I'd have to see the knot in question to determine whether it's a defect or not. While I agree with your post in general, I disagree about aesthetic defects. My cues have LOTS of aesthetic defects & I sign my name to them proudly. It doesn't affect my reputation. I actually search for & stock shaft wood with high sugar content and/or dark color. People love it. Not only do they expect it, but they request it. It's never debated whether high sugar content and dark color produces better playing shafts. The general consensus I see among TOP builders is that high sugar content & old brown wood is more stable, stiffer, denser, more lively, etc. The problem is that it's ugly & their customers don't want it, even if it means sacrificing playability for quality. Nobody says it like that but it's exactly what's happening.
My point is, there's a double standard for cuemakers that I do not believe is right. The shaft this guy has might look bad on him if he uses it but I could use the same shaft in one of my cues & people would rave about it. The nuts & bolts of the matter is that it's a rock solid awesome shaft & will make an awesome player, but he's afraid the aesthetic defect will cause him trouble. So again, playability is being sacrificed for appearances. I get by with it no problem. I never led my buyers on to believe that they should be getting "pretty" shaft wood from me. I built my reputation on awesome playing ugly wood and that's what people want when they buy my cues. But another builder is pressured to use only "pretty" wood??? It's a double standard. It's cuemakers' fault. Unless we as builders educate our buyers & PROVE to them that ugly wood often times trumps pretty wood in the playability dept., then the double standard will continue. We might as well tell our customers, "here's a good looking piece of wood that plays just ok but it doesn't matter because it looks so good. I threw away an amazing playing shaft because it was ugly. I'm here to serve you". That's basically what's happening, isn't it? I know the sugar & color isn't the issue with the OP's shaft, but the idea is the same.
I'm not trying to argue or point fingers. I'm just telling it like I see it. I think we are dealing with double standards. Something is wrong when a pinnacle cuemaker who knows as much about cues as anybody is afraid to use wood that he knows is the best but thinks people won't accept because of aesthetics. We aren't doing ourselves any favors. I'd personally love to see & play with cues built by the best cuemakers out of high sugar content brown shaft wood. And from what they tell me, they'd love to be able to build them but won't because it's expected of them to use only the white, clean stuff. It's a crippling standard.
