Hardest Hitting Cue

[Flex]

I took one of my perfectly good, one piece, solid, hard rock maple shafts...and drilled out about 8 inches out of the front leaving a 5/16 hole. I then threaded in a tenon and replaced the tip & ferrule. Hey the 314's are done that way for a reason, so surely now with all of that front end mass lightened...it must hit wonderful! WRONG...it played like crap.

I imagine the 314s design has been experimented with to a great degree to find how to combine the various factors to produce a shaft that plays well. Just because you drilled out the shaft, and 8 inches of it to boot, and installed a tenon etc doesn't mean you'll get a 314 hit or action or whatever. Don't they drill out about 5 inches, not 8? Maybe their ferrule is different? Shaft taper may influence all this too...

What think ye?

Flex

 

[Musashi]

Cousin Cues are the hardest hitting cues in my opinion.

 

[digitalcrack]

stiffest cue I ever shot with

Steve Klein

 

[pollux]

I imagine the 314s design has been experimented with to a great degree to find how to combine the various factors to produce a shaft that plays well. Just because you drilled out the shaft, and 8 inches of it to boot, and installed a tenon etc doesn't mean you'll get a 314 hit or action or whatever. Don't they drill out about 5 inches, not 8? Maybe their ferrule is different? Shaft taper may influence all this too...

What think ye?

Flex

i think you're absolutely right.

 

[mikepage]

I imagine the 314s design has been experimented with to a great degree to find how to combine the various factors to produce a shaft that plays well. Just because you drilled out the shaft, and 8 inches of it to boot, and installed a tenon etc doesn't mean you'll get a 314 hit or action or whatever. Don't they drill out about 5 inches, not 8? Maybe their ferrule is different? Shaft taper may influence all this too...

What think ye?

Flex

This is what they drill out:

http://www.fargopool.com/p314.jpg

mike page
fargo

 

[Snapshot9]

Cues

Very odd. Two of my favorite cues are my Josey SP and my
25 year old Meucci Diamond. Other favorites are Bender,
Scruggs, Olney, Kikel, Dale Perry, Rauenzahn, Shurtz ,
and McDermott. Where's the pattern? And yet there are
other sticks: Schon, Dominiak, Clint Putnam, that just
seem too stiff to play with. I've found this concept of
stiff vs. soft mystifying. And , no, I'm not a rookie. 40+ years.
I'd love to get a little feedback on my comments.

It would help to know a little more information about the original thread
starter as it might provide more insight. Like where is he located, how old is he, how long has he been playing, How much is he willing to spend?

Recommending $2,000 cues to someone who only wants to spend $4-500 is not practical.

I think Schons play good with pretty good feel. You can pick up a stiff hitting Joss for only $3-400 with 13.25mm conical shaft. Renis cues
(BOY, I will hear it now) made out of hightly compressed Dymondwood
hit stiff can be bought for $400-600 new, less for used one (usually 10-11mm shaft and tip).

Shurtz cues (my cuemaker locally) is definitely a darkhorse cue, especially for the money, and IMO, hits almost identical to Southwest cues (I have compared) for 1/3 to 1/2 the money. You get a lot of cue, especially in
the $750-2,000 range. Bob's website does not reflect his best work (at least not yet). Outside of the Midwest, they are not known too much, but
Bob was the at the DCC last January, and they are a main sponsor of the Midwest 9 ball tour.

I rather like Jacoby cues (have seen many that are very attractive), and they hit well. Cuetecs hit stiff, some Players cues hit stiff. There are a lot of older cues that hit stiff (60's-80's).

 

[thoffen]

Sugartree cues are known for a very stiff hit.

I agree that most of this has to do with the front end of the cue. The joint won't change the way the cue hits the balls a whole lot, but it will change the feedback a whole lot. I hit with a Scruggs and thought it felt rather dead and not stiff like I was expecting, but I could tell it was stiff visually.

Also, a cue's tone will change a lot depending on where you strike the OB. The further off center, the higher-pitched. I believe this is necessary feedback for cueing accuracy. I agree with the sentiment that the tone should be the same, only amplitude should change, but that this is for striking the cue ball in the same location every time!

 

[Rod]

Bingo!

Many of these terms people use to describe "hit" suffer from this. It's funny to read these threads, because if you pay attention you will find opposite attributions assigned to the same adjective:

hard = more feedback to the rear hand
soft = more feedback to the rear hand

You will find some people who equate hard with stiff and soft with whippy and others who think hard/soft and stiff/whippy are two independent things. To some people a hard hit is the higher frequency ting sound you can get by putting a hard enough tip on any cue.

To some people whippy means easy to bend. To others it means low bending frequency.

Some people still think stiff cues squirt more.

Other people think they can get more action on the cueball with a particular taper, a particular tip, a particular ferrule, a particular joint, or a particular song on the juke box.

There's a lot of malarky around here...

mike page
fargo

Mike, in your second to last comment you forgot to add, how the planets are aligned. LOL And your right, There's a lot of malarky around here. There's a lot of pool players that don't know didly about what makes a cue stiff.

Rod

 

[Rod]

A lot more of the perceived hit is a result of the shaft design, particularly its taper. Arguing which cues hit hard or soft, and which joint design yields a harder or softer hit, is meaningless unless the same shaft is used to measure all cues. The butt construction and joint design will affect the hit slightly, but it is much more about the shaft.

Consider this extreme scenario: take a control sample butt and adapt a broom handle to it with a tip. Now take that same control sample butt and this time attach a 1/4" dowle and tip. Which one will have the harder hit?

Back to the real world of pool ... a shafts taper, whether it is more parabolic as in a billiard shaft (really stiff) or a parallel sided, extended "pro taper" (springy), determines whether the shaft gives more or less. That difference is what really gives a cue a greater or lesser sense of stiffness, or firmness of hit. In short, all else being equal, a shaft with a constant taper (conical shaped) will be stiffer than a shaft with extended parallel sides (cylindrical). The conical shape resists bending due to compression a lot more than a cylindrical shape. Simple physics.

Read the discussion of shaft design on Ray Schuler's website for a more complete explanation. It's very interesting material.

Right on the mark Ted. I think it's odd most pool players don't even know what there playing with.

Pool players are an odd sort. By that I mean They buy a cue and find they don't like the feel. Then buy another and it's not right, looking for the magic bullet. Somebody says put a predator on or buy XXX cue. They do so and don't like it either. If the player had only taken the time to be well informed and measured the shaft diameter/taper on his first cues it would have been a step in the right direction.

ANY well made cue can be made for a stiff or softer feel. Lets not forget the tip either. You can fine tune the way it feels by your choice of tip ie, soft, med and hard.

Rod