There most definitely is "old growth" maple. It's what I cut. I harvest them and mill them personally, myself. In the forestry terms, it's generally wood from a 150+ year old tree. Regardless of ring count per inch, if the tree is 150+ years old before harvest, it's old growth. It's not a marketing ploy, it's real. I have pics of one of my 3'+ diameter logs on the mill, being sawed into boards. It was so huge, we had to chainsaw it into square so it would fit into a 36" band mill. Trees this large and/or old are not commercially cut because the wood normally is not white but more of a mocha brown/yellow. Again, not a marketing ploy, but real.
Slow growth can be misleading as well. It does indeed mean tight grain lines but there are several reasons for a tree to grow slow. Even in cold climates of far north, a tree in optimum soil will grow at a healthy rate. Trees growing in nutrient lacking soil will grow very slow and have super tight grain, but the lumber is junk for cues because it's unstable & inconsistent.
Through experience & thousands of shafts I have learned what feels & performs best in a cue. I don't care if it's perfectly straight grained or bright white or a zillion lines per inch. I care about structural characteristics, resiliance, tone, and most importantly texture of grain. The grain texture is how tightly woven & locked the wood fibers are, the difference between a shaft that cuts like wax or a shaft that gets tear-out & fuzzies during cutting. At first glance it's impossible to know, but close visual inspection for somebody who knows what to look for can reveal the true quality of the wood, regardless of grain count or straightness of grain. I know a handful of "custom" builders who know how to distinguish good from bad without cutting, but all builders know when they are cutting good wood or not. How many factory workers know the difference in either? Better yet, how many care?
There are several aspects of building cues that custom builders pride themselves in, and production factories overlook. A good example is shafts. Of 100 shaft dowels I process from raw stock, 20 become shafts that I feel are good enough for my name. Keep in mind that I choose my wood from the beginning for straight grain, and consistent grain, meaning that there are 80 beautiful shafts thrown away. A factory worker trained to choose straight & clean wood will use all 100 of these shafts, meaning that 80% of the cues produced with them will be less than desireable, and 20% will be good cues considering the butts are well made. This is one difference between production & custom.
We can label anything & get our panties bunched up over petty stuff like "what is truly custom", but in the end when all of the BS clears, the custom cues will always have the most respect by the majority of cue buyers. Regardless of anybody's opinions, the vast majority of experienced players, collectors & cue buyers all agree that a well built custom is infinitely better than a production. Oranges are oranges & apples are apples and can not be compared beyond the fact that they are both food & both spherical in shape. Same with cues. There's always one in every group who runs against the grain & always a couple of followers who jump on the bandwagon. It's human, it's expected. But it changes nothing, just makes for some drawn out drama & entertainment for us losers who are bored enough to sit in front of a computer & play with forums. Oh, and that is just my opinion
Slow growth can be misleading as well. It does indeed mean tight grain lines but there are several reasons for a tree to grow slow. Even in cold climates of far north, a tree in optimum soil will grow at a healthy rate. Trees growing in nutrient lacking soil will grow very slow and have super tight grain, but the lumber is junk for cues because it's unstable & inconsistent.
Through experience & thousands of shafts I have learned what feels & performs best in a cue. I don't care if it's perfectly straight grained or bright white or a zillion lines per inch. I care about structural characteristics, resiliance, tone, and most importantly texture of grain. The grain texture is how tightly woven & locked the wood fibers are, the difference between a shaft that cuts like wax or a shaft that gets tear-out & fuzzies during cutting. At first glance it's impossible to know, but close visual inspection for somebody who knows what to look for can reveal the true quality of the wood, regardless of grain count or straightness of grain. I know a handful of "custom" builders who know how to distinguish good from bad without cutting, but all builders know when they are cutting good wood or not. How many factory workers know the difference in either? Better yet, how many care?
There are several aspects of building cues that custom builders pride themselves in, and production factories overlook. A good example is shafts. Of 100 shaft dowels I process from raw stock, 20 become shafts that I feel are good enough for my name. Keep in mind that I choose my wood from the beginning for straight grain, and consistent grain, meaning that there are 80 beautiful shafts thrown away. A factory worker trained to choose straight & clean wood will use all 100 of these shafts, meaning that 80% of the cues produced with them will be less than desireable, and 20% will be good cues considering the butts are well made. This is one difference between production & custom.
We can label anything & get our panties bunched up over petty stuff like "what is truly custom", but in the end when all of the BS clears, the custom cues will always have the most respect by the majority of cue buyers. Regardless of anybody's opinions, the vast majority of experienced players, collectors & cue buyers all agree that a well built custom is infinitely better than a production. Oranges are oranges & apples are apples and can not be compared beyond the fact that they are both food & both spherical in shape. Same with cues. There's always one in every group who runs against the grain & always a couple of followers who jump on the bandwagon. It's human, it's expected. But it changes nothing, just makes for some drawn out drama & entertainment for us losers who are bored enough to sit in front of a computer & play with forums. Oh, and that is just my opinion
