Hi, I have always played with really stiff tapers and hard tips as I find they do not deflect as much when you put a lot of side on the ball for long shots. I have a 4 pointer purpleheart Tad and a Black Boar each with really stiff original shafts.
Anyway i bought 2 new shafts in 2014 for the Boar from Michael Vollmer one is a ferrule-less which is also very stiff and the other is 13mm and made with an ivory ferrule which after a couple of test hits I found it much more flexible and put it straight back in the case.
However the other day the tip came off of my shaft and I took out the other Vollmer shaft after almost 2 years and have been playing with it for the past week. I must say it has really surprised me because it has almost no deflection and is extremely powerful. I can impart more controlled side, straighter follow through and effortless screw back much better than any of the other shafts. The stopping power on long shots is out of this world, you can hold the ball on a coin.
It is so easy to control the ball that I am regularly running 2-3 racks of 8ball in races to 5 without putting a lot of thought into it which I normally have to do with the other shafts. Anyway, they say you learn something new everyday and I am sticking with this shaft from now on as it feels a much more natural player and it has completely changed my perspectives on more flexible playing shafts and also the deflection of ivory ferrules
However, I am interested whether other people like the more flexible shafts because the first thing most people do when looking at a cue is to test how stiff the shaft is?
Anyway i bought 2 new shafts in 2014 for the Boar from Michael Vollmer one is a ferrule-less which is also very stiff and the other is 13mm and made with an ivory ferrule which after a couple of test hits I found it much more flexible and put it straight back in the case.
However the other day the tip came off of my shaft and I took out the other Vollmer shaft after almost 2 years and have been playing with it for the past week. I must say it has really surprised me because it has almost no deflection and is extremely powerful. I can impart more controlled side, straighter follow through and effortless screw back much better than any of the other shafts. The stopping power on long shots is out of this world, you can hold the ball on a coin.
It is so easy to control the ball that I am regularly running 2-3 racks of 8ball in races to 5 without putting a lot of thought into it which I normally have to do with the other shafts. Anyway, they say you learn something new everyday and I am sticking with this shaft from now on as it feels a much more natural player and it has completely changed my perspectives on more flexible playing shafts and also the deflection of ivory ferrules
However, I am interested whether other people like the more flexible shafts because the first thing most people do when looking at a cue is to test how stiff the shaft is?
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