Mike Wooldridge - *NEW* 'BlackSpin' Ferrule System

[Master Blaster]

Why do 90% of the Pros all use Parris Cues? Why are none ( or none to my knowledge ) using Trevor White Cues or a Cue from MW himself?? They are equally as good IMO and the boards on here say the same thing.

Parris controls the market at that top end and gives the Pros free Ultimates with no waiting times etc and has his foot firmly entrenched in that door currently and he spends a heap on the advertising of his product while the other Cue makers let their own customers tell others how good their Cues are. I am not saying Parris is no good but he just markets himself better IMO especially regarding Pro players.

My MW is right on par with ANY Cue i have played with and i love it.

A member on here recently went to the U.K from his own country a fair way away from the U.K and bought a few Cues etc from various makers and even visited Parris and i asked him " Did you get a Cue " and his reply was " No nothing took my eye and i didn't like em..." Take from that what you will but this guy i am talking about knows his Cues and has plenty of them from all good makers ( Do not even ask who he is on here as it is not important ) . I seemed to get the feeling you are paying for the name badge with a JP Cue regardless of what model it is nowadays as John himself is getting on and has a heap of people working for him making Cues.

My 2c anyway!

I take your point, but most cue makers have employees to make the cues. TW and CJ and some others on here are different I know. I have no problem with this, if the employees have been trained properly and do as good or even better a job. Cue making isn't easy but it's not rocket science as they say. As said before, I don't buy the Parris gives free cues away line because any pro would simply buy a better cue/ferrule when hundreds of thousands of pounds and trophies can ride on 1% advantage. Now if the Parris Ultimates the players get are really the ultimate Ultimates and Joe Bloggs Ultimate is just a plain Ultimate, I could not say. But if I was making an Ultimate for Ronnie, I'd make it extra special because Ronnie would carry my companies fortunes the way Joe Bloggs wouldn't. Monopolies are dreadful things until you have one: Murdoch said that.

I'm trying to get another cue to fit BS to if MW has time. So thankyou to all for the info regarding playability.

[ken147]

Would you conclude that BS doesn't like maple? I suggest this as we know maple is denser and plays differently to ash. Or was your point a general one, that BS reduces screw and top? Did you ask MW and TW about your findings?

What I'm trying to say is every shaft plays diffently and I not sure if the blackspin core can improve all aspects of a cues characteristics. My cue is medium springy stiffness and after the BS was installed it stiffened it up considerably hence the loss of spin responsiveness. So if a cue was stiff to begin with and you had a BS retro fitted would the result be stiffer or more springy cue?

I did speak to MW about this but he was surprised of my findings and he did offer to put a brass ferrule but I already sent it to Trevor.

As I said in my other post, BS would work more effectively IF the shaft is tapered to enhance the BS core's attributes. In my experience I would not recommend retro fitting a BS on your cue, yes the BS core will give the cue a crisper/firmer hit but in my case it also reduced spin responsiveness by 30%.

[Terry Davidson]

Its probably a hard thing to do but how would you rank ferrules in order of throw ,Terry?

I would rate ferrule vs throw strictly by weight. The other trick is you should keep the ferrule short and as thin walled as you can without causing problems when you mis-cue. So here are my ratings (strictly personal on the different ferrule I've used):

1. No ferrule at all (but could have problems with a mis-cue).
2. Fiber (but should be as short as possible and also as thin walled as possible)
3. Mike Wooldridge Black Spin (but less than 10mm)
4. Stainless steel but again short (meaning around 5mm in height) and also thin walled.
5. Brass (but short and thin walled).

Wouldn't know where to put Titanium. The one thing every player needs to remember is every cue will throw differently due to not only ferrule weight but also shaft flex. A player just has to get used to any individual cue and in order to do that he should use it for at least 3 months, experimenting with side all the time.

I didn't mention this in my first post but my Mike Wooldridge with Blackspin and medium flex shaft with a 9.3mm ferrule has LESS THROW when using side when compared to the Acuerate cue I bought which was their minimum throw model with a 9.2mm brass ferrule and around 17oz in weight. I further reduced the throw on this Acuerate cue by cutting down the height of the ferrule but it still has more throw than my MW.

