What makes good shaft wood?

biGhuK

biGhuK

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just got a cue built and was suprised to find that in my shaft I have 23 growth rings. Is this considered better than normal? I remember hearing about Black Boar having some really high number of growth rings in their shafts.

I'm getting another shaft built with ivory ferrule from the same guy outa the same wood.

If this is good shaft wood I may have him make me two more for the cue. I'm getting them very cheap :D.

Thanks,
Curtis
 
23 growth rings is considered pretty tight grained wood indeed. I try to use the 15 growth lines per inch and up on my cues. The tighter grained wood tends to not be as pretty as the looser grained wood, but usually plays a little stiffer. So is it better? That is still a matter of preference. For the hit I want to achieve it is better, but some want whippier shafts and the looser grained wood might be better for them. The really tight grained shafts tend to have a little more grain run out than looser grain. I can't tell that it really affects the hit so I go for tight grained lately.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
Growth Rings???

biGhuK said:
I just got a cue built and was suprised to find that in my shaft I have 23 growth rings. Is this considered better than normal? I remember hearing about Black Boar having some really high number of growth rings in their shafts.

I'm getting another shaft built with ivory ferrule from the same guy outa the same wood.

If this is good shaft wood I may have him make me two more for the cue. I'm getting them very cheap :D.

Thanks,
Curtis
Click to expand...
23 growth rings ,on a 1 inch dowel, is pretty good. To still have 23 left after you cut it down to .830-.840 at the joint would seem to me. a REAL LOT of grain. Are you sure this shaft is not layers of laminated maple???...JER
 
yeah it's natural grain. I couldn't believe it either. I counted them over and over and over. I'll post a pic once my camera quits gobbling batteries and i remember to get some next time i'm at the store. I'm not how sure the definition in the grain is going to show up though. I can barely count them on the shaft because they blend in so well in the middle and are so close together.
 
oh yeah and about how you were saying that the hit would be alot stiffer with a tight grained shaft. I notice that ALOT when I break with that shaft. I tried breaking with my playing cue (the one with 23 growth ring shaft) and it broke ALOT more solid and harder than my Rick Howard MACE with a harder tip! The MACE shaft only has about 11-12 growth rings in it.
 
Having more growth rings make the wood denser, thus harder wood. I'm not a cuemaker, but I think that's what makes it stiffer. If the wood is denser, more force is needed to make it bend when a cue ball's hit. So the shaft would bend less than a less-dense wood for the same kind of hit.
 
Stiff Shaft

biGhuK said:
oh yeah and about how you were saying that the hit would be alot stiffer with a tight grained shaft. I notice that ALOT when I break with that shaft. I tried breaking with my playing cue (the one with 23 growth ring shaft) and it broke ALOT more solid and harder than my Rick Howard MACE with a harder tip! The MACE shaft only has about 11-12 growth rings in it.
Click to expand...
You're trying to compare apples & oranges. A harder ferrule material, harder tip,shaft taper,or more dense wood in the butt, or harder joint material can all be responsible for a firmer or "harder" hit. You can't compare 2 cuemakers cues & say that it's the grain in the shaft, that makes one more solid than another...JER
 
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