That’s great and he makes one of the prettiest, highest priced KW shafts that take 5 months to build.
Mr. Hsu also has the challenge of building a heavier KW shaft . One of his just sold on Az that was 30”
length & only weighed 3.59 ozs., almost a 1/2 oz. lighter than my requirements. The only shafts he’s made
that I’ve seen that approaches 4 ozs. are 13mm shafts that are piloted. My shaft is flat faced so there isn’t
a brass receiver that boosts the shaft’s weight and the diameter is 12.75mm. Richard also is challenged
to build the shaft I want made like other cue makers & shaft builders I contacted expressed hesitancy over.
A couple of cue makers active on Az have expressed confidence they can do this and contacted me but
nothing concrete has happened yet. SSDiver2112 built the prettiest curly wood KW shaft, nicer than any
Tsunami cue, IMO. He posted photos on a different thread of mine. Phelps Cues also is a contender and
seems to have command over what’s needed to build a shaft as heavy as I want. Yesterday, a prominent
cue maker stepped up and contacted me. They want to tackle this shaft & offered a money back guarantee
if I wasn’t satisfied with how the shaft turned out. Now that’s really expressing confidence they can build it.
Indeed, Tsunami KW shaft are the highest priced of any KW shaft and take as long as some cues to build.
However, my requirements challenge any cue maker. I started my search last November and communicated
with over a dozen builders that all declined. Probably another 1/2 dozen never even responded with a reply.
So when a top name cue maker responded yesterday & said they are willing to give it a try, I became excited.
I have a thread in the Ask The Cue Maker Forum that outlines this and the different responses and suggestions.
Richard Hsu is a highly touted name and for good reason too because he builds an amazing KW shaft. As I’ve
learned, building a KW shaft is different. But no cue maker has a patent of how to build a KW shaft and any
competent cue maker with the right equipment can build one. The challenge is building a heavier version I want.
Based on all the cue makers that I’ve communicated with, the trick is to have the right wood to start with or else
you have to add artificially add weight to the shaft with an insert or something else. I want a flat faced shaft that
consists of wood, ferrule and tip…..that’s it, I failed to locate the Joel Hercek cue I wanted and looked for years.
My search for white/black speck Cortland linen failed as well. However, up until now, this search was also in vain.
Thank you for the advice about Richard Hsu but I don’t want to pay that much for just a wood shaft and sure don’t
want to wait 20 or more weeks to get it. My Cory Barnhart RMS shaft, costing hundreds less, plays every bit as nice
as his 2.0 Tsunami shafts do. I played for an hour with my friend’s Tsunami shaft and he used my Barnhart RMS shaft.
I sure can’t justify the higher price based on how the two shafts play but the Tsunami was definitely more handsome.
In conclusion, I’m not buying a shaft because of the way it looks. The only thing that matters is how the shaft performs.
I know a player’s skills decides how well any cue or shaft ultimately performs. KW shafts are a step up in wood shafts.
en.wikipedia.org
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