fiddleback shaft wood?
- Thread starter asn130
- Start date
asn130 said:
There is probably a worse wood for shafts than Fiddle back Maple but I would have to think for awhile to come up with one. It would be hard to give a guarantee with your straight grained shafts that they will never warp under any condition but by using Fiddle back you can give a guarantee that they will warp no matter how well you care for them.
Dick
asn130 said:
I personally like shaft wood that is Curly Maple, however, I do not think that it stacks up to the firmness of old growth.
I think that old growth / properly stored, cured, and turned old growth is the Holy Grail of shaft wood. Most shaft wood today, that has 15 to 25 growth rings, and that would grade at least AA + for appearance would be considered great shaft wood by today's standards.
Most people today are unfamiliar with shaft wood with 40 + growth rings and the above appearance.
Around five months ago I purchased around 50 Brunswick house cues from the 1920's, and 31 were still straight. I bought the cues to make conversion cues. The first cue I began to prepare for conversion, I checked the growth rings where I separated the upper and lower sections of the cue. I was amazed to fine that there where 58 growth rings at the location where I made the cut, which was .875 thousands. The shaft section was 32.5 inches long and approximately 13.45 mm at the ferrule, but best of all it was still straight.
I used this piece of maple to make a shaft for my cue, and man I have never had a better hitting shaft in my life. Since this time, I have made shafts for some of my friends who also swear by these shafts.
Last of all, in my opinion old growth is the Holy Grail of shaft wood, as I stated above, but like everything else this is subjective and what is great for me my not stack-up to another view point.
Have a great Night!!!!!
Old growth really has nothing to do with how tight the grain is. It has to do wheter the forest has been cut regularly or not. A forest that has really old trees that have not been harvested is old growth. In a large maple tree you will have sections that are tight grained when there was drought and such and you will have wide grain in years where the tree grew fast. In the dense old growth forest tehtrees did tend to grow slower in almost all years than the more opened up forest, so the percentages of tight grained wood are greater. I put the mark at what I consider the bottom end of tight grain to be 15 growth lines per inch. I try to put shafts on my cues with minimum 20 lines per inch and clean. That only accounts for about 2 to 3 % of all the shaft wood that goes through my shop. The two words TIGHT and CLEAN usually don't go together. I have some of the tightest grain shaft wood of any supplier, but maybe not the cleanest, because the more grain lines you have, the more places for a sugar line to be. That is why you now see China cues that are clean with 5 to 6 lines per inch. Less places for problems to be. I sell what I call a tight grained 1.5 shaft, and though not as pretty as the #1 shafts they are in my opinion the best playing. Really tight #1 shafts that I find while tapering go into my personal cabinet. Like I say that is only 2 to 3% of the shaft wood I turn. To address your weight question I like shafts to weigh 4 ounces or more when finished 13mm with brass insert.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
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i have two shafts with fiddleback figuring on my craig peterson cues(now 17 years old) and one on my ed young, and none of them are warped.
if you want a hard hit, fiddleback does the trick,,,but it is hard as in "hard like a rock", ie i don't think they have good spine,,,,they're just hard. good for breaking imo. birdeye shafts have better spine than fiddleback, but nothing beats a good tight grain.
holy grail...tight grain(at least 4+, but 8 is about right for me)/straight grain/prominent dark reddish grain.
if you want a hard hit, fiddleback does the trick,,,but it is hard as in "hard like a rock", ie i don't think they have good spine,,,,they're just hard. good for breaking imo. birdeye shafts have better spine than fiddleback, but nothing beats a good tight grain.
holy grail...tight grain(at least 4+, but 8 is about right for me)/straight grain/prominent dark reddish grain.
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i have two shafts with fiddleback figuring on my craig peterson cues(now 17 years old) and one on my ed young, and none of them are warped.
Those are stull straight-grained rock maple not the usual curly maple.
I've tried laminated curly maple shafts. It was too soft for my liking.
Those are stull straight-grained rock maple not the usual curly maple.
I've tried laminated curly maple shafts. It was too soft for my liking.
I have made a few curly hard maple shafts and they play a little wippy compaired to my regular hard maple. I generally don't use it for shaftwood but it does look good/different. I worked the wood the same as the rest of my shafts and they stayed within a few thousandths of the original straightness. I did cull a few that really dogleged when turning. It all depends on the individual piece of wood. Chris.
I can't tell much difference in Hard Curly and Hard straight grain as far as stiffness. Dieckman swears they hit harder, but I haven't felt much difference. I also have found them to be just about as stable. It surprised me as most curly maple is unstable. Maybe I just got some that was better as my shaft supplier just looked for it for me while cutting hard maple shaft wood.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com