Is burnishing shafts bad?

Double-Dave

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
Hey guys,

There is something that's been bugging me.
There are lots of people advocating burnishing your shafts.
I can understand the pro's of doing that, I like a smooth shaft as much as the next guy, I do it too.

However, when you ask someone what is the worst thing to do to a cue,
the usual response is leaving it in the back of your car.
The rapid/big temperature changes is what most agree is the problem.

I hope you see what I'm getting at, when you burnish a shaft well, it heats up and cools down even faster.
Wouldn't this be even worse for the shaft?

gr. Dave
 
Double-Dave said:
Hey guys,

There is something that's been bugging me.
There are lots of people advocating burnishing your shafts.
I can understand the pro's of doing that, I like a smooth shaft as much as the next guy, I do it too.

However, when you ask someone what is the worst thing to do to a cue,
the usual response is leaving it in the back of your car.
The rapid/big temperature changes is what most agree is the problem.

I hope you see what I'm getting at, when you burnish a shaft well, it heats up and cools down even faster.
Wouldn't this be even worse for the shaft?

gr. Dave
Click to expand...
Not really as burnishing just heats up the surface of the shaft...leaving it in your car on a hot day or cold night changes the temp to the core of the cue then bringing into room tempurature can cause issues like warping and even the surface of the shaft to become rough from moisture that will form on cold shaft...
 
burnishing is good, IMO.

burnishing does much more than just make the shaft smooth.
it also seals the wood, preventing moisture from penetration.

-coop
(not to mention blocking chalk dust)
 
I agree with Coop. Burnishing a shaft with a nice piece of leather is the way I have done them building shafts for years. I always burnish the shaft last thing before I send a new one out or just doing a repair. It does help greatly in sealing the cue , best done while spinning in the lathe though.
Can't go wrong with a good cleaning , sealer , waxing the cue , and doing a final leather burnish on it. It is the way to go.
Thanx ,
Jim
 
Burnishing is not a problem.
As mentioned by others, the short time of heat, and heating only
the surface, mean there is no bad result

Consider, to 'pull out' dents or dings from a shaft, not only do you
heat it with friction, you put water on the dent first.

I squeeze the spinning shaft at the location of the dent.
Use a thick piece of leather to generate heat by friction.

This spot gets so hot that the water steams, not only
is the shaft too hot to touch, I often have to drop the
piece of leather because it is too hot to hold.

Dale
 
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Is burnishing a shaft bad

I'm not saying burnishing a shaft is bad, but I must disagree with the statement that it only heats the surface. How fast do you think wood transmitts heat. Burnishing melts the sealer/wax to get it down in the pores and to wear off tiny wood fibers. If it's hot enought to boil water, it's hot in the middle. As I said earlier, nothing bad about that, just don't say the core of the shaft doesn't heat up.
 
cutter said:
I'm not saying burnishing a shaft is bad, but I must disagree with the statement that it only heats the surface. How fast do you think wood transmitts heat. Burnishing melts the sealer/wax to get it down in the pores and to wear off tiny wood fibers. If it's hot enought to boil water, it's hot in the middle. As I said earlier, nothing bad about that, just don't say the core of the shaft doesn't heat up.
Click to expand...

I agree that the surface of the wood gets very hot, probably 250 to 350 deg. if enough pressure and friction is exerted. However, wood is a horrible conductor of heat. The transfer of heat from the surface to the core of a shaft, I believe, would take some time, certainly not instantainiously. When I steam a dent, I use leather and friction to create the heat to turn the moisture that I put on the shaft to steam. You can see this vapor coming off the shaft when I do it and the shaft I'm sure gets hot but it loses this heat very quickly as immediately after steaming the dent, I can hold the shaft to my cheek and not be burnt. If this heat had penetrated to the core then, I'm sure, the heat would not dissipate so quickly.

Dick
 
burnishing shafts

Dick, just for argumentative reasons I'll disagree with your statement.
Wood is a bad conductor of heat, is probably true, but that's only if it has zero moisture content. If you can get the mositure on the surface to boil, then the nearby mositure is still pretty hot, a lot hotter than when you started. How about the air in the pores, that heats up pretty fast, we all know how far pores can go into wood, especially along a growth ring.
The hotter a piece of wood gets, the less moisture it will hold. It's not only the heat of the trunk that kills the shafts, it's the moisture it drives out. With all that said, we all burnish our shafts one way or another. So apparently it doesn't hurt them.
 
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