alstl said:
...I'm reading "The Science of Pocket Billiards" by Jack Koehler. He says "Expensive shafts are milled down to final size in several stages to help insure against warping. With each milling a thin layer of wood is shaved off. This changes the iternal stresses and the shaft may warp slightly. After several months another thin layer is milled off which straightens the shaft and again changes the internal stresses...The shafts of cheaper sticks are taken down to final size in one milling."
Before I saw that I assumed shafts were made in one milling. My question is this: How common is it for shafts to be made in several stages vs one milling? It seems like the larger companies making a lot of cues would be under pressure to produce a lot of cues and not have the time to take several months to make a shaft.
Thanks
Most custom cuemakers take several stages and months to turn their shafts. It takes me about two years before a square ends up to be a finished shaft...
I have heard the stories wich are so common with production cues where trees are being cut in Canada, sawn and kiln dried on the boat to Japan, turned down in less than three weeks from boards to shaft in China and send out for sale in less than the total 8 weeks (from tree to shaft).
I don't know if these rumors are true, but I have to make the sad conclusion that too many production cues warp in less then two months...
Anyway, the way of sawing the wood (rift sawn or quarter sawn), the way of drying the wood (air dried or kiln dried), the way of stocking the boards and squares are all of a great influence on maple...
Good cuemakers know how to get thrue these steps without taking too much risk of letting their wood warp.
The best way of making a stress free piece of wood is the way the old Romans did it. Some of the old Roman houses build with wood still stand today...
They used to cut an old (not sick or dead) tree down (preferably during old moon so the sap would stay in the stump), remove the bark and dump the log in a cold, streaming river.
The log would eventually sink and after a year or so, it would start floating again (this was done to remove the sap in the log).
Then, the logs would be stored in dark rooms where they would stay for two or more years untill they were dry.
After the period of three or more years, the log would be cut in beams (quartersawn) and left to dry for another two years in the open air...
Then, the beams would be used in house building, furniture making...etc.
But this process is way too expensive today. Too bad...
Tom Penrose
and dip them in Nelsonite a couple of times in there. Takes a long time to make shafts.