Wood shafts ?

T

TheBasics

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Howdy All;

Who, makes the BEST wooden shafts? I realize that the shaft/ferrule/cue tip is the
bit that is where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. The butt mainly being the
engine that powers the vehicle as it were.
A few years ago there was a lot of talk going on about a certain shaft that one of
the Pros was using Chinakhov (sp?), I think it was. Not sure of the Tourney.

Just had to ask.

hank
 
TheBasics said:
Howdy All;

Who, makes the BEST wooden shafts? I realize that the shaft/ferrule/cue tip is the
bit that is where the rubber meets the road so-to-speak. The butt mainly being the
engine that powers the vehicle as it were.
A few years ago there was a lot of talk going on about a certain shaft that one of
the Pros was using Chinakhov (sp?), I think it was. Not sure of the Tourney.

Just had to ask.

hank
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Mother Nature, she's undefeated
 
Mezz makes the best wood shafts. Ruslan was playing with an Alpha pro Mezz shaft. They are the standard shaft with the ACE series cues. One day, when I hit the lottery, I'm gonna buy me one a them cues.

Sent from my motorola one zoom using Tapatalk
 
crazysnake said:
One day, when I hit the lottery, I'm gonna buy me one a them cues.
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download.jpeg
 
Searing hands down has the best shaft wood.

Eric Crisp Sugar Tree is a very close 2nd

Barry Szam has some great shafts too but those really aren’t available at this point.

Manufactured cues, Mezz shafts are good

That’s been my experience.

Thing is luck plays a part in getting a great shaft. I’ve owned 100’s of them and any brand of cue can have a amazing shaft if you get lucky. Good wood just happens……
 
Bavafongoul said:
Probably most cue makers that have old growth wood shafts that produce a hefty shaft weight after size and taper.
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Too heavy and they get dead. I’ve noticed that. 5oz shafts ugh.

Too light and they ding up and wear down-balsa wood trash(super bleached maple).

There’s a sweet spot in there.

Oh I forgot Tad shafts are pretty strong as well. On his cues made up to about 1990 had better shaft wood than the newer cues(still way above average).

Personal preference as well is a huge factor.

Just keep looking and eventually you’ll fall on a shaft that is a 10/10 for you. Don’t matter what the other guy thinks.

I have a Gus shaft, cross grain, huge growth rings that run off 6” under the ferrel looks like a POS. I was wondering if Gus was drinking the day he chose that shaft. It’s on a late 70’s cue. It looks horrible in terms of what we visually look for in traits for a “good hitting” shaft-what ever that means. Anyways I looked and figured well Gus shipped it, how bad can it be? It’s beyond great. Looks like garbage plays beyond good.


I told Barry about it. He replied “Dad always picked what he thought would play the best-didn’t matter what it looked like and he could pick good wood”. Clearly looks isn’t why Gus picked that shaft. I still have it, I played a lot with it. And it still looks like a throw away piece of wood. Gus didn’t make a mistake and it wasn’t a accident. And that’s why Gus cues are huge $ and have a following to this day. It’s not a accident.

Point is, play with shafts-as many as possible and don’t go into it thinking that more growth rings or straight grain is everything. It’s a generalization at best. So let the shaft tell you when you play with it. You don’t tell the shaft.

When I listed above, that’s a estimate of % chance you’ll get a good shaft. Meaning Searing has the highest % you’ll get a good shaft. All I mentioned. But can be a Mali from 1985, ya never know. But that’s a 4% chance. Searing 90% chance it’s a good shaft.

It’s all trial and feel, subjective things never have hard and fast rules. And what you like now might not be the same in a few years. Factor that in as well

Best
Fatboy
 
For me its easy IQ custom cues, I changed shafts to IQ on all my cues.
When ever I get my hands on a new IQ shaft with any type of joint its sold as soon as anyone tries it.
I see Fatboy is stating Searing, never tried his shaft, but I do know that Dimitrious at IQ been learning some from Searing, so their shaft might be similar.
 
Whatever kind of standard maple shaft came with the pechauer cue I won in an cue auction during my league is what I've played with in the last 4 years and I enjoy it. I'm pretty positive it is their standard shaft.
 
