Can you get to 23% shaft weight without ivory ferrules and/or high deflection? For instance, a 20 oz cue with a 23% shaft works out to a 4.6 oz shaft. I don't think I've ever seen any type of maple shaft for sale that weighs 4.6 oz. Even the maple shafts with ivory ferrules tend to weigh less than that. So I imagine you would have to get a custom carbon shaft with weight added near the joint to get a 23% shaft without high deflection.
Lots of cue makers make cues in the 20-23% weight ratio. Just start looking at the custom cues from the best names
in cue making. The example cited about a 20 ounce cue…..18% is a 3.6 ounce shaft, 19% is 3.8 ozs, 20% is 4.0 ozs, 21% is 4.2 oz shaft, 22% is a 4.4 oz. shaft & 23% (which is the max of the weight percentage scale) would be 4.6 ozs.
IMO…..20-21% seems to be the best range which is how the majority of my cues were built, except the ‘85 Schon cue.
Look at the cues made by George Balabushka, Gus or Barry Szamboti, Joel Hercek, Bob Manzino, Bob Owen, Bill Stroud,
Ed Prewitt, Richard Black, Tim Scruggs….gosh, just look at the best names in cue making and they all followed this guide.
Sure, somewhere someone will point to a cue they might have made and it had 3.4 oz. shafts on a 15.5 oz butt. But
that is the exception, not the rule. And keep in mind the the weight of the shaft is increased by the brass receiver when
the joint is piloted whereas flat wood joints, which all my ivory joint cues have, the weight is just wood, ferrule and tip.
So a 4.25 oz flat faced wood shaft with the same size and taper as a piloted shaft naturally uses more or heavier wood.
Ernie Gutierrez made a video about his shop a long time ago and he has barrels containing old growth wood dowls
he uses for special custom cues. It is old growth wood and it has more density and weighs more than the same size wood dowls available today. It’s also worth a lot more too because there aren’t a lot of 90 -150 years old trees still being cut.
If you get the chance to speak with any of the top names in cue making, they usually do not make cues with shafts that
do not fall within the weight range I’ve been preaching for over a decade. And know what? Not one cue maker I’ve ever
spoken with disagreed with my observation about shaft weight being matched to the butt weight. I’ve seen some cues
listed for sale that had a 15.5 oz butt and 3.4 oz shafts. And that same cue was flipped multiple times fairly quickly too.
Kinda tells ya something. Now you don’t need to take my word for it. Try contacting Jerry Rauenzahn and ask him. He’s
retired now so he doesn’t have any skin in the game any longer so to speak. He’ll tell you what I’m trying to but much better. Speak with any cue maker with a long waiting list for new orders. It means they are very popular and successful.
If you get the opportunity to test this in person, you’ll learn firsthand the subtle difference in balance and feel that’s real.
