Shaft -- maple vs ash...?

[McChen]

those are some neat looking woods! i love 3/4 cues too, i wish some american pool cues were like that

 

[Jule]

Interesting woods! Yes, there are many options for shaftwood. I shoot with a hornbeam shaft at the moment and I love it!

 

[zed9]

When I first started playing pool I used my snooker cue which had a 9.5 mm tip, unfortunately one day I was playing when the tip came off (i thought) actually it was the ferrule I got John Parris to repair it but it never was the same. I then asked him to make me an ash shaft with 12.5 mm brass ferrule - he told me that with a brass ferrule I wouldn't be allowed to play tournaments so I took his advice - anyone know if it's true that there is a rule against brass ferrules ?.
Anyway started playing with the new shaft and played badly, so I figured it must be the cue so went and bought a predator reasoning that if I missed I knew it was my fault and not the cue. Recently I bought some sniper tips and put them on all my shafts - including the 'Parris' ash shaft which I hadn't touched in years. I love it, a solid hit but with 'feel' something I never got from the predator. The feel may be helped by the brass joint which I am certain is better than the predator steel one.

 

[LAlouie]

the hard hit you mentioned from the snooker cue is mainly from the taper and the brass ferrule. i don't think ash necessarily gives a hard hit if used for a pool cue.

I understand that.

I also have a billiard cue with a maple shaft. The wood of an ash has a naturally harder hit and the maple's hit has considerably more finesse. To ME, anyway.

 

[McChen]

there is no rule against metal ferrules. bca rules say if it is metal, it can't be more than 1 inch though. that is the only limitation i know of