway?
Click to expand...
What i said was it is more prone to cracking if cored. I was actually doing something I felt was being neglected in this thread and that was answering his questions one by one. He basically asked for the pros and cons. I gave him some of the pros and cons. Have you ever had a cue crack while coring it? Yes I have seen cored and non cored cues warp. But I have definitely seen more non cored cues than cored cues warp. I mentioned stability as a positive. There are many positives to coring. But to say there are no negatives is not honest. With awall thickness of many cored cues being .100" in places I would think why cutting all the way through the parent wood would be obvious. I lay my inlays in about .150" most of the time.
 
Tony Zinzola said:
I'm not seeing how once it is cored it is any different than a solid piece of wood. I cut points into them and even at the very ends where there isn't much material left, you can't separate the inside from the outside. When cutting with the tool bit, even when only a couple of thousandths from the core itself, nothing comes chipping off.
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Here is a easy to understand example that might help you understand. Even though the outer core is glued to a inner dowel it will get the vibration of the cue striking the cueball running through it. Kind of like a ferrule does. I do think those who use 5/8" cores instead of 3/4" cores will be less likely to have a problem. Take ferrules for example as the forearm cored is basically a long ferrule over a tenon. Meucci used to make 3/8 tenons and their ferrules cracked all the time. I would replace that with a 5/16" id ferrule and they held up much better, but still cracked once in a while. I have used the same type of material solid capped and almost never had a problem. Take that same material and leave it solid and plug it down into the shaft and the material would never crack. Many cracks have I seen where the handle and forearm meet during my years of repair work. That is just a short internal core an inch long. The forearm cores is 12 inches and getting thinner on the wall thickness all the way up. I also have seen more butt sleeves crack than solid handles. No difference there because it is a 3 or 4 inch core. What percentage of "more prone" to cracking can I put on it. Don't know, but still firmly believe coring makes the outer wood more prone to cracking, especially in abusive situations, like hot trunks.
 
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masonh said:
i can't beleive i am actually reading people say that a piece of wood that is solid is just as likely to crack than a piece of wood which has a 3/4" hole drilled all the way through it.i am not saying that cored wood should crack,but it is common sense to believe it would have a better chance of cracking than a solid piece
Click to expand...

agreed.... the statement was MORE PRONE not does or will
 
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