Tiger Maple Predator?

[cyrex]

I wanted to try a Predator shaft on my cue so I bought one off of eBay from a dealer I purchase pool stuff from regularly. The shaft I got plays fine and all but has more of a tiger maple pattern than just a straight up 'white' maple I've seen before with Predator. Possibly old wood or something else? Is this semi common? ~Thanks for any input.

 

[rhncue]

I wanted to try a Predator shaft on my cue so I bought one off of eBay from a dealer I purchase pool stuff from regularly. The shaft I got plays fine and all but has more of a tiger maple pattern than just a straight up 'white' maple I've seen before with Predator. Possibly old wood or something else? Is this semi common? ~Thanks for any input.

I don't understand what you mean by Tiger maple. Since the shafts are made from 10 individual pieces of wood It would be quite a coincidence for curls to align themselves in that fashion. After just now looking at a new blank I think you may be talking about the different segments having different colors making the shaft to look like it has stripes length wise. If this is the case, most Predator shafts look this way when new but once used a few times the chalk and hand oils sort of blend everything together. When working on a Predator I seldom notice it is a Predator until I see the ferrule and then I look at the finished end.
Dick

 

[cyrex]

hmmm..

I don't understand what you mean by Tiger maple. Since the shafts are made from 10 individual pieces of wood It would be quite a coincidence for curls to align themselves in that fashion. After just now looking at a new blank I think you may be talking about the different segments having different colors making the shaft to look like it has stripes length wise. If this is the case, most Predator shafts look this way when new but once used a few times the chalk and hand oils sort of blend everything together. When working on a Predator I seldom notice it is a Predator until I see the ferrule and then I look at the finished end.
Dick

Yeah, it's hard to explain... I can see what you mean about the 'stripes' going length wise but I'm talking more about horizontally. It's like dark spotted stains or something. The shaft is very new so I don't think it could be oil or dirt. I don't know what 'old growth' wood looks like but that's what someone thought it might be. I wouldn't expect Predator to use anything like that in a production shaft. I'll try and post a pic of it. Thanks for the reply BTW.