Simply spinning the wood on a lathe throws off the water balance in the wood via centrifugal force, plus every time you cut a piece wood you are in essence monkeying with the internal tension of it, which can (and usually does), cause it to bend one way or another, so the best way to cut shafts is to do it intermittantly, allowing the wood to "rest" several months or even years in between turnings, which also allows you to eliminate any shaft blanks that warp too much as they sit. Most good cue makers will have many shaft blanks at all stages of completion, so when you order a custom cue, you don't have to wait two years.
Also, most players prefer snow white Canadian hard rock maple for shafts for obvious asthetic reasons, but people in the know understand that better shaftwood is more often than not older yellower rock maple with high density (growth rings per inch), rather than the genetically modified trees re-grown, which are enhanced to grow fatser. Typically the former type of wood has many color "blemishes" and darker streaks, but it does feel better.
Purpleheart (Amaranth), also makes good hitting shaft wood, but it is a decidedly different look.
As far as tapers go, not may people are going to argue against DPK designing the best taper judging by how in demand those torturously ugly Southwest cues are, and how many makers have copied it to the 10,000th of an inch. You will never get David to make you any though, but many other makers use the same design.
Laminated shafts, such as the Predator and OB-1, are utter garbage IMO. My garden rake has more harmonic feedback. Plywood is for roof decking.
