WTB a Kielwood Shaft……..Can You Meet My Requirements?
- Thread starter Bavafongoul
- Start date
I’ve contacted almost a dozen cue makers and several distributors of different brands of Kielwood shafts.
It is astonishing how many different builders of KW shafts can’t build a shaft as heavy as Cory Barnhart did.
A couple of distributors checked their inventory and weighed the KW shafts. The heaviest shaft was 3.6 ozs.
Cue makers told me they don’t have the wood inventory to build a 12.75 KW flat faced shaft approaching 4 ozs.
Accepting that as a limitation, I figured 3.8 ozs should be easier with a 29.5” shaft since Superior Cues sold 4
Cory Barnhart shafts weighing 3.8 ozs. and I have one of them. Much to my chagrin, I haven’t found anyone else.
Now if Cory made shafts other than radial, I wouldn’t have even started this thread and would have ordered two addt’l
KW shafts but unfortunately radial is all he makes. So that’s how & why this search started but no else so far can do it.
Gosh, this really does come as a big surprise because I have several maple shafts weighing 4.2 ozs. My Runde Schon
has a 4.4 oz. shaft but it’s piloted so it’s not really representative of my cues that otherwise are flat faced big pin joints.
However, the search has not been in vain because I made the acquaintance of a few cue makers I’d never spoken with.
Jeff Prather is so friendly and gracious that if I wanted a cue made instead of only KW shafts, I’d want to talk with Jeff.
Still waiting to hear back from 2 others about building a KW shaft but I don’t have high hopes. Thank goodness folks
aren’t trying to persuade me to get a lighter KW shafts because if I was willing to do that, I’d already have bought one.
The option of getting another Barnhart RMS shaft and retapping seems like a silly notion, IMO. If Cory can build a KW
equivalent cue shaft at a heavier weight I want, albeit 29 1/2” length, surely someone else could or is he the only one?
It is astonishing how many different builders of KW shafts can’t build a shaft as heavy as Cory Barnhart did.
A couple of distributors checked their inventory and weighed the KW shafts. The heaviest shaft was 3.6 ozs.
Cue makers told me they don’t have the wood inventory to build a 12.75 KW flat faced shaft approaching 4 ozs.
Accepting that as a limitation, I figured 3.8 ozs should be easier with a 29.5” shaft since Superior Cues sold 4
Cory Barnhart shafts weighing 3.8 ozs. and I have one of them. Much to my chagrin, I haven’t found anyone else.
Now if Cory made shafts other than radial, I wouldn’t have even started this thread and would have ordered two addt’l
KW shafts but unfortunately radial is all he makes. So that’s how & why this search started but no else so far can do it.
Gosh, this really does come as a big surprise because I have several maple shafts weighing 4.2 ozs. My Runde Schon
has a 4.4 oz. shaft but it’s piloted so it’s not really representative of my cues that otherwise are flat faced big pin joints.
However, the search has not been in vain because I made the acquaintance of a few cue makers I’d never spoken with.
Jeff Prather is so friendly and gracious that if I wanted a cue made instead of only KW shafts, I’d want to talk with Jeff.
Still waiting to hear back from 2 others about building a KW shaft but I don’t have high hopes. Thank goodness folks
aren’t trying to persuade me to get a lighter KW shafts because if I was willing to do that, I’d already have bought one.
The option of getting another Barnhart RMS shaft and retapping seems like a silly notion, IMO. If Cory can build a KW
equivalent cue shaft at a heavier weight I want, albeit 29 1/2” length, surely someone else could or is he the only one?
RJH Custom Cues are expensive and it takes him a long time
you want cheap and fast?
you’ll have regrets, hsunami shafts are unbelievable
You can also try hsunami KW or Diveney KW, they both good. For the tip, you can also ask but you can also change it out when you get your shaft.
Good luck finding the spec that you’re looking for, it’s tough to get specific weight on an item.
Good luck finding the spec that you’re looking for, it’s tough to get specific weight on an item.
It is no longer a question of the purchase price for a KW shaft. Hsu’s shaft would cost about $600 shipped.
At that price, I wouldn’t settle for any shaft that weighed under 4 ozs. And the only shafts I’ve seen like that
are his piloted joints, not flat faced. I wrote that because I have a really nice RMS shaft from Cory that weighs
3.8 ozs. It was in the mid-$300 price range. For only a weight improvement of 0.2 ozs, (3.8 vs. 4.0), I cannot
justify a price difference of more than a couple of hundred dollars when Cory is making shafts that come close.
Besides, Ruchard Hsu didn’t pioneer kiln roasted cue shafts but he does make a dandy version that happens to
be the most expensive brand on the market from what I’ve seen. The list of talented cue makers is indeed very
long. As Richard doesn’t have any patent on kiln roasted cues, any of these cue makers should be able to make
a equivalent kiln roasted cue shaft. So although his shafts are the prettiest and most highly touted, so far Dr. Dave
hasn’t produced any comparison of KW shafts so other than appearance and price, Tsunami shafts might not be any
different by way of creating less deflection than Cory’s,or any other cue maker, KW shafts. They just cost a lot more.
The price of the shaft is less important than the specs and Barnhart makes a fabulous KW shaft, IMO and a few of my friends play Tsunami shafts. None of the shafts were as heavy as I want but that’s only important to me. They really enjoy playing with their Tsunami KW shafts and that includes the original Tsunami and the newer 2.0 version. I keep posing my underlying question why it’s difficult to produce a KW that weighed 3.8 ozs, or preferably, even a bit heavier? After all, I already own one.
