Iwas talking to a guy I play pool with and we were talking about cues and I metioned that the Snooker cues in England as I understand were made from Ash wood. Ash is supposed to be a strong wood - and he said the British order a lot of the Ash wood from USA. My question is I have never came across an Ash wood pool cue (I suppose there are some) . If this wood is strong why isn't it used for pool cues?? Too stiff??
Wood for Cues
- Thread starter maldito
- Start date
Coarse grained, heavy, strong and very stiff wood. I have come across some jump cues and break cues with ashwood shafts. Kinda ugly imo.
I think another reason why ash isn't too popular is because it has a coarse, uneven texture with an oily feel, probably not too comfortable if you're using a closed bridge.
Karen Corr is also using an ashwood shaft on her playing cue, probably due to her snooker background.
I think another reason why ash isn't too popular is because it has a coarse, uneven texture with an oily feel, probably not too comfortable if you're using a closed bridge.
Karen Corr is also using an ashwood shaft on her playing cue, probably due to her snooker background.
Ash is most often used for the shaft. I have only owned one ash shaft cue in my life. It palyed great but I did not like the coarse texture too much. I have white ash dowles for sale on my Wood Shop page on my www.cuesmith.com site.
Ash Shaft
Dating back to my days working for Dufferin Cues in Canada, we sold a lot of Ash snooker cues so I am very familiar with it. Ash is very abundant in England, so it was commonly used in snooker cues and it was used in snooker cues here in N.A. because of tradition. They simply do not have enough good maple growing there for it to be used in cues.
Maple is actually a much better wood since it flexes the same in all directions, Ash is a bit stiffer when flexing against the grain. This is not much of a problem in really stiff tapers such as those used on snooker shafts but much more of an issue in shafts that have pro tapers such as those in pool cues. In snooker they also hit much lighter balls so the shaft flexes much less than it does in pool.
The openess of the grain and coarseness are the obvious drawbacks, Ash snooker shafts are generally stained as well, ash is very light in color just like Oak and it takes a good eye to know the difference between the two.
Stick with maple, it's a far superior material.
Best Regards,
Mike
Dating back to my days working for Dufferin Cues in Canada, we sold a lot of Ash snooker cues so I am very familiar with it. Ash is very abundant in England, so it was commonly used in snooker cues and it was used in snooker cues here in N.A. because of tradition. They simply do not have enough good maple growing there for it to be used in cues.
Maple is actually a much better wood since it flexes the same in all directions, Ash is a bit stiffer when flexing against the grain. This is not much of a problem in really stiff tapers such as those used on snooker shafts but much more of an issue in shafts that have pro tapers such as those in pool cues. In snooker they also hit much lighter balls so the shaft flexes much less than it does in pool.
The openess of the grain and coarseness are the obvious drawbacks, Ash snooker shafts are generally stained as well, ash is very light in color just like Oak and it takes a good eye to know the difference between the two.
Stick with maple, it's a far superior material.
Best Regards,
Mike