How do you line up your ash snooker cue?

S

SpinDoctor

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Looking at some recent posts got me to thinking about the grain of ash snooker cues. How do you line yours up when you shoot? Do you have the arrows on the top in your line of sight or the straight grain lines?

I personally can't standing seeing the arrows when I shoot and the bevel in the butt sits perfectly in my hand with the grain lines on the top.
 
Theoretically you're supposed to keep the grain parallel to the bed of the table to limit deflection when playing side. (the lines on the sides of the cue, with the chevrons visible)
But I don't think it matters a great deal, as you need to learn how much the deflection is anyway. But there might be different amount of deflection playing running vs check side when the grain is vertical.
 
The grain has absolutely nothing to do with deflection. Doc's either winding you up or he's up for the most stupidist comment about cues ever made award. :p

Most ash cues made today have the v's / chevrons in line with the badge/nameplate unless the buyer specifies different with a made to order cue wheras with most of the older billiard tapered cues a straight grain side faced up and a weight stamp added.

A tight straight grained ash shaft with evenly spaced v's is the most sort after and accounts for roughly 2% of all shafts. As such most cuemakers put them aside for their best cues and charge as much as an extra £100 for them.

Deflection will vary from cue to cue as it's determined by many factors including the tip size, the taper, the density of the wood, the ferrule material and length, the strength of the stroke, and the humidity in the air. Many US oool players swear by the likes of Predator shafts with their laminated make up giving rise to a consistent rate of low deflection yet their claim of being the lowest deflecting cues possible is comical, the Acuerist cue as used by Stephen Hendry a horrid cue made in the far east and sold for 10 times it's worth is not laminated and if you believe the bull about tests made with Predators own robots produces less throw than any cue. Acuerist invite you to take up the challenge and compare your own cue to one of theirs knowing full well some will find the Acuerist producing less deflection but most who try have to buy first.

Ever wondered why Peter Ebdon who plays with a cheap machine spliced Dufferin cue his parents bought him many years ago for £15 on the site says the Acuerist is far better with the lower deflection than his own cue yet he still uses his own?

It's because most good players play with the same cue for many years . they learn just how much deflection they will get from a given shot and make allowance for it. Getting used to a new cue is easy for most of us but getting used to how much to compensate for deflection over a multitude of shots takes a long long time.
 
Hey Wity. No, I wasn't kidding! My snooker instructor was also a big science nerd (bigger than I) and he said that the tensile strength (and thus flex under an applied force) of wood across the grain was different than with the grain etc. I didn't do any independent research on it, but had no reason to doubt him.

But you're absolutely right, you need to learn how your cue responds for every shot. For amateurs it doesn't make much if any difference. Just keep the same side pointing up!
 
I've heard the same story about the chevrons facing upwards when shooting but I just don't like the why they look while I'm cueing. My cue has some perfectly straight tight grain and I've always liked the way it looks but I'll have to try playing with it the other way for a bit to see if there is any noticeable difference.

I agree about the difference with really straight grained ash though, I've played with some less than perfect grains and noticed a really big difference in their playability.
 
I personally believe a good piece of ash is the most important component of a good snooker cue (provided that it is nicely balanced and constructed).
Usually the chevrons are lined up with the name plate on a modern snooker cue. But some players like to have their shafts lined up differently due to sighting issues, and it can be done as well.
For example, John Higgins likes to have the chevrons point towards him rather than the cue ball so his cue is lined up that way.
I have also seen some cues with the name plate lined up with the tight straight grains of the ash, with the chevrons running on the side. But these cues are very old. I dont think a cue maker would do that on his standard cues today.
If you have a cue custom made, you can always ask the cue maker to line up the grains the way you prefer.
I want to point out that I have also seen some ash with may be only one short black line and then nothing all the way down, with no chevrons at all on one side.
I think the idea of lining up the chevrons is that it can helps to sight, and it also makes the shaft looks more symmetrical. If you have the straight grains on top of the shaft, then you will have grains running towards the front on one side, and running backward on the other.
 
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drsnooker said:
... he said that the tensile strength (and thus flex under an applied force) of wood across the grain was different than with the grain...
Click to expand...

Yeah i agree there but I fail to see a possible difference if a shaft is rotated somewhat.
 
As I've said before, I don't think it's a big difference if at all noticeable, but when you strike the cue ball off-center, you will bend your cue sideways, away from the cue ball. (There are some really cool slowmo movies on youtube) Depending on the direction of the wood grain this will be resisted more when you have the grain parallel to the baize.
Anyway, the difference might only be theoretical, not practical. You still need to learn how much deflection you get on each shot, whether it is more or less if you rotated your cue, doesn't really matter. There will always be some, never zero, unless you hit center ball.
From the opposite theoretical perspective, does the slightly lower tensile strength help with screw?:sorry:
 
Was your coach Dr Dave bt any chance?


Spose it could be practical not just theory but you'd need a pretty whippy cue for it to be noticable, as you say if at all.
 
Worro mate, yeah it's a nice forum pretty much goon free, hell it must be I've been here 2 years and not spoken to one let alone fallen out with one.
The Weasel is aboard but he's been vacinated i think, totally harmless he is here.:wink:

Not many of our colonial cousins are into snooker but i tell you what them that are are keen as mustard.
 
I'm an import. My coach was a British dude named Allister when I was still living in the ol' country.
 
drsnooker said:
Hey Wity. No, I wasn't kidding! My snooker instructor was also a big science nerd (bigger than I) and he said that the tensile strength (and thus flex under an applied force) of wood across the grain was different than with the grain etc. I didn't do any independent research on it, but had no reason to doubt him.

But you're absolutely right, you need to learn how your cue responds for every shot. For amateurs it doesn't make much if any difference. Just keep the same side pointing up!
Click to expand...

ummm - bit new on here to start already....

all that matters with any cue in any cue sport is that it responds the same way every time. the amount of flex etc is not important as long as it remains the same. as for the different way of the grain pointing i struggle to imagine that the amount of tensile difference would be enough for a human to notice it - that said i might test it later to be sure. reminds me of the gravity cue idea only even less plausable.
 
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