Question about wood and shafts

[mjantti]

Hello all cue people !

Where do you cuemakers get your wood ? Do you go to a "wood market" or do you have certified buyers around where wood is sold ? Are you constantly looking for good quality wood or do you buy 1/5/10/20 year supply all at once ?

And can you tell me, what is the rejection ratio in the first place when you receive the wood/when shafts are being made/when they are finished ? I know rejecting wood/shafts is mandatory and maybe some cuemakers are more keen on selling perfect wood and some might pass wood with little flaws. I wanted to know what is the "success ratio" in each phase of the shaft making process, are you forced to throw out a lot of wood which doesn't pass the quality test ?

Thanks.

 

[Joseph Cues]

This is one area a cueamaker probably do not wish to share.
If I shared you where I get my premium shafts, I'd be paying more for my next lot.
Searching for quality wood is half the cueamaking.
Reject ratio on shafts are easily 1 in 2 from the best supplier.
Buying boards is the best one can do(unless you can buy lumber). With boards, you can choose how, where and when to cut. If you don't know how, you'll end up with a ton of firewood. If you don't have patience, you'll end up with firewoods.
I buy mine from suppliers. Often I end up with crap. But, that's part of the game.

 

[Zims Rack]

This is one area a cueamaker probably do not wish to share.
If I shared you where I get my premium shafts, I'd be paying more for my next lot.
Searching for quality wood is half the cueamaking.
Reject ratio on shafts are easily 1 in 2 from the best supplier.
Buying boards is the best one can do(unless you can buy lumber). With boards, you can choose how, where and when to cut. If you don't know how, you'll end up with a ton of firewood. If you don't have patience, you'll end up with firewoods.
I buy mine from suppliers. Often I end up with crap. But, that's part of the game.

When you say "boards" are you referring to...say a 2'x4'x12' piece of a particular type of wood, then cut it to the size you need as you need it? This makes complete since to me also, but I can also see where it would take time and research to find quality wood at a fair price.
Thanks,
Zim

 

[Michael Webb]

Price has nothing to do with it. I have shopped from many suppliers. Some are okay, some make you think they have no clue how to choose quality wood. They're just filling an order. But there are a few that know what they're doing.
I do mean a very few.

 

[bandido]

I purchase my stock in lumber form, 8/4x6"-12" widex10' or longer, and sift through the lumberyard myself. It takes me almost a full day doing this as I purchase 6 months worth at a time. My primary target are shafts so a board that shows promise in a certain section, even if the rest of the board is non-shaft candidate, will be purchased for further examination and grading. Sometimes, my initial examination of the board is right on but sometimes unpleasant surprises appear. When this happens, these sections are then turned into flat laminate sections for handles, flat laminate sections for coring dowels, 1-piece round coring dowels (from straight sections of close to final diameter of "almost" a shaft), joint protectors or just end up as adhesive spatulas.

I find that this system is the only way that I can control the quality of the end product and the best way to increase my stock of properly aged and processed materials.

Edwin Reyes