Keeping that shaft clean???

mattbowen61990

mattbowen61990

Registered
I'm just curious... How do you keep your shaft feeling silky smooth? I can play with my 12mm shaft for a few weeks and then its covered in chalk and is a little sticky to my skin. I don't know if my hands are just sweaty and the chalk sticks easily, but just wondering what everyone does...
 
Well I don't know about everyone else but here's what I do. If the shaft is sticking to my fingers I simply just wash my hands. Warm soap and water. With the same towels I dried my hands with I wipe my shaft off with. It'll wipe the top layer of grim. I do it till at little heat builds just so I know I did it long enough. Wipe the ferrule clean, and boom smooth as silk. But my shaft is easy, no special sealants or anything. I occasionally use 600 grit then the towels if its super humid in the room. With living in Florida that tends to happen. But most often than not washing your hands will work just fine.
 
shaft cleaning

ob has some good technique on shaft cleaning at their web site. home page/drop down box under care and warranty/care and repairs/shaft cleaning and conditioning.
 
i use q wiz
i like this one with the green side and leather side
i beleive it gets the grime off better
then the leather side to burnish
you will find some q wiz that have 2 types of leather only
here is a link for the one i like

http://www.muellers.com/Q-Wiz,2347.html

the cuemakers seem to think this device does not hurt the shafts

i will also give my shaft to a cue repair man from time to time to professionally clean and seal
 
shaft cleaning

NolesFan83 said:
Well I don't know about everyone else but here's what I do. If the shaft is sticking to my fingers I simply just wash my hands. Warm soap and water. With the same towels I dried my hands with I wipe my shaft off with. It'll wipe the top layer of grim. I do it till at little heat builds just so I know I did it long enough. Wipe the ferrule clean, and boom smooth as silk. But my shaft is easy, no special sealants or anything. I occasionally use 600 grit then the towels if its super humid in the room. With living in Florida that tends to happen. But most often than not washing your hands will work just fine.
Click to expand...

no offence . but it sounds like you a rubbing the dirt and grit deeper into the wood grain.


Two problems.
first the shaft gets dirty and then gets sticky,

Dirty,
2 ways to deal with this,
seal the shaft so the chalk dirt and grim , plus what ever you have on your hands.
Oil water, mixed drinks ,soda pop . food, hand lotions doesn't get into wood pores .

don't seal the shaft and use products that will make the shaft slick even over dirt and grim.


This is what I do.

you will need
green scratch pad from the sand paper department hardware store
denatured alcohol.
qt or pint of shellac, buy the clear and not the amder

and a can of carnauba car wax from the auto parts store.


I clean the shaft with denatured alcohol.
by hand wet a white paper towel or a white cotton rag.
get the rag very damp with denatured alcohol < (DA). and wipe the shaft up and down with the grain.

this might take a while, and if the shaft is real dirty for years and years there is little that can be done to get all the dirt and grim out of the wood, besides sanding,
which I do not recommend .

After cleaning the shaft with denature alcohol it will raise the grain on the wood ,
Your shaft will feel fuzzy and not smooth, and sticky, not a big deal at this point.

Mix half and half denatured alcohol and shellac and mix about 1 oz up.

this seal coat will dry almost faster then you can apply it.

put 5 to 10- coats on, its not a problem most of it will be rubbed of anyway.

when you feel like you have applied enough sealer DA/shellac mix.

Then let the sealer dry. shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Take the green scratch pad and knock off and fine wood fibers and rough spots .
Sand very light and don't not sand the wood. just the surface of the wood sealer only.

I use carnauba wax,
Apply carnauba wax to the shaft and let the wax dry completely before you rub it out.

Now you have a clean and slick shaft.

but the oils and acids on your hands will eat through the wax and wood sealer <DA/Shellac.

The idea is to suspend the dirt and grim from reaching the wood grain in the wax and wood sealer that you mixed up.
This will act as protection from dirt and grim.

Shellac Is really Shit from the lac bug from India.
but it is really good shit for wood .
it protects and feeds the woods .
But will not last ,this is not a one time sealer.

If I was shooting 40 hrs a week then I would clean and reseal my shaft once a week.
Except this time the dirt and grim is suspended in the wax and the sealer.
So it will clean up in a heart beat then repeat the above . reseal and wax.


By cleaning and maintaining your shaft it this manner you will never make the shaft smaller.

To the Op if you would of done a search on shaft cleaning you would see there are about 500 threads on this very subject.

MMike
 
mortuarymike-nv said:
no offence . but it sounds like you a rubbing the dirt and grit deeper into the wood grain.


Two problems.
first the shaft gets dirty and then gets sticky,

Dirty,
2 ways to deal with this,
seal the shaft so the chalk dirt and grim , plus what ever you have on your hands.
Oil water, mixed drinks ,soda pop . food, hand lotions doesn't get into wood pores .

don't seal the shaft and use products that will make the shaft slick even over dirt and grim.


