Do you splice to reduce weight?

[Stick]

Imagine i want a one piece 16 ounce cue, 58 inches long, maple shaft
, 29mm butt and 11mm tip. Can I have a solid ebony butt with that or must it be spliced with lighter woods to achieve the
desired weight?

[jaffa.johnson]

To my knowledge on a one piece is not a solid butt.

The splices are spliced onto the maple/ash and the natural weight is around 14oz.

Lead is then added to increase the weight. If u wanted a 16oz one piece cue then that would be possible.

[jim evans]

natural weight

the ebony splicing would proberbly take the weight up to 18 ounce or maybe heavier

[snookerpoolman]

In my experience from ordering many customised cues, you'll be very unlikely to get down to 16oz with a cue of 58" and with the density of an 11mm shaft... Also Ebony is heavy. Prob. be nearer 18oz..

If you had a Rosewood butt that is lighter, you may get down near 16 ounces...

[Stick]

I held a ebony mini-butt in my hands thinking about this and noticed that it is quite a heavy wood which led to me posing this question.

I then went and put my 58 inch one piece maple "africana" cue (locally made with splices of hardwoods such as imbuia) on the kitchen scale and it came to 16.4 ounces.

I just love this cue's weight and feel (butt is 28.8mm) and need only to increase tip size from current 9.5 to 11mm tip to achieve my preferred spec.

I can, therefore, believe that splices of ebony with a thick maple shaft would put the cue's weight near (or above) 18 ounces.

If I want to keep the weight as close as possible to 16.5 ounces, which woods should I consider for splices? Rosewood seems like a choice - are there any others?

[Stick]

Here is a pic of the cue I refer to -

Splices are of imbuia, some sort of teak and ironwood.

Natuarally weighted at 16.5 ounces

[unclevit]

Imagine i want a one piece 16 ounce cue, 58 inches long, maple shaft
, 29mm butt and 11mm tip. Can I have a solid ebony butt with that or must it be spliced with lighter woods to achieve the
desired weight?

To my experience, the quality ebony wood is heavier than other woods (inch by inch, standard hardwoods). If you go for 11mm tip, 58" long, especially with Maple Shaft, though in 1 piece, the tapering will still be thick from tip to toe, and 16oz total weight will be very very difficult. You won't get a wobble shaft with maple shaft in 10-11mm tip size. Mostly very stiff to stiff with minimal spring. Splicing would help if you go for lighter wood, e.g. curly maple, as you have to reduce the ebony wood to replace with lighter splice woods. I have done plenty of plain black ebony butt, maple shaft, 1 piece that weighted over 17.5oz, mostly 18oz. Could not go lighter. But did one in 16oz. and months after the shaft warped. Lighter cue needs special attention than standard, the keeping, storing, maintaining, etc.
Hope this helps. My experience may be different from others

[kevin147q]

Hi,
It's impossible make it to 16 oz for plain ebony butt even you reduce the butt's weight for our experience. The zebrano or burr are light wood , can be the choice of splice. We are making a one piece ASH cue with ebony with 4 zebrano splice. our customer need it below 17oz.

[Stick]

To my experience, the quality ebony wood is heavier than other woods (inch by inch, standard hardwoods). If you go for 11mm tip, 58" long, especially with Maple Shaft, though in 1 piece, the tapering will still be thick from tip to toe, and 16oz total weight will be very very difficult. You won't get a wobble shaft with maple shaft in 10-11mm tip size. Mostly very stiff to stiff with minimal spring. Splicing would help if you go for lighter wood, e.g. curly maple, as you have to reduce the ebony wood to replace with lighter splice woods. I have done plenty of plain black ebony butt, maple shaft, 1 piece that weighted over 17.5oz, mostly 18oz. Could not go lighter. But did one in 16oz. and months after the shaft warped. Lighter cue needs special attention than standard, the keeping, storing, maintaining, etc.
Hope this helps. My experience may be different from others

Hi Unclevit,

Thanks for the reply and the insights provided. It now seems clear to me that for the intended lenght, thickness of tip and the use of a maple shaft and an plain spliced ebony butt that it would be very difficult to achieve a weight of much less than 18 oz.

[Stick]

Hi,
It's impossible make it to 16 oz for plain ebony butt even you reduce the butt's weight. The zebrano or burr are light wood , can be the choice of splice. We are making a one piece ASH cue with ebony with 4 zebrano splice. our customer need it below 17oz.

Thanks Kevin.

So, for light splices so far it seems the following woods can be considered -

- rosewood
- birdseye maple
- zebrano
- burr?

Any others?

The irony here is that a lighter cue will always cost more than a plain butt cue as a result of the multiple splices to be used in trying to reduce the weight

[jim evans]

cue splicing

hi stick you might be better using a old maple shaft with a 11mm tip and having that respliced to get the lighter weight

[Stick]

hi stick you might be better using a old maple shaft with a 11mm tip and having that respliced to get the lighter weight

Hi Jim, that is a good idea but down here we are not bessed with people skilled in the manner you suggest. I will thus have to keep up my search among the old cues. Unfortunately I am yet to come accross a decent 11mm tipped maple shaft cue.

Seems that I must consider having someting made with a spliced rosewood butt

[the_paz]

email mike wooldridge mate, see if he can do anything for you.

i've just had a plain black ebony butt, ash shaft 1 piece cue at 15 oz made, it's got an 8 mil tip for uk 8 ball so the shaft is a little thiner, but not by that much, it still feels very solid and could probably play snooker with it to.

if anyone can help you it's probably him.....

[jim evans]

cues

hi stick ile have a look at some of my old cues and let you know

[Stick]

email mike wooldridge mate, see if he can do anything for you.

i've just had a plain black ebony butt, ash shaft 1 piece cue at 15 oz made, it's got an 8 mil tip for uk 8 ball so the shaft is a little thiner, but not by that much, it still feels very solid and could probably play snooker with it to.

if anyone can help you it's probably him.....

I am a big fan of MW and have one of his 2007 cues-pure quality. I will try and scrape together some courage and mail him (hahaha)