How to tell if a maple cue is using top grade wood?

[mchpddl1]

Hi,
Can anyone advise me how to tell if a maple shaft is using top grade wood or not please?
Many thanks

[MikeWooldridge]

Hi,
Can anyone advise me how to tell if a maple shaft is using top grade wood or not please?
Many thanks

more bloody questions! you need to get out more...

not an easy one to answer. takes a lot of experience and a lot of maple in your hands to see, and 'feel', the little things that make wood 'better'.

easiest thing - find a cuemaker you can trust. i'm one. there are others too....

but i know one cuemaker who made a 'maple' custom cue for someone once. only turns out he used ash. obviously, the bloke who bought it had no idea but that's no excuse to rip him off eh? unbelievable, but true....

[BITTER]

Your telling me you've never made a custom cue and put the wrong shaft on it ?

[ADR147]

me thinks at some point mike will have noticed the mistake?

[platt]

confessions of a cuemaker what a thread. come on lads lets read about the simple mistakes ............?

[poolqjunkie]

The maple could be snow white, no blemish, dense, straight grain and everything--but if it hits terrible, who good does it do you?

Some people like their maple very dense, and white. Some cannot even stand a single brown dot on the wood. But too heavy a shaft does not necessarily play well. And when the shaft gets dirty, the blemishes sometimes can become invisible unless you keep looking for them.

So, the most important thing is really how the shaft plays, in my opinion.