I’m merely attempting to find another equivalent KW shaft brand but with a different big pin. It’s turned into a exhaustive, frustrating search but I am not ready to relent. Thanks Cory Barnhart for building a KW that’s different which is what I want.
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I respect your demands on specs but also have to wonder if you're letting the numbers get in your head.
All my playing cues have been + 19 oz., but I recetly picked up a 18.75 oz. cue and it is playable for me. I would have guessed it was 19.25 to 19.5 oz. had I not known.
Ultimately, only you can decide what works for you, but hopefully this is food for thought.
Also, have you considered a radial shaft and having it plugged and threaded for 3/8x10?
All my playing cues have been + 19 oz., but I recetly picked up a 18.75 oz. cue and it is playable for me. I would have guessed it was 19.25 to 19.5 oz. had I not known.
Ultimately, only you can decide what works for you, but hopefully this is food for thought.
Also, have you considered a radial shaft and having it plugged and threaded for 3/8x10?
Thank you for the reply and well intended observations. Actually the numbers are quite important as I’ve explained
in several different posts over the last 10-12 years on Az. I am not trying to persuade anyone to adopt my routine.
That would be sheer arrogance and presumptive on my behalf. But what I have recited is factually confirmable by
research and discussion with the top names in cue making that adhere to this principle that I’ve adopted because of
how they built and still build cues. The weight proportionality between a cue shaft and cue butt is subject to several
variables but the cues made by the best cue makers down through the years emulated this principle I translated into
% ratio range. Every cue I now own, or bought and since sold, since 2004 adheres to this. I won’t buy any cue that
does not meet it. I’ve invested substantial time, effort & dollars collecting my cues and so changing my approach at
this late stage of life isn’t within my reach. I want what I want, believe what I believe and either get it or won’t but
settling for less would only haunt me for giving in and settling. Why do you think that’s so? It’s not because I’m crazy.
Cory Barnhart is already doing it so why the heck are all the other Kielwood shaft sources intimidated or not capable of
building what Cory does? Now to be fair, a couple of Azers have contacted me about their capability to build what I want but nothing has been finalized. In fact, no actual offer or confirmation they can build a shaft to my specs has yet occurred but I sure hope it does. My thread in the Ask The Cue Maker Forum has more current information about this. It would be fantastic if it could happen but I have no control over whether it does or doesn’t. I’m just the likely buyer.
So if Cory can do this, where’s all the other craftsmen? That’s why I’ll never settle. It’s doable, it’s what I want & sooner
or later a cue maker will build two KW shafts for me. Now I’m not predicting how soon but it will happen eventually. The
easiest solution is to get Cory to build me two shafts but he only makes radial. I guess time will prove me right or wrong.
Now I haven’t spoken with Bill in a long time. A friend just bought a cue from him that only arrived last week.
I will check with him. The reason I presume the weight of the Tascarella shaft was over 4 ounces is very likely
because the cue joint was their piloted version which adds a receiver to the shaft. If that’s the case. That same
shaft should still be within my weight range if it had been a flat faced joint sans any receiver. I will contact Bill.
Maybe have Cory make you one and don't have him tap it. Then send it to another cue maker to tap it?
I asked about that but Cory is a devout professional in his approach to cue making. He is s talented, highly successful
in his chosen craft and hasn’t any reason or incentive to change his approach, especially for some fussy old fart that
likely comes across as a stubborn minded customer. He has his principles just as much as I’m entitled to my sticking
to mine. If I were Cory, I either build and finish the shaft or don’t even bother because when all is said and done, the
finished will always have my name behind it. So my reputation is at risk, not the other cue maker that taps the shaft for
a different thread that I don’t make. One thing that pops into mind is why change my approach? If I only made radial
shafts, just like Cory for whatever reason, why bother changing my approach now just to get two KW shaft orders?
It doesn’t make sense to me why he chooses to use this approach and I certainly wouldn’t but he is the cue maker so he can do anything he chooses and owes no one any explanation. I, and every reader of this post, either buy what he makes or we go find someone else that builds a shaft differently. I’m grateful Martin @ Superior Cues acquired several Barnhart roasted maple shafts and I got one of them. Otherwise, I’d never learn how great KW shafts play because as you can see, locating a heavier LW shaft can be analogous to finding Hen’s teeth as one poster referred to my search.
I think this has turned into an interesting search and the lack of interaction with cue makers on my thread in Ask The Cue Maker Forum seems odd. Where are all the professionals that build cues and agree or disagree with me and what
I want made? If I am wrong in my approach, I don’t see much dissent and there sure is very little concurrence with me.
It is almost like this is a Tar Baby issue so don’t touch it or you’d get sucked into a long winded, drawn out discussion
about building KW shafts, especially with someone that is not an expert cue maker. So what do you do? Just ignore the
thread and poster. Instead, just sit and read the thread to see where it goes or watch it die a slow, agonizing death.
Personally, I am passionate about pool and pool cues. If I were a cue maker, I’d be an even bigger zealot than I am.
I presumed that cue makers, in general, were cut from the same bolt of cloth as I was. But the lack of interest and
any participation has been disappointing. So I’ll keep this thread alive for awhile longer just to see if there is anyone
that wants to prove me right by building a KW shaft that’s different, i.e., heavier, than what their peers are building.
I located one prominent firm that thinks they can build a KW shaft to my specs. A couple of cue makers
also are optimistic about being able to produce what I want and am awaiting confirmation from them. It
looks like Hen’s teeth aren’t are rare as it seemed. This just took a longer than I anticipated but it’s close.
also are optimistic about being able to produce what I want and am awaiting confirmation from them. It
looks like Hen’s teeth aren’t are rare as it seemed. This just took a longer than I anticipated but it’s close.
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