Originally Posted by replicant_argent:
As far as wood shafts, all manufacturers of high quality cues us Canadian Maple, or Hard Rock Maple. Taper is a very user specific perception, a thicker taper is going to give you less deflection, and a thinner taper, such as Meuccis, will flex more upon contact and provide more "spring" to the shot, this "spring" is a very difficult thing to control, but when using extreme amounts of english or Masse' shots, can enable a livelier action to the cue ball. I am not aware of the fact that Schmelke makes shafts for many other cue makers. Schmelke makes good entry level cues in my opinion as well as McDermott, and a host of others. McDermotts tapers are typically thicker, but in many cues, you can find anywhere from 8 mm on a snooker cue, to 11 or 12, even 13. A 13 will pretty much feel like hitting bricks for most players.
Joint material can be widely varied, from wood to wood, with phenolic or metal collars of various compositions (brass, stainless, etc) as well as differing pin types and materials, whether metal pin to metal "nut" (ala Schmelke or Viking) or a larger pitched more "lag screw" looking arrangement like McDermott uses. Each will give a certain "feel" to a shot, none is better than the other, with proper construction techniques, other than what you like, much like cigars.
There is a place for graphite, especially when you may leave your cue in the car, or in situations where temperature and humidity may change rapidly or to extreme. Wood cues, (and shafts) absorb and release moisture, (much like cigars, again :-) ) and are sensitive to those changes and will warp slightly sometimes when that happens. They will return to position, or can be flexed by someone that knows what they are doing with some skill. I have tweaked many a $1K cue shaft to true it up a bit.
As far as tips are concerned, The harder the better, with the caveat that softer tips will mushroom out a bit more, but require less overall attention in that they will hold chalk better for a longer period of time. I prefer a very hard tip, and spend more time making sure that I keep it playable with roughenings as necessary. My ex-father-in-law ( the guy I used to work for) owned his own very high end custom cue shop, pool room, and repair facility for many years, being very well known in the pool world. He would put a very hard burnished tip with a phenolic fiber pad underneath it and I enjoyed the way it felt. A well made tip, well installed, will last a very long time, unless you are playing many hours a day, day in and day out. :-). Let me know if I failed to address anything for you.
Good information. I would not consider myself beyond advanced beginner as a pool player but I agree with everything you put forward. I only suggested Schmelke because of price range that was indicated. If you can get one of the other premium brands for well under 200$ that is great. I have not seen a lot in good condition going for those prices. I had a Schmelke for a number of years and found it to be a very serviceable cue.
I don't remember where I read all the info about Schmelke providing shaft stock. I came across it about six months ago when doing some research on Schon cues. On their website Schmelke mentions they have 50-75k pieces of cue stock on the premises. I have been to their factory/outlet in central Wisconsin and it's a significant operation.
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