Cue Terminology

[gettingbetter]

I'm in the process of thinking about a new cue - I'm happy with the one I have now, but I think I will upgrade within a year. I've been reading a lot of post in this forum and I'm unfamiliar with some of the terms being used and this would probably affect me when purchasing a new cue. So can anyone define:

Splice and taper for me.

[KeithinFrance]

A splice is a piece of wood that is "grafted" on to the cue, for example to make a plain ebony butt snooker cue, you must splice 4 pieces of ebony onto the shaft. You can also decorate the cue with further splices of exotic woods to liven up and personalise the cue.
Taper is the way the cue is shaped from butt to tip. To make the cue conical you have to taper it, so that it is, for example, 30mm thick at the butt end and 9mm thick at the tip.

I hope this helps.
Keith

You could also look at "Post Pictures of Your Cue" to see some nice splices and the thread "Tapers" to get some more info and terminology from a real expert.