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Thanks guys, there's some good science and experiment in these papers with results that are much better than hearsay!
The conclusion seems to be that endmass is the most important thing. So, thin walled titanium is going to have a lot less endmass than brass, because it's less dense and there is less of it, ceteris parabus. If it was some form of plastic, let's say nylon, it would have even less endmass and thus throw. Is this part of the reason why North American cue makers use a lot of fibre/plastic ferrules? It would seem so. The authors are suggesting that endmass is effectively increased as the shaft becomes stiffer because of the behaviour of transverse elastic waves so don't bother using a carbon fibre shaft then! If you really hate throw, stiff shafts should be avoided which is counter intuitive to what most cue experts say; buy as stiff a shaft as you can tolerate.
Dr. Dave seems to have tested a lot of pool cues, all with plastic ferrules.
Terry has suggested that fibre has less throw than BS and this makes sense. Though the BS will change the behaviour of the transverse elastic waves, which will make it better than brass in terms of less throw. But is it as good as thin walled titanium?
The papers suggest that a hard tip will also increase endmass and throw. So another way of reducing throw is to switch to a softer tip. That pretty much rules out laminates in terms of minimising throw; a buffalo diamond plus or elk seems to be the way forward.
* Meucci are making laminated maple shafts with up to 35 layers. I didn't even know such things existed; even more science! The shafts themselves are claimed to reduce throw by 50% compared to solid maple. The Americans are doing all this research and tech and here we are wacking a brass ferrule on ash.
The conclusion seems to be that endmass is the most important thing. So, thin walled titanium is going to have a lot less endmass than brass, because it's less dense and there is less of it, ceteris parabus. If it was some form of plastic, let's say nylon, it would have even less endmass and thus throw. Is this part of the reason why North American cue makers use a lot of fibre/plastic ferrules? It would seem so. The authors are suggesting that endmass is effectively increased as the shaft becomes stiffer because of the behaviour of transverse elastic waves so don't bother using a carbon fibre shaft then! If you really hate throw, stiff shafts should be avoided which is counter intuitive to what most cue experts say; buy as stiff a shaft as you can tolerate.
Dr. Dave seems to have tested a lot of pool cues, all with plastic ferrules.
Terry has suggested that fibre has less throw than BS and this makes sense. Though the BS will change the behaviour of the transverse elastic waves, which will make it better than brass in terms of less throw. But is it as good as thin walled titanium?
The papers suggest that a hard tip will also increase endmass and throw. So another way of reducing throw is to switch to a softer tip. That pretty much rules out laminates in terms of minimising throw; a buffalo diamond plus or elk seems to be the way forward.
* Meucci are making laminated maple shafts with up to 35 layers. I didn't even know such things existed; even more science! The shafts themselves are claimed to reduce throw by 50% compared to solid maple. The Americans are doing all this research and tech and here we are wacking a brass ferrule on ash.
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