I find I have no trouble with top spin or screw with any type of tip with my BS ferrule but I think this is more dependent on a player's technique rather than the ferrule/tip/shaft flex combination. I have to admit though that with one of the very stiff cues I have here I just can't get the screw I can with my MW. As an example, if I have a dead-on black, maybe 1ft behind it on my table I can easily screw the cueball off the cushion and up near the middle pocket although I can't do this on most of the club tables but I can get past the pink. With the stiff cue which is also heavy at 21oz I can barely get past the pink on my table.

I think it all comes down to what a player is willing to get used to. Stick with one cue and get used to it. However, if a player has a technique where he gets UNINTENTIONAL SIDE then he should perhaps consider some kind of low-throw cue, not necessarily Acuerate but a smaller ferrule, medium flex and lower weight to minimize the effects of the unintentional side and then stick with that cue.

[Master Blaster]

What I'm trying to say is every shaft plays diffently and I not sure if the blackspin core can improve all aspects of a cues characteristics. My cue is medium springy stiffness and after the BS was installed it stiffened it up considerably hence the loss of spin responsiveness. So if a cue was stiff to begin with and you had a BS retro fitted would the result be stiffer or more springy cue?

I did speak to MW about this but he was surprised of my findings and he did offer to put a brass ferrule but I already sent it to Trevor.

As I said in my other post, BS would work more effectively IF the shaft is tapered to enhance the BS core's attributes. In my experience I would not recommend retro fitting a BS on your cue, yes the BS core will give the cue a crisper/firmer hit but in my case it also reduced spin responsiveness by 30%.

Thanks. Terry refers to whipiness and you mention taper and the two go in harmony. I'm guessing that a cue which is well tapered will benefit most? Is your TW shaft wider than most? Most folk favour a medium stiff to stiff shaft so your post is a little concerning. No offence intended.

[Master Blaster]

Terry, no ferrule is gonna lead to a mashed cue over time and maybe splintering as well, so it's no surprise that every cue has a ferrule but the obvious question begs, if you rate fibre as 2nd, why didn't you have a fibre ferrule fitted please?

[ken147]

Thanks. Terry refers to whipiness and you mention taper and the two go in harmony. I'm guessing that a cue which is well tapered will benefit most? Is your TW shaft wider than most? Most folk favour a medium stiff to stiff shaft so your post is a little concerning. No offence intended.

The cue shaft I would say is on the normal side but the last 16 inched to the ferrule is thinner (more tapered) due to the maple wood characteristics.

I think it's best to talk with Mike Wooldridge who can best advise you on what the BS core is capable of and what it would do to your particular cue.

I know for fact the the BS core stiffened up my cue hence the less spring/flex in the shaft resulting in a reduction in spin/responsiveness. You have to note also that ash and maple shafts are tapered differently as my maple had more spring towards the last 12-16 inches to the ferrule.

I don't think I'm explaining properly but cue makers should know what I'm on about!

[Master Blaster]

The cue shaft I would say is on the normal side but the last 16 inched to the ferrule is thinner (more tapered) due to the maple wood characteristics.

I think it's best to talk with Mike Wooldridge who can best advise you on what the BS core is capable of and what it would do to your particular cue.

I know for fact the the BS core stiffened up my cue hence the less spring/flex in the shaft resulting in a reduction in spin/responsiveness. You have to note also that ash and maple shafts are tapered differently as my maple had more spring towards the last 12-16 inches to the ferrule.

I don't think I'm explaining properly but cue makers should know what I'm on about!

Thanks Ken, it took me ages to find the cue I like, so your info. is very helpful.

[itsnoteasy]

I would rate ferrule vs throw strictly by weight. The other trick is you should keep the ferrule short and as thin walled as you can without causing problems when you mis-cue. So here are my ratings (strictly personal on the different ferrule I've used):

1. No ferrule at all (but could have problems with a mis-cue).
2. Fiber (but should be as short as possible and also as thin walled as possible)
3. Mike Wooldridge Black Spin (but less than 10mm)
4. Stainless steel but again short (meaning around 5mm in height) and also thin walled.
5. Brass (but short and thin walled).

