A Hollow Cue Butt

[snookaman]

Hi,

My friend and I have discovered that his 3/4 joint cue butt has an open end and is actually hollow inisde! There is a tunnel of about 4" deep. Have you ever checked your cue butt?

Is that for adjusting the balance point? Or is that for better feel?

I was playing ping pong for many years. My Stiga Swedish racket has a hollow handle for better feel in strokes.

Please see the attachment.

[Wity]

Most cues have been drilled out likewise. To get two cues with identical measurements yet different weights and different balancing points they have to have weight added so dont complain to Aconmate on that basis they conned you into buying it on a totally different premise.

[Lovely Babe]

Hi,

My friend and I have discovered that his 3/4 joint cue butt has an open end and is actually hollow inisde! There is a tunnel of about 4" deep. Have you ever checked your cue butt?

Is that for adjusting the balance point? Or is that for better feel?

I was playing ping pong for many years. My Stiga Swedish racket has a hollow handle for better feel in strokes.

Please see the attachment.

Hi Snookaman,

My John Parris 3/4 joint 16" butt is also like that. It is just simple mathematics! The density of a 16" genuine Gaboon is about 78lb/cu ft. The weight of it already exceeds 0.75lb. For an average cue of 1.1lb (17.5oz), the only way to keep the total under 18oz is to drill a hole in the centre of the butt!

How come all the cue makers in this forum cannot give you an answer in this respect? I think, they have never worked with a Gaboon ebony butt before! Ha! Ha! Ha!

[Watford]

The density of a 16" genuine Gaboon is about 78lb/cu ft.

Are you on drugs???
Why would you know this!!!!
Are you making this all up?

I certainly seen the weight sticking out of one pieces cues where the butt has been damaged. I've also heard of weights comming loose inside.

[poolqjunkie]

Did your cue come with a hole in the butt end? Isn't there supposed to be a bumper or a brass insert?

I dont see what the problem is with a hollow end at the back end anyway. American pool cues have a cavity at the end for adjusting weights, and then some with a cavity at the front end of the shaft to reduce deflection.

[ADR147]

Hi Snookaman,

My John Parris 3/4 joint 16" butt is also like that. It is just simple mathematics! The density of a 16" genuine Gaboon is about 78lb/cu ft. The weight of it already exceeds 0.75lb. For an average cue of 1.1lb (17.5oz), the only way to keep the total under 18oz is to drill a hole in the centre of the butt!

How come all the cue makers in this forum cannot give you an answer in this respect? I think, they have never worked with a Gaboon ebony butt before! Ha! Ha! Ha!

your talking drivel. i think the cue makers can't be bothered to argue. ebony is about twice the density of ash, its not lead! on a one piece cue its perfectly possible to keep it to about 16oz - the weight of joints etc is a much bigger problem than the woods.

(p.s parris ebony comes from nagels in germany like almost all the other makers in the UK, its muppets like you that think parris is somehow especially gifted that means the likes of wooldridge and white can't be bothered to explain it! In the end a cue is a cue and how they are built is simple enough anyone who thinks it is some sort of dark art that only parris understands is limited.)

[CueAntW147]

your talking drivel. i think the cue makers can't be bothered to argue. ebony is about twice the density of ash, its not lead! on a one piece cue its perfectly possible to keep it to about 16oz - the weight of joints etc is a much bigger problem than the woods.

(p.s parris ebony comes from nagels in germany like almost all the other makers in the UK, its muppets like you that think parris is somehow especially gifted that means the likes of wooldridge and white can't be bothered to explain it! In the end a cue is a cue and how they are built is simple enough anyone who thinks is some sort of dark art that only parris understands is limited.)

blimey... don't mess with the ADR

[Wity]

blimey... don't mess with the ADR

Yeah back off folks he's been in a foul mood for a month now, ever since a Talisman tip of his on ebay went for £1.20




Spose that's another tenner on my next cue eh Andrew?

[ADR147]

Yeah back off folks he's been in a foul mood for a month now, ever since a Talisman tip of his on ebay went for £1.20




Spose that's another tenner on my next cue eh Andrew?

thats £1500 quid now !!!

[ADR147]

blimey... don't mess with the ADR

its the truth thats all, when you have spent an hour today repairing a parris cue it annoys you when people think he is god like!

[CueAntW147]

its the truth thats all, when you have spent an hour today repairing a parris cue it annoys you when people think he is god like!

quite right i thought it was a good post honest & to the point can't argue with that....

[snookaman]

The density of a 16" genuine Gaboon is about 78lb/cu ft.

Are you on drugs???
Why would you know this!!!!
Are you making this all up?

I certainly seen the weight sticking out of one pieces cues where the butt has been damaged. I've also heard of weights comming loose inside.

Hi Watford,

I think our Lovely Babe is right! The density of Gaboon is on average 74lb/cu ft. She may be referring to African Blackwood which has a density of 76-78 lb/cu ft.

