acousticsguru: I'm going to have to disagree with you on a few points.
I knew before I even typed one word of what I said that the person contradicting me would be a cue maker. Mind you, we players are not the enemy!
Wood, no matter what species, moves. *PERIOD*.
You're not addressing my principal argument: that it's a matter of quality of the wood, the seasoning, as well as turning the wood down slowly. On purpose? Since you are a cue maker, you should know best what I'm referring to. And yes, you may feel free to check out any of my decades to 150+ year-old stuff. No wonder Snooker pro Ally Carter bought a centuries-old cue (even if Snooker cues are made from ash and not maple). Not only did the wood available back then have more growth rings per inch (and thus is more resistant to thumping), it was handled and machined more slowly (Ronnie Powell of QuePerfect for example insists one should never make cuts of .010, but only .005 in one pass, then let shaft dowels rest for three weeks at least, especially also when sanding and thus heating shaft wood). In order to make the old stuff warp you had to abuse it, that is, either heat it, wet it or sand it:
Wood moves more the thinner it gets. Coincidentally, shafts are the skinniest part of the whole cue. And, shafts are typically not clear coated so the open grains are much more susceptible to changes in humidity and temperature.
It's true that our skin is ever so slightly abrasive, even more so the chalk that may come between it and the shaft using it, but tell me about your experience measuring how much thinner a shaft gets through use only (of course I could tell you - but as you point out, I'm just another player/coach/instructor). On the other hand the mixture of chalk and hand oil protects the wood better than any coat ever could. Jerry Franklin once pointed that out to me. Mike Lambros says the same. It's partly a matter of not sanding the cue, nor cleaning it with anything abrasive. I tell all my students that they shouldn't be surprised to see their shafts warp if they use anything abrasive on them - usually, they're not even aware the products they use are.
In no way was I trying to say that you should simply accept warped shafts. However, I was trying to point out there are far more reasons why shafts warp other than just the cuemaker doing a sloppy job. *ASSUMING* the cuemaker did a good job making a perfectly straight shaft, the customer can do many things to negatively effect the cue's straightness.
Define "sloppy"! What I said was referring to 21st century availability of shaft wood. And yes, we agree the customer (leaving the cue in the trunk of his car in summer/winter, using sandpaper, even micro-burnishing films, or abrasive cleaning solutions, or ones that contain water raising the grain etc., or worst of all indeed, reaching an age of 200+ years wearing the poor thing out playing for 18 hours every day) may be the culprit.
While I, too, believe that a laser-straight shaft is best, there has to be *SOME* amount of acceptable warpage in a shaft. How much is, of course, subjective. It's my suggestion that 1/100th of an inch is well within the limits of acceptability.
I agree, unless the person were able to see the wavering during their practice strokes and stroke. If it's merely a matter of rolling the cue on a flat surface (= a pool table is rarely flat enough for this purpose), or spin it in a lathe to check for "eye run-out" as e.g. Dave Barenbrugge calls it, and losing confidence in the cue because of what one "knows" rather than perceives and is constantly aware of, the player IMHO doesn't need a new cue/shaft but instruction/coaching. Personally, I've run three digits with a cue that isn't straight, so…
Finally, even before I made pool cues, I just never understood players that worried about the tiniest little details that just don't matter. You turn your cue because you can see the warp in your shaft as you're stroking? Really?!? Your stroke is so laser perfect that you can detect that slight imperfection. And that imperfection gets into your head, damaging your confidence, thereby throwing your whole game off? I'm guessing there's a bit more wrong with your game than your warped shaft.
Details do matter! Details are what have made me a better player and teacher at this game. Feel free to believe the
devil is in the details, but think twice before you suggest this must be true for others.
Greetings from Switzerland, David.
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„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