Wouldn't know where to put Titanium. The one thing every player needs to remember is every cue will throw differently due to not only ferrule weight but also shaft flex. A player just has to get used to any individual cue and in order to do that he should use it for at least 3 months, experimenting with side all the time.

I didn't mention this in my first post but my Mike Wooldridge with Blackspin and medium flex shaft with a 9.3mm ferrule has LESS THROW when using side when compared to the Acuerate cue I bought which was their minimum throw model with a 9.2mm brass ferrule and around 17oz in weight. I further reduced the throw on this Acuerate cue by cutting down the height of the ferrule but it still has more throw than my MW.

I find I have no trouble with top spin or screw with any type of tip with my BS ferrule but I think this is more dependent on a player's technique rather than the ferrule/tip/shaft flex combination. I have to admit though that with one of the very stiff cues I have here I just can't get the screw I can with my MW. As an example, if I have a dead-on black, maybe 1ft behind it on my table I can easily screw the cueball off the cushion and up near the middle pocket although I can't do this on most of the club tables but I can get past the pink. With the stiff cue which is also heavy at 21oz I can barely get past the pink on my table.

I think it all comes down to what a player is willing to get used to. Stick with one cue and get used to it. However, if a player has a technique where he gets UNINTENTIONAL SIDE then he should perhaps consider some kind of low-throw cue, not necessarily Acuerate but a smaller ferrule, medium flex and lower weight to minimize the effects of the unintentional side and then stick with that cue.

Thanks for that Terry very informative, with brass being the worst for throw, it's strange that it's the most popular, maybe players didn't think about things as much as we do now, back when the brass ferrule became popular.

[Master Blaster]

Thanks for that Terry very informative, with brass being the worst for throw, it's strange that it's the most popular, maybe players didn't think about things as much as we do now, back when the brass ferrule became popular.

Brass was plentiful back in the day, is easier to machine than SS, doesn't rust and it's cheap. It's also very dense, denser than steel, so does that mean more screw and top than with other metals/ferrules? The three players with the most cue power: White, Trump, Robbo, all use brass ferrules. Ok, maybe they haven't tried BS so that could just be down to what's on most cues, especially Parris. I know Kirk and Thorburn used plastic on their maple cues and they didn't have the cue power of Jimmy but that could be down to shaft wood and technique. It's all so confusing!

[jrc750]

..... The three players with the most cue power: White, Trump, Robbo, all use brass ferrules.

That statement doesn't really mean anything tho does it ?? as virtually every pro uses brass !

[Master Blaster]

That statement doesn't really mean anything tho does it ?? as virtually every pro uses brass !

Yes they do but why? I've edited what I wrote. Folk have used fibre/plastic (see above), mostly on maple shafts. I think LP fits titanium but I could be wrong. SS ferrules are around, as is copper. Maybe Terry can give us his opinion of which maximises spin; screw, top, side. Ken obviously thinks brass is superior (in his post). I am not trying to doubt any ferrule or material but investigate and understand. It's interesting to me in itself.

[itsnoteasy]

Yes they do but why? I've edited what I wrote. Folk have used fibre/plastic (see above), mostly on maple shafts. I think LP fits titanium but I could be wrong. SS ferrules are around, as is copper. Maybe Terry can give us his opinion of which maximises spin; screw, top, side. Ken obviously thinks brass is superior (in his post). I am not trying to doubt any ferrule or material but investigate and understand. It's interesting to me in itself.

Yep I agree MB, it's an interesting topic in itself, how different materials work.

[billabong]

Yep I agree MB, it's an interesting topic in itself, how different materials work.

Is that a fibre ferrule I saw on Joe Johnson's cue, in the seniors ?

[mythman69]

Is that a fibre ferrule I saw on Joe Johnson's cue, in the seniors ?

Slightly off-topic but what is a fibre ferrule made of?

I have a few old cues that have ferrule fibres. When did they stop putting them on cues?

[Master Blaster]

Slightly off-topic but what is a fibre ferrule made of?

I have a few old cues that have ferrule fibres. When did they stop putting them on cues?

I thought plastic of some sort no? It might also be fibre glass etc.