Cue & Shaft Construction - Do You Care?

The most important things about a shaft are its weight & mm size/taper.
As long as the shaft falls within a certain weight ratio, then I am happy.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with many cue makers & all of them agreed.
A cue maker’s inventory of wood used for shafts is extremely important.

One of the cue makers I admire the most took the time to explain to me
how various components used to make cues aren’t just randomly chosen.

I already heard this from conversations I had with other cue makers. Hearing this
from him sealed the deal since I consider him to be a great, legendary cue maker.
 
I’ve been interested in the inner workings of cues and their construction since I started playing, about 20 years ago. I’ve tried just about everything I think. Production and custom, low end and high end. Sneaky Pete’s, plain Jane’s, Merry Widows, Full splice with veneers, half splice with veneers, half splice without veneers, pie spliced, cored, inlayed points, piloted steel joints, big pins, unilocs, Linen wrap, leather wrap, wrapless, solid maple shafts, LD maple shafts, Kiel wood, carbon fiber shafts. After all this time and experimentation, I have not found a holy grail. I’ve played great and bad with all of them at some point. Just switched from a revo 12.9 after about a year to a plan solid maple shaft. I was convinced the revo was perfect and had been playing lights out but then all of a sudden lost my confidence with it. Switched to an old maple shaft and won the next match I played, felt like my old self.

It seems a very good playing cue can be made using a wide variety of construction methods and materials. Have I wasted a lot of time and money ? Probably. But it’s something to do. Am I done experimenting? Probably not lol. Sometimes switching cues does seem to re-invigorate my game, despite the age old advice that you should find a good cue and stick with it. I don’t know. Ive enjoyed the journey.
 
Bavafongoul said:
The most important things about a shaft are its weight & mm size/taper.
As long as the shaft falls within a certain weight ratio, then I am happy.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with many cue makers & all of them agreed.
A cue maker’s inventory of wood used for shafts is extremely important.

One of the cue makers I admire the most took the time to explain to me
how various components used to make cues aren’t just randomly chosen.

I already heard this from conversations I had with other cue makers. Hearing this
from him sealed the deal since I consider him to be a great, legendary cue maker.
Click to expand...
Grain orientation is the most important factor . Not to mention how it was dried . Wrongly dried maple will move no matter what you do with it .
Even if it's straight grain end to end .
I've thrown away many tight and heavy pieces . Pieces that made me cry for throwing them away . Many of them had runouts only a few inches from the end but you couldn't get rid of them .
Finding shafts that will end up at 3.7 oz and up is not all that hard .
4 oz are getting tougher .
Tight and heavy pieces are close to being useless as shafts if they have banana grains .
Lots of them get chopped and best sections wind up as cores .
When a maker checks a slab or shaft square, first thing he looks at is grain orientation . He wouldn't even care about the weight yet .
 
7stud said:
I never understood those shafts. It seems like a carbon fiber shaft with wood wrapped around it. If you want to make an LD shaft, that would not be the way to go. Carbon fiber is denser than wood, so a plain wood shaft without the carbon core could be made more LD.
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You are sensible and logical but players love some of the CF/maple combos: Mezz EX Pro, Defy, and claim the hit is great.
EDIT: not the McDermott Defy, it's McDermott's i-Pro,I-1, I-2, I-3, and G-Core

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Bavafongoul said:
The most important things about a shaft are its weight & mm size/taper.
As long as the shaft falls within a certain weight ratio, then I am happy.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with many cue makers & all of them agreed.
A cue maker’s inventory of wood used for shafts is extremely important.

One of the cue makers I admire the most took the time to explain to me
how various components used to make cues aren’t just randomly chosen.

I already heard this from conversations I had with other cue makers. Hearing this
from him sealed the deal since I consider him to be a great, legendary cue maker.
Click to expand...
Who?
 
Folks that have read my posts and threads over the past 10-12 years know whom I am referring to.
Previously, I offered a reward for any cue owner referrals sent my way where I purchased that cue.

No one I know of has ever had anything but praise and adoration for his excellent cue workmanship.
All of the cue makers in my Az member signature, except for Palmer, basically told me the same thing.
 
Paul_#_ said:
This must be the most pieces of wood in any cue shaft --- 64--- the Jacoby Edge Hybrid shaft. Like McDermott, Jacoby argues this is a better shaft because of the glued pieces. See https://www.billiardwarehouse.com/cueobsessions/jacoby/jacoby_hybrid-edge-cueshaft.htm

Construction ___ Sixty-four precisely machined individual veneers compose the shaft. The veneers are stacked on edge, 90 degrees to the centerline.​
​
Balanced Construction ___ The spliced laminated construction yields unprecedented symmetry and balance found in no other shaft, providing maximum stability and radial consistency in play.​
​
Consistency ___ Because of the construction of the shaft, the individual characteristics of the veneers average themselves out. This yields a shaft that is more consistent than any other shaft in the way the shaft will react on each shot, along with the weight and playability of one shaft to another.​

​


View attachment 797512 View attachment 797513
Click to expand...
I think they are 128 now.
 
Paul_#_ said:
Is that Jacoby or some other cue make
Click to expand...
Jacoby, I think my Ultra shafts are all 128. Does it make them better than the 64, who knows, I doubt it, probably allows them to not be so selective on woods. I do know I like the Ultra shafts though.
 
Having built cues for over 35 years. I can tell you how the cue is put together makes a huge difference in how it performs. So you might not be interested in how things are put together internally, but you should want to know the person who built it does care and understand what it takes to make a cue that plays well and will hold up. For instance when I hear newer makers or older ones alike using super glue for internal bonding on various things in cues besides tips, I have my doubts about their cues holding up.
 
I hit everything i buy except maybe a sneaky. I really don't care if its made from fossilized owl shit-n-super glue as long as it hits the way i like. I've hit quite a few uber-expensive cues with superb build and detail that hit like shit. Hint: 2-3 were made in Vegas.
 
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