Step by Step, with photos, easy and safe shaft cleaning

TATE said:
After playing (bad) at Hollywood Billiards, I had a shaft full of red stuff. I wanted to wash it off - check out the before and after pics.

Magic Eraser is melamine foam that cleans at the cellular level. The substance gets stuff out while being minimally abrasive. It is roughly the equivalent of 1500 grit paper. It's unique cell structure reaches deep into the pores.

The photos below show why red chalk is a disaster. My playing shaft looked like that after just one day. Contrast that to the blue chalk shaft top and to the right, which had not been cleaned in years. I had already tried to wipe the red off and that didn't work, so here's how I did it.

1) Wet a magic eraser, squeeze out the excess water so it's just damp, and rub the shafts down until they were clean. You can wash out the eraser like a sponge.

2) Let the shafts dry (about 15 minutes). The water will raise the wood grain.

3) Use 1500 to 2000 grit sand paper (dry) to remove the grain.

4) Use a paper shopping bag or parchment paper* to burnish the shafts. Follow with a soft cloth or paper towel.

This is a minimally invasive cleaning technique which will not wear your shafts down while still getting all the grease, oil, chalk and residue off. The shafts stay clean a long time because the technique raises, removes, and seals the loose wood fibers, which otherwise will be raised by the sweat in your hands.

Check out the final photo - they are smooth as glass and look like new.

Chris

* Parchment Paper (bakery release paper) is used for baking and is on store shelves near the aluminum foil. It is contains polymer compounds that rub off on the wood and help seal it and make it very smooth.
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Used this method this evening and the results were fantastic. Took 13 years of chalk out of my cue.
 
genuino said:
Thanks for this info, it works!

Is that a VMax on your avatar? :thumbup:
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Thank you. No but I like the V Max. Mine's a BMW RnineT - a retro BMW 1200 café racer. Here's what it looks like in it's current configuration. I love this thing.
 

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SARDiver said:
Used this method this evening and the results were fantastic. Took 13 years of chalk out of my cue.
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It should also keep the shaft clean and trouble free for a long time. I am ready to do mine again for the first time since this was published nearly 6 years ago.
 
TATE said:
Thank you. No but I like the V Max. Mine's a BMW RnineT - a retro BMW 1200 café racer. Here's what it looks like in it's current configuration. I love this thing.
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I own a VTX1800C, and it's a helluva bike.

I rode a VMAX one time, back in my college days. I was doing 60mph in 5th gear and goosed the throttle. The front end started to come up on me.

The VMAX is the one bike that has scared the hell out of me. That bike is hairy.

Hairy.
 
TATE said:
It should also keep the shaft clean and trouble free for a long time. I am ready to do mine again for the first time since this was published nearly 6 years ago.
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And I thank you, sir. I did not know how to take care of the problems I was seeing, but this not only cleaned the cue, but the wax paper (parchment paper) actually filled in the dent I had in my cue and restored my father's cue (God rest his soul) to its former glory.
 
TATE said:
Thank you. No but I like the V Max. Mine's a BMW RnineT - a retro BMW 1200 café racer. Here's what it looks like in it's current configuration. I love this thing.
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I've found that the bike addiction is more expensive than the cue addiction!

Also thanks for your information about the abrasiveness of the magic eraser (~1500), I always wondered how much it was taking off!
 
The Cue-repair Guy at my Local Pool Room, steered me away from my new ,400-grit sandpaper,and got some from a box of worn sandpaper pieces. I used Magic Eraser,then let it dry,then used wax paper to burnish,felt the raised grain,used carnauba wax,but it wasn't smooth enough for me. I bought 400-grit sandpaper to smooth it out,and used Pledge lightly. The Pool Room owner didn't have Cue-Wax,but he used fine,used, Sandpaper,then wiped it down with Lighter Fluid on a soft cloth,followed by a few drops of Cue Silk,which is thick,and clear,in a eye-drops sized container,for $6.00. Its very smooth,now.
 
LeftyIke said:
The Cue-repair Guy at my Local Pool Room, steered me away from my new ,400-grit sandpaper,and got some from a box of worn sandpaper pieces. I used Magic Eraser,then let it dry,then used wax paper to burnish,felt the raised grain,used carnauba wax,but it wasn't smooth enough for me. I bought 400-grit sandpaper to smooth it out,and used Pledge lightly. The Pool Room owner didn't have Cue-Wax,but he used fine,used, Sandpaper,then wiped it down with Lighter Fluid on a soft cloth,followed by a few drops of Cue Silk,which is thick,and clear,in a eye-drops sized container,for $6.00. Its very smooth,now.
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Just FYI: If you use worn sandpaper, it will feel like it leaves a smoother surface than new sandpaper, but that's only because it's leaving shallower scratches. The scratch pattern is still a 400 grit scratch pattern. :) Best is to use brand new, high grit sandpaper, which leaves a very consistent, tight scratch pattern.
 
This is a thread worth reviving - I have gone to it several times over the years to refresh my mind on shaft restoration.

A friend recommended using Renaissance wax after doing what Chris recommended, then burnishing again with brown paper grocery bag. So that's what I did on a mucked-up shaft today. I also use denatured alcohol rather than water.

These two shafts looked almost exactly alike before I restored one of them:
 

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This is also a method that you will have to repeat more often due to it not being complete. A shaft should be properly sealed, waxed, and burnished in that order. If the was leaves it tacky it's a poor choice of wax. Properly sealed, no chalk will get into the grain of the shaft, but just burnishing will not do it.
 
shaft cleaner

Nothing work better then hand cleaner with pumice! Put on clean towel wipe then wipe with clean part burnish with piece of leather.Wont wear down shaft over time i been using it for years!!!!!
 
Renegade_56 said:
This is also a method that you will have to repeat more often due to it not being complete.
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Perhaps, but once every 1-2 years is no big deal, especially if this method avoids an extra layer of product being added to the shaft. Seems like people are split on this and I trust Chris.
 
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