Looking at Shafts

[qbilder]

Is this because you always strive for a certain balance point? Seems by putting a light shaft on a heavy butt would make it butt heavy.

Thanks,
Koop

There's more to it than has been said. A heavy butt can vary greatly in balance. Heavy behind the handle area will give rear balance. Heavy in front of the handle will give forward balance. This is just in the butt. By considering shaft weight, you can fine tune the weight & balance of the cue. It's a science for sure, and takes experience & time to master. The goal is to reach the desired weight & balance & dimensions while utilizing the finest possible materials. It can be tough, rarely is easy. But in order to consistently build nice playing cues, it must be mastered. It's a game of give & take until an equalibreum is found. This is one aspect of custom cues that production cues cannot compare with. There's a lot more to it than putting pretty shafts on & adding a weight bolt to give desired weight.

 

[ace911]

Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate you guys sharing your knowledge.

I'm still looking for the answer to my second set of questions though, I really curious about this stuff, I hope I can get them answered.

 

[masonh]

the grain is tight if they are close together.you can count them in most shafts and they come anywhere from 1-2 i guess to porbably 60+.the strightness can be determined by following the center line from one end of the shaft to the other to see how much it deviates from center.

the line are the grain or growth rings.if the lines are very wavy it is a bad sign and if the lines run right off the shaft or disappear it is also a bad sign,but that doesn't guarantee it will warp.

 

[ace911]

Thanks Masonh.

So if I don't see too many growth rings or big ones in the shaft, does that mean it is tight grain?

Also sometimes in a shaft I see the archs, I guess its growth rings, they go up one way in the shaft, and then the other side they go down the other way, I was told they were not good shafts, is this true?

What do you guys thinking about what old timers say about using the spine of the shaft to put english, and the arch of the shaf to put follow or draw?

 

[rhncue]

Shaft weight:taper ratio is a sure fire method of determining density. If you use the same taper & size for every shaft, then you can easily begin to zero in on the weight that most often represents a great playing shaft. For me, I cut all of my shafts with the same taper & cut them down to 13.1-13.15mm before final sand. My shafts range from 3.5oz up to 4.7+ oz. Over the past years & hundreds of shafts, I have found that the 3.9-4.1oz shafts are consistently the greatest playing shafts. So weight does indeed factor in a bit when quality is in question.

Now take my 4oz shaft & retaper it to a long pro taper, and it becomes 3.6oz. It's still a great shaft, just a different shape & weight. But at my size & taper, it would be optimum density at 4.0oz. So the taper shape & diameter factor in to the dynamics. It's up to each builder to find his own "prime" shafts & place importance in what he/she has experienced to be the most determining factors. It's different for each of us because we all have different styles, preferences, sizes, shapes, etc. For me, it's never an exact science, not yet at least. I play it one shaft at a time & depend on experience more than rules to tell me if a shaft is good or not. There are of course basic guidlines to begin with, but nothing is ever set in stone.

This is exactly correct and over the years I have mentioned this a number of times but some people, it appears, just can't visualize the concept. The shafts need to be the same size, in length, taper, and any extras such as inserts and ferrules to accurately determine the shafts density or weight per cubic inch of wood. Just using these shafts as examples, would you consider a very stiff Schmelke shaft with the big metal ring on the end for a joint collar and weighing more than 5 oz a better shaft than say a Meucci with a long slender taper weighing only 3.25 oz. To get accurate shaft weights, only the same parameters can be used.

Dick

 

[mindtriplx]

I'm interested about this subject also, exactly how do you measure grain tightness? I'm somewhat confused.

 

[qbilder]

Grain tightness is the number of grain lines that can be counted in one inch. Of course you do this while the dowel or square is larger than 1". Otherwise you pro-rate, estimate.

 

[Cuemaster98]

Thanks guys,

Been learning alot more about shaft wood than I want to squeeze in my brain from the many threads on here.

I've been trying to accumulate as many curly maple shafts dowel as I can find. I'm not sure why but these are really hard to find now a day. Most of the good shaft that I've played with are either hard curly or very straight grain. I have a straight grain shaft from Joel Weinstock that run straight from tip to joint..with about 8-10 ring counts and it probably one of the best hitting shaft that I'm owned to date.

My question as it relate to shaft is...if you have good shaft woods can the taper affect how it will play? Pro vs Parabolic? which taper will be better for what kind of shaft wood (straight vs curly?). How big of a factor is type of tips on a shaft have on playability of the shaft?

Thanks,
Duc.