saw a busted cue tonight.

[sfleinen]

Curl in wood isn't created by cross-graining that extends through to the other side. Curl is created by light reflectance off of the individual fibers of the wood. It has to do with how the individual fibers lay in relation to the ones above/below it. If they lay differently, the light reflects differently. A hologram would not be a bad comparison.

Careful studies would need to be conducted to determine if straight grained non curly maple is significantly stronger than straight grained curly maple. Curly maple has more of a reputation for moving, which *is* why curly maple gets cored often. But, curly HARD maple can be quite strong and stable. Curly maple being slightly stronger than non curly maple due to the different fiber orientations creating an essentially interlocking composition can't be ruled out without actual data.

Curl and grain orientation are independent, except for the fact that curl rarely shows up well on flat sawn faces.

Thanks for that explanation. However, if you look at the pics in post #7, you can clearly see that the fracture occurred following the grain, from one side, diagonally through to the other. In fact, the fracture itself is curly (i.e. bump and valley), showing that it occurred following the grain.

Or are my eyes misleading me?
-Sean

 

[West Point 1987]

Thanks for that explanation. However, if you look at the pics in post #7, you can clearly see that the fracture occurred following the grain, from one side, diagonally through to the other. In fact, the fracture itself is curly (i.e. bump and valley), showing that it occurred following the grain.

Or are my eyes misleading me?
-Sean

Bingo! I agree with you...looks like a very short run out on the grain of the forearm, to me. Maybe that's one reason Balabushka insisted on straight grain maple for his forearms? I know I've always prefered the hit of straight grain over tiger or BEM. Maybe there's more to it than just hit...:wink:

 

[MVPCues]

Thanks for that explanation. However, if you look at the pics in post #7, you can clearly see that the fracture occurred following the grain, from one side, diagonally through to the other. In fact, the fracture itself is curly (i.e. bump and valley), showing that it occurred following the grain.

Or are my eyes misleading me?
-Sean

No, it didn't follow the grain. The grain in that forearm isn't diagonal the cue's axis. It isn't running out the side of the piece. It certainly looks like dense RPI with little to zero runoff to me. If the break followed the grain in that forearm, it would be split like the OP's picture. The break happened diagonally to the grain due to side loading.

You can argue that it broke in the pattern it did due to the waviness of the individual fibers that creates the curl, but that is purely a guess. It may be a good guess, it may not be. If I took a piece of maple with no curl that was straight grained with no run off and similarly broke it diagonally, it is going to break between fibers at some weak point. That doesn't mean the piece that broke is inherently weak because it didn't have curl.

Your leap that curly maple is weak because *that* piece is broken and it is curly is simply a huge leap. I often do a smack test of wood against a table when I see something in a piece of wood that makes me doubt it. It often breaks. The last two smack tests that resulted in the piece breaking were purpleheart and goncalo alves. Neither were curly. Wood is wood. Wood will break at its weakest point.

 

[MVPCues]

The 4th picture clearly shows that forearm easily had 20 grains per inch. Dense graining with slight meandering back and forth but no real run off. Not only is the break 45 degrees to the axis of the cue, the break (starting from the front of the forearm) started perfectly square to the quarter sawn axis.

Usually, people believe high ring count always equals strength. The fact that that piece has such a relatively high ring count shows that you can't make generalizations about the strength of wood and if there is enough side loading on a cue, any piece of wood will break.

 

[Cornerman]

a guy at league had a cue split in half from the wrap to the joint. i never saw one do that before.

i asked him if he broke with it and he said no.i did not know some cues were made with a pin holding the handle to the fore arm. i mean the fore arm split right in half. wow !

it was a russ espirito cue btw. i took a couple of crappy pics with my phone. lemme try to figure out how to up load them tomorrow.

i do have a team mate that breaks and shoots with a predator. its amazing he has not broke his shaft yet.

Most modern cues that have a wrap area are made like that. Some are not (e.g., merry widow and full splice cues), but the majority of those with a wrap area have the forearm (aka forewrap) fit to the handle (or wrap area) with some kind of joinery, normally a threaded rod or tenon.

Some full-splice cues are joined like that after the splice, under the wrap (George Balabushka specifically) to maintain the full-splice.

Freddie