Hi,i just wanted to see closeups of shafts that are considered good and also pics of shafts that are inferior.Are these shafts a requirement when you purchase a higher end cue?
Pics Of Good Shafts And Bad Shafts
- Thread starter Fast Lenny
- Start date
I'm also very interested in the answer. The grading of shafts vary a lot from 1 person to another. When I buy a custom cue, I expect the best and tell the cue builder that is what I want and willing to pay extra. I also purchase shaft blanks and it is also the same. One mans' 5A, 4A, etc is different from another mans' supply.
Thanks Mason,those shafts look great,im suprised i havent seen more contributers good or bad to this thread,it would be nice to see opinions on what good and bad shafts are.masonh said:here are some pics of 3 good shafts.all 15-25 rpi and dead straight.the center annual ring stays in the middle the whole way down the shaft.i am not very good on this camera with close ups,but here you go anyway.
There's much more to a good or bad shaft than initial visual inspection. The way the dust looks when it cuts, if & how much it vibrates while being cut, how the surface looks after being cut can all be ways a builder chooses good from bad & nobody else would ever know in a finished product. Weight, density, texture, color are other things to consider. How much does it weigh compared to oter shafts of the same taper & size? How does it feel sliding through your fingers? Is it stained or discolored? Is it so bright white that you cannot see grain lines? Tone & flex also are major determining factors. With flex testing comes memory response. Does it snap back into shape immediately after being flexed & bent? Or does it snap back a little & then slowly regain it's original shape? Can it be bent noticeably & then immediately rolled across the table & show straightness?
All of this has everything to do with how it will perform on a cue. It all determines how it will react upon impacting the CB & how the CB will react to being impacted. There's tremendously more to a shaft than meets the eye. I know a little about shafts & the wood used to make them, but I cannot even pretend to know a good shaft from a bad one simply by looking at it in finished form. Only the builder knows, and he only knows as much as he cares to learn. The trick to getting good shafts is getting them from the builders who are strongly reputed for quality playing cues. Point is, you'll likely never get a dud shaft from SW or Bluegrass. These guys are not known for their fancy stuff, but instead for their cues' performance.
All of this has everything to do with how it will perform on a cue. It all determines how it will react upon impacting the CB & how the CB will react to being impacted. There's tremendously more to a shaft than meets the eye. I know a little about shafts & the wood used to make them, but I cannot even pretend to know a good shaft from a bad one simply by looking at it in finished form. Only the builder knows, and he only knows as much as he cares to learn. The trick to getting good shafts is getting them from the builders who are strongly reputed for quality playing cues. Point is, you'll likely never get a dud shaft from SW or Bluegrass. These guys are not known for their fancy stuff, but instead for their cues' performance.
Great post i agreeqbilder said:
Best Shaft post
James
Thanks for posting this very informative information about pool cue shafts. Most people who have never worked on or experimented with different cue shafts have no idea about the difference in why one shaft performs better than another shaft even though they are the same size and taper. I've built some shafts in a friend's cue shop and you can just feel the difference in different pieces of maple even though they look almost identical after they've been turned and sanded to the final size. The best cue makers throw out the bad shafts that don't meet their quality requirements to maintain the hit that their cues are famous for.qbilder said:
James
Bump For Pics! :d
SCCues said:
that is so true.. i was at tony's shop (black boar) and he has a mountain of shaft wood that he refuses to use ... we were working on one over the 4 days i was there and on the last day when the shaft was almost done.. he said..no.. this wont work.. took it out and "fling" .. firewood !
no sacrifice is too great for a perfectionist .. you either get them right, or you throw 'em out .. no third option ...
Was it because of a runout or tone?kamdaswani said:
If it had bad tone or runout, I dunno why it made it to the final stages.
Did it move? It does happen, on final pass the shaft just goes pffft!
Makes you wanna cry.
JoeyInCali said:
he explained it to me but i dont remember now ...