This is what I do.

you will need
green scratch pad from the sand paper department hardware store
denatured alcohol.
qt or pint of shellac, buy the clear and not the amder

and a can of carnauba car wax from the auto parts store.


I clean the shaft with denatured alcohol.
by hand wet a white paper towel or a white cotton rag.
get the rag very damp with denatured alcohol < (DA). and wipe the shaft up and down with the grain.

this might take a while, and if the shaft is real dirty for years and years there is little that can be done to get all the dirt and grim out of the wood, besides sanding,
which I do not recommend .

After cleaning the shaft with denature alcohol it will raise the grain on the wood ,
Your shaft will feel fuzzy and not smooth, and sticky, not a big deal at this point.

Mix half and half denatured alcohol and shellac and mix about 1 oz up.

this seal coat will dry almost faster then you can apply it.

put 5 to 10- coats on, its not a problem most of it will be rubbed of anyway.

when you feel like you have applied enough sealer DA/shellac mix.

Then let the sealer dry. shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Take the green scratch pad and knock off and fine wood fibers and rough spots .
Sand very light and don't not sand the wood. just the surface of the wood sealer only.

I use carnauba wax,
Apply carnauba wax to the shaft and let the wax dry completely before you rub it out.

Now you have a clean and slick shaft.

but the oils and acids on your hands will eat through the wax and wood sealer <DA/Shellac.

The idea is to suspend the dirt and grim from reaching the wood grain in the wax and wood sealer that you mixed up.
This will act as protection from dirt and grim.

Shellac Is really Shit from the lac bug from India.
but it is really good shit for wood .
it protects and feeds the woods .
But will not last ,this is not a one time sealer.

If I was shooting 40 hrs a week then I would clean and reseal my shaft once a week.
Except this time the dirt and grim is suspended in the wax and the sealer.
So it will clean up in a heart beat then repeat the above . reseal and wax.


By cleaning and maintaining your shaft it this manner you will never make the shaft smaller.


To the Op if you would of done a search on shaft cleaning you would see there are about 500 threads on this very subject.

MMike
Click to expand...




Yeah about that. That sounds like a whole lot of work. How would washing your hands and then cleaning the shaft make it stick? I've never had that happen. Its all good advice tho.
 
I like my shafts blue. Only way I can find the end, without fouling the cue ball!

I only wipe it with paper towels that I dried my hands with and I will do so every few hours, playing in tourneys, or every couple days, playing at home.

My shafts are slick as taco bell comin out the next day.
 
Last edited:
wood sealed

NolesFan83 said:
Yeah about that. That sounds like a whole lot of work. How would washing your hands and then cleaning the shaft make it stick? I've never had that happen. Its all good advice tho.
Click to expand...

Without the wood being sealed , the pores in the wood are open.
Cleaning the top layer of grim off helps, but the wood grain is still open so more dirt grim
to get into the pores.
The only way I know how to stop dirt and grim from getting into the pores is by sealing the wood.
Everything we touch has dirt on it, then sweaty hands and all the oils and acids on our hands , None of this is healthy for a maple shaft.
Some players like the shafts full of chalk, I don't .

The op was asking how to keep a shaft clean and slick.
Best way is to protect wood.
But at the same time need to keep the shaft slick.
I cannot think of anything that works better then sealing and waxing the shaft.


The shaft is clean slick and protected, it should help keep the wood from drying out and cracking or warping,.

This is only a suggestion, some players and cue makers only wax the shaft with bowling alley wax.

I do not know any custom cue maker that sends out a shaft without something on it.
Shellac or wax or both or what ever, but never seen one seen one sent out without something on the shaft.
If the cue makers are doing this, seem simple enough to me :) I will just do what the cue makers do and learn from them.

Because I do cue repairs , I don't think any of my customers would be impressed if I wiped there shaft down with damp cloth and handed the shaft back to them.
If I broke out a piece of sand paper I think most customers would take the shaft away from me and walk away. I know that is taking what you said to a extreme .
But I don't want anyone sanding any wood off my shafts and I think most players are the same way. This is the main reason I bought a cue lathe , because I took a 12.5 mm at the ferrule shaft in to get a new tip put on and when I got my shaft back it was sanded down to 11mm .

All of my customers are very happy and impressed by the way the shaft looks and feels
after I get done with them. And the best part is that the size of the shaft doesn't ever change.
A player can have a clean slick shaft that will last generations.

And yes it takes time.

.Anyway I am sure there are more ways then the one I suggested on how to keep a shaft clean smooth and slick.
You guys need to do a thread on blue, gritty and sometimes sticky.:duck:

Best of luck
MMike.
 
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