use old one piece house cues for "new" shafts?

pooldawg64

pooldawg64

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I have several old one piece house cues, from the 30's (?). They are very dark (and I mean very dark!) and have the black ferrule material on them. They roll completely flat!! A few even have whats left of Brunswick lables on the butt end. What I was wondering, could these cues be turned down to make shafts? Would you want to turn these down? Would you have to turn the 1/16 of an inch, wait 6 years, turn another 1/16, wait 6 more years or would the wood have stabilized enough to turn it all down at once?
 
pooldawg64 said:
I have several old one piece house cues, from the 30's (?). They are very dark (and I mean very dark!) and have the black ferrule material on them. They roll completely flat!! A few even have whats left of Brunswick lables on the butt end. What I was wondering, could these cues be turned down to make shafts? Would you want to turn these down? Would you have to turn the 1/16 of an inch, wait 6 years, turn another 1/16, wait 6 more years or would the wood have stabilized enough to turn it all down at once?
Click to expand...

I've cut the middle out of several house cues for shafts. Haven't had any problems yet. I cut Valley's and Dufferins though. Old Brunswicks however might be more valuable to someone wanting to build a conversion. Sell a couple of those and then buy yourself a box of shaftwood. If you do decide to use those, I usually cut the shaft back to where it's around .525 at the tip and then I have room to make a couple passes.
 
Those old house cues make the best playing shafts. I had one for a while and it was the best playing shaft I ever had. There was just something about it, I couldn't explain. Very juicy, very sweet. You won't regret it...... and no, you don't have to wait two hundred years after cutting it...
 
no speed cutting

i have been using old one piece cues for my shaft material for about the last 5 years, and will continue to do so as long as i can find the old cues.
i thought that the old wood could be cut faster, but to my surprise, take too much off in too short a time and the wood will still move.

it might be just in my mine, thinking all the games that wood has already played, but i really love the old honey color multi ring count shafts.

chuck
 
The biggest problem I run into is finding cues that are 13mm I cut about 10 an inch into the points as far down as possible and still only got 12.7-8
 
100 at a time

i buy old cues from a table restorer, and i buy 100 at a time. with any luck i get 6 - 8 great shafts and 10 - 15 pretty good shafts out of the 100.

chuck
 
desi2960 said:
i have been using old one piece cues for my shaft material for about the last 5 years, and will continue to do so as long as i can find the old cues.
i thought that the old wood could be cut faster, but to my surprise, take too much off in too short a time and the wood will still move.

it might be just in my mine, thinking all the games that wood has already played, but i really love the old honey color multi ring count shafts.

chuck
Click to expand...

That's b/c they used green wood then.
I've seen a bunch of Hoppes go bananas.
You could tell the woods were green b/c they actually flatten out.
 
Heck yes , the old bar cues have been through hell and back ... You can't get much more seasoned wood ... I'll make a few shafts for you , if you give me a few !!! Jeepers ...:eek:
 
update

I only have 4 of these cues. One of them has a two veneer butterfly splice, badly offset, i.e. one side of the butterfly splice is real high and the other is low. I wasn't planning on doing anything with this one, however, the other three are still in the "maybe" range. I live in Espiritu territory and was gonna ask him what he thinks, I will ocasionaly see him on league nights. Further checking of these cues reviel that the "points" are painted on. I took a pocket knife and "GENTLY" scraped, and sure enough, scraped off the paint of the point. As far as the lables go, there is not enough of them to tell anything other than a fleck or two here and there. Once I save up enough cash I'm planning on having Russ make me a "box" cue!! Guys (and Gals ofcourse), thanks for all the input and replies!!
 
Cut them the same way you do any shaft. Just because they're old doesn't mean they don't have internal stress. It never leaves the wood, ever. As for the playability, well, that's a matter of perception. I have found that even back then they used a mix of good wood and bad wood, just like today.
 
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