Based on my Gus Szamboti forearm Palmer; there is no doubt Gus picked super quality wood for his cues- I am sure his shaft wood was also of the highest quality. George Balabushka would go the Palmer facility in NJ and pick through all of Palmer's woods to select the highest quality.

I think that a shaft of 12.5 to 13MM at the tip with a very gradual taper should weigh at least 3.7 ounces to be a quality wood in terms of density. Density in wood matters - the tighter the wood fibers, the less the wood will change over time simply because there is less room internally for the wood to move. Kiln dried wood will be weaker in structure simply because the moisture is removed too quickly to allow the wood fibers to bond naturally as an aged dry wood fibers would bond over time.

I think the answer to your question is that you would need to actually question various cue makers to find out what methods they use to select their shaft wood and how they manage the shaft wood prior to the final product to determine which maker adheres most closely to the process that will result in dense, naturally dry, unstressed shafts.
 
the best wooden shaft is up to you to decide........... conical taper.......... parabolic taper............ how much of the front of the shaft is the same diameter????......... the number of growth rings are not really that important......... older wood may be heavier than the vacuum kiln dried wood of today.................... it is all up to the shooter................. just professing the one is better than the other is only an opinion and not a fact
 
whammo57 said:
the best wooden shaft is up to you to decide........... conical taper.......... parabolic taper............ how much of the front of the shaft is the same diameter????......... the number of growth rings are not really that important......... older wood may be heavier than the vacuum kiln dried wood of today.................... it is all up to the shooter................. just professing the one is better than the other is only an opinion and not a fact
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Truth has been spoken here.
 
I love my Mike Johnson shafts. Old growth with a bit of a Conical taper. Great solid stiff hitting shafts, and 4.5oz each. You may hate them though, who knows?
 
Fatboy said:
Too heavy and they get dead. I’ve noticed that. 5oz shafts ugh.

Too light and they ding up and wear down-balsa wood trash(super bleached maple).

There’s a sweet spot in there.

Oh I forgot Tad shafts are pretty strong as well. On his cues made up to about 1990 had better shaft wood than the newer cues(still way above average).

Personal preference as well is a huge factor.

Just keep looking and eventually you’ll fall on a shaft that is a 10/10 for you. Don’t matter what the other guy thinks.

I have a Gus shaft, cross grain, huge growth rings that run off 6” under the ferrel looks like a POS. I was wondering if Gus was drinking the day he chose that shaft. It’s on a late 70’s cue. It looks horrible in terms of what we visually look for in traits for a “good hitting” shaft-what ever that means. Anyways I looked and figured well Gus shipped it, how bad can it be? It’s beyond great. Looks like garbage plays beyond good.


I told Barry about it. He replied “Dad always picked what he thought would play the best-didn’t matter what it looked like and he could pick good wood”. Clearly looks isn’t why Gus picked that shaft. I still have it, I played a lot with it. And it still looks like a throw away piece of wood. Gus didn’t make a mistake and it wasn’t a accident. And that’s why Gus cues are huge $ and have a following to this day. It’s not a accident.

Point is, play with shafts-as many as possible and don’t go into it thinking that more growth rings or straight grain is everything. It’s a generalization at best. So let the shaft tell you when you play with it. You don’t tell the shaft.

When I listed above, that’s a estimate of % chance you’ll get a good shaft. Meaning Searing has the highest % you’ll get a good shaft. All I mentioned. But can be a Mali from 1985, ya never know. But that’s a 4% chance. Searing 90% chance it’s a good shaft.

It’s all trial and feel, subjective things never have hard and fast rules. And what you like now might not be the same in a few years. Factor that in as well

Best
Fatboy
Click to expand...
When Tony Cattucci remodeled an old bowling alley building into a big room with 36 9 foot tables in the mid 80's he had to build a railing on both sides of a raised cat walk down the middle of the room.
Gus gave him all his shaft wood rejects and it was enough for about a 100 feet of vertical rail posts.
 
You're going to get a ton of different answers based on preference. No one maker makes the "best" wood shaft. I like my 30-inch mezz sigma united joint. YMMV
 
After turning the wood down on a lathe several times over 6 months a cue maker can pretty much tell if the shaft is going to be good or bad by the vibrations when being turned.
 
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