The weight of most 16" butt is about 9 oz. and the shaft is about 8 oz. If the weight of an ebony butt is already 10 oz, what else can you do?

Hollow butt, as I mentioned earlier, could be an added advantage for better hand feels same as the hollow handle of a ping-pong racket.

I think the dark secret is how to work on ebony. When I first attempted to make hi-fi tips from ebony, I ruined 3 of my cutting blades!

[ADR147]

Wood - seasoned & dry kg/cu.m
Afromosia 705
Apple 660 - 830
Ash, black 540
Ash, white 670
Aspen 420
Balsa 170
Bamboo 300 - 400
Birch (British) 670
Cedar, red 380
Cypress 510
Douglas Fir 530
Ebony 960 - 1120
Elm ( English ) 600
Elm ( Wych ) 690
Elm ( Rock ) 815
Iroko 655
Larch 590
Lignum Vitae 1280 - 1370
Mahogany ( Honduras ) 545
Mahogany ( African ) 495 - 850
Maple 755
Oak 590 - 930
Pine ( Oregon ) 530
Pine ( Parana ) 560
Pine ( Canadian ) 350 - 560
Pine ( Red ) 370 - 660
Redwood ( American ) 450
Redwood ( European ) 510
Spruce ( Canadian ) 450
Spruce ( Sitka ) 450
Sycamore 590
Teak 630 - 720
Willow 420

[trevs1]

Hi Snookaman,

My John Parris 3/4 joint 16" butt is also like that. It is just simple mathematics! The density of a 16" genuine Gaboon is about 78lb/cu ft. The weight of it already exceeds 0.75lb. For an average cue of 1.1lb (17.5oz), the only way to keep the total under 18oz is to drill a hole in the centre of the butt!

How come all the cue makers in this forum cannot give you an answer in this respect? I think, they have never worked with a Gaboon ebony butt before! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Gabon ebony is no different to Nigerian ebony or Camaroon ebony or Madagascan ebony, they are all of the same species of timber. Naturally, the growing conditions of the timber can and does cause variations in the colour, density, etc, but generally speaking, they are pretty indistinguishable.

As for the butt weights, an ebony butt can range from anywhere between approx 9oz's to 12oz's, depending on the weight of the particular piece of timber, AND, the size and shape of the butt in question. Obviously, if a cue butt is 24mm through the joint and only 28mm at the back of the butt, it will likely weigh less than another of 26mm at the joint and 31mm at the back of the butt, so, there are other things to consider. In most cases though, a standard ebony butt of approx 25/26mm down to 30mm will weigh approx 10oz's, give or take a bit.

I think the reason for the hole in the butt end of the cue spoken about in this thread is more due to the hole machined to accept the joint for extensions, and, is nothing out of the ordinary.

I don't think you need to be concerned over it at all.

[snookaman]

Gabon ebony is no different to Nigerian ebony or Camaroon ebony or Madagascan ebony, they are all of the same species of timber. Naturally, the growing conditions of the timber can and does cause variations in the colour, density, etc, but generally speaking, they are pretty indistinguishable.

As for the butt weights, an ebony butt can range from anywhere between approx 9oz's to 12oz's, depending on the weight of the particular piece of timber, AND, the size and shape of the butt in question. Obviously, if a cue butt is 24mm through the joint and only 28mm at the back of the butt, it will likely weigh less than another of 26mm at the joint and 31mm at the back of the butt, so, there are other things to consider. In most cases though, a standard ebony butt of approx 25/26mm down to 30mm will weigh approx 10oz's, give or take a bit.

I think the reason for the hole in the butt end of the cue spoken about in this thread is more due to the hole machined to accept the joint for extensions, and, is nothing out of the ordinary.

I don't think you need to be concerned over it at all.

Hi,

Thank you for the clarification.

We assumes that higher wood density means less vibration/shock and therefore better hand feel. The density of Gaboon (African) Ebony is 74 lb/cu. ft. verus 65 lbs/cu ft. for Macassar (Indian) Ebony (and other types of ebony have even lower density except African Blackwood which belongs to the rosewood family, Dalbergia, not Diospyros). Then Gaboon is definitely superior than Macassar and other types of ebony (Mun Ebony-Laos, Brown Ebony-Argentina, Black & White Ebony-Myanmar, Black Indian Ebony)!

Gaboon is prefered over African Blackwood because there are other factors to be considered, such as stiffness, bending and shearing strength. So you won't see a good cue butt purely make up of snakewood or kingwood or cocobolo which looks attractive and beautiful but not as durable and effective. Building a cue after all is not the same as buliding a musical instrument! The former requires construction to damp vibration/shock while the later requires construction to create resonance.

I think the concern is whether you have a geniune ebony butt! When your cue butt comes with a closed SD joint, it may have built with something else! I have to strip off all the plastics seals and wood stains on my MyLife cue butt to find out the pores on the wood that is definitely not a property of any kind of ebony at all.