Does cue weight affect control of shot?

[Terry Davidson]

ken:

Yes, I had ordered a cue from Mr. Tsang of LK.T and he does have some method of measuring shaft flex. I believe mine was a '7' on his scale which was slightly whippy from a medium-stiff flex.

However, I've ended up selling the cue as I couldn't get on with it for some reason (it was a very nice cue, and very well made) and I still prefer my TW.

Terry

[lloouu]

ken:

Yes, I had ordered a cue from Mr. Tsang of LK.T and he does have some method of measuring shaft flex. I believe mine was a '7' on his scale which was slightly whippy from a medium-stiff flex.

However, I've ended up selling the cue as I couldn't get on with it for some reason (it was a very nice cue, and very well made) and I still prefer my TW.

Terry

I have 2 LK.T, one of them with maple shaft and the other with ash. They both come with different character and both great on controlling within half table. However, by some reason, they both no good on making power shot. When I hold the cue on hand, I felt it's heavier than what it supposed to be. I have no idea, is there someone who may know the answer?

[matt926_uk]

Mike Wooldridge's laminated tips have a black layer at the bottom made of something different to the rest of the tip, and its more flexible. I tried them out and couldn't really pot very well with them.

deepscrew:

The 3 cues I used in my rather limited test all had good tips on them, 2 with Kamui MH and one with a fairly hard Elk Master. I believe the tips would all grip the cueball approximately the same.

But I would like to make a couple of points which could show just how important (or not) the tip is. I had a student recently who had a very nice, but very whippy, older B&W cue which had been modified with a 3/4-joint. The tip on this cue was a really crappy Elk Master or Blue Diamond which was relatively hard and the cue's weight was light, somewhere just below 17oz. With this cue I had trouble potting a long blue (always right of the pocket about 2") however the screw I got had the cueball coming back to the baulk cushion like a rocket! From this I'm assuming the tip played a minor part and it was more to do with the whippy shaft flex. I then tried a straight black off the spot with cueball 1ft behind and was able to easily screw off the side cushion and across the table to the other side cushion with no problem at all.

The other point...I once saw Steve Davis using a rubber device which fit over the ferrule and tip. I don't know whether the rubber was very soft or a little harder but Steve was able to do amazing spin shots with this device (which I believe is illegal as far as the WPBSA and IBSF are concerned). So I think the answer is yes, the type and hardness of a player's tip will have a definite effect on the spin he can apply but I still believe the shaft flex is the most critical part of a cue's specs in effecting the amount of spin, especially when all other considerations are roughly equal (like the tip).

Now that experiment of Steve's has me wondering if we could have a layered tip where one of the lower layers was made of some type of soft rubber. I think this type of tip would take a lot of experimentation on the manufacturer's part but the result might be well worth it if players could get used to the increased spin on the cueball. The other point would be those players who get unintentional side with their technique might not be able to use the tip at all until they got their technique to where they can deliver the cue straight and through the centre of the cueball. Another problem might be with the constant compacting of the rubber layer the glue may not be able to hold the tip together for very long.

But it would be very interesting to see how a tip like this would effect spin imparted.

Terry

[cazmac1]

I have a new cue on order and should be getting it shortly. I have asked for an 18 oz cue and have also asked the cue maker to try and achieve the balance weight ratio by selecting the correct weight and combinations of timber as I don't want any metal/weight added in the cue at all.
I have how ever said that this is my preference and have given permission to build the cue if this can't be achieved. I will wait till the cue is ready before asking if he was able to do this for me.