Wood Selection

 

Q: What makes a good cue?

A: Quality wood! Plus a good Cue Maker of course…

 

 

 

‘Looks’

Choosing the right wood is critical in making a good cue, and the shaft is the single most important part of a cue. It must be right.

Shaft

Selected for nice looking grain and clear arrows. These are suitably classed as grade ‘A’.

The most perfect examples, with particularly clear and even grain, are graded ‘AAA’ and reserved for Custom Cue orders.

Every piece of wood is visually checked. Obvious grain defects and general poor quality are discarded.

Butt

Selected for the most even colour 'plain' woods, e.g. blackest 'black' ebony (note - ebony usually carries some colour) and highest quality 'decorative' woods, e.g. even and strongly marked snakewood.

‘Feel’

However, because a piece of wood looks good, it does not mean it possesses the necessary qualities required for a cue.

Shaft

When the shaft has been tapered for the first time, it is checked again for any defects and also to see that it has the right 'feel'.

This is done by picking it up, holding it, feeling it, and looking at it.

A shaft should have a nice ‘spring’ to it, and years of experience means that good shafts are quickly spotted.

Butt

Butt wood plays little part in the 'playing feel' of a cue. Having said that, Ebony is used on 99% of cues, with the addition of various exotic hardwoods. If cheaper, less dense woods were used, then weight and balance would certainly be compromised, and the 'feel' would be affected.

‘Looks’ vs. ‘Feel’

You should understand that the straightness of shaft grain has no bearing on how ‘good’ the cue actually is:

• Some shafts have perfect straight grain and look amazing, but they don’t have the ‘feel’, which makes them useless.
• Often, a very ‘wild’ grain shaft, where the grain and arrows are all over the place, has the best 'feel' and plays superb. They’re as good, if not better than any shaft with perfect visual features.

But understandably, particularly with Deluxe Custom Cues, customers expect the shaft to look perfect.

Consequently, a lot of wood gets discarded during the selection process. This ensures that each cue made has the right combination of looking good and, much more importantly, playing good.