Heavy weight and light weight cues: advantages and disadvantages

riedmich

.. dogs' friend ..
Silver Member
Hello,

before a couple of days I finished my first selfmade cue. Made as a onepiece cue with an old McDaniel shaft and the butt from the limb of a beech. It took me many patience to get the butt staying straight, and it won't stay straight if I put it into another climate, but this is clear and not my issue.

Length: 59"
Shaft length: 30"
Weight: 16,6 oz
Butt diameter: 31,0 mm on the last 10 inches
Tip diameter: 11,2 mm
Taper: conical
Ferrule: no ferrule, just a fiber plate
Tip: good, dense elkmaster
Colour of the butt: coloured with sood
Bumper: several layers of thick leather, screwed

Although I just wanted to experience, what are the limits in making a onepiece cue without lathe and a straight connection between shaft and butt, it came out pretty well and I decided to finish it. Usual water based acrylic lacquer, 5 layers.

Yesterday me and some guys from our billard club played a couple of hours with that funny cuestick, and most of them have been surprised, and also me. The balance of the cue is very natural. The hit and feedback is incredible, and it has a clear, homogenious sound. I'm really surprised. What we are mostly surprised is that it is very easily to play precisely and get defined position of the cueball.

Before I was used to playing cues with more than 19 oz, and my actual Mezz player is at 19,8 oz and pretty much balanced towards the buttend. This is what I feel comfortable with common cues.

But although this new very light cuestick is completely different in weight and balance point I feel also very comfortable. Playing precisely is very easy with it, also at snooker. I can get enough spin, but not extremely much as with my Mezz. But playing position is so easy and I feel if it does exactly what I want, and not more.

So my question is mainly about the weight: Does a light weight cue principally force the player to do much more work? And by this doing easier to play precisely because you work more actively and by this you use your work range in finer steps or easier because you don't have a mage cue that works by its own?
 
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I have shot with a 17.3 cue for yrs . I continually try changeing , and always go back to that cue . Ivory ferrel , Triangle tip , 10 to 11 " pro taper on a Scmelke shaft blank . Love the cue . Jim
 
Regardless of how heavy your cue is, YOU are still the one doing the work. I play best with a lighter cue, but Mizerak played with a 21oz.
 
My Qs balance at 18"-18 1/2", from the end of the butt cap. I have always recommended playing with the HEAVIEST Q YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. For some that may be an 18 oz.. For others a 20 oz. The reason being, with a light weight Q, to hit a long shot & bring the Q ball around the table, you will have to use your back hand & hit harder. Remember that a 1/4" of movement at the back of the Q will move the tip a great deal futher off of the aiming point, on the Q ball. This means that for a right handed player, the tip will generally move off center towards the right, on the Q ball. A heavier Q only has to be drawn back & released forward. The weight of the Q will do the work for you...JER
 
cue weight

my player is 19.2 with a phenolic joint
I have another cue that weighs less,18.5, but has a steel joint. Thd balancd is different, weighted towards the center more.
Its all what you are used to.
In the end it all about the indian anyway, the arrow is secondary.
 
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