Pool Cue News and Review

So this is kind of interesting. I was wasting time digging around in Google Patents and amongst the giant pile of things that will never be developed was a patent for a new shaft from Steve Titus, the Predator 314 guy. Could it be that the future of Predator is… a composite shaft??? The shaft features a wood core and composite skin described in the patent application as a carbon fiber or epoxy. The patent also refers to one of Predator’s key patents in their 314 shaft, so there’s really very little doubt that we’re looking at a potential Predator product.

According to the application, “the very light core combined with the extremely strong composite skin allow the billiard cue shaft to be very stiff where required without being too heavy and very light in areas where low mass is most critical for maximum performance while maintaining adequate stiffness”. This is interesting, but the real question is how is the thing actually going to feel. There’s a big difference in feel when you look at a wood shaft versus a composite or even a wood/composite hybrid shaft. One could speculate that the feel is what is holding development of the shaft up, as the the patent was awarded almost 2 years ago. At any rate, its an interesting read.

When you spend some time talking to pool players, the conversation that seems to always come up is Chinese cues.  There are lots of Chinese cues on the market and the general feeling from pool players is that they don’t hold a candle to domestic cues.  From a looks perspective, I’d tend to agree, but from a playability perspective I’m not so sure, especially when you keep in mind that the #1 performance shaft comes with a nice little gold sticker that says “Made in China”.

So if tons of pros swear by the 314 shaft and amateurs everywhere put them on their Joss, Schon, Longoni, etc. butts, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to piss and moan about Chinese cues?  I’m not saying that all Chinese cues are good, some are complete garbage.  But to make a general statement that “all Chinese cues are bad” seems like nothing more than good old fashioned jingoism.  For all the people who complain about Chinese cues, I’d be willing to bet if you went into their house, you’d find all sorts of products made in China/Korea/Taiwan.

I’d love to ramble on more about this topic, but I need to go grab a heaping plate of General Tso’s chicken, drink some Green Tea and then head over to the Lotus Spa for a quick rub ‘n tug.

One of the lesser known shafts in the ever-growing “performance shaft” category is the Tiger X Shaft. Just like I did with the Predator 314 Shaft, in order to really give this shaft its proper due, we have to look at the patent.

The primary feature of the X Shaft is their laminated pieces that are glued together, but what makes this one different is that the pieces are surrounded by a solid core, the “central elongated member”. According to Tiger and their claim, the structure of their design ensures that the shaft enjoys “the absence of warping along the length”. In addition, they claim that their unique design allows players to put a greater amount of English and draw on the ball compared to other shafts that use the laminated piece design.

After all that, I’ll tell you my personal experience, which as you know is worth very little. Its a pretty solid shaft. I like the 314 more, but generally speaking, its not bad. Personally, I still think the splicing thing is just marketing garbage, but the shaft does have a very nice Tiger Sniper tip and an extra long taper which does help with control. Plus, they do some cool stuff with their ferrule and as we all know, almost all the playability is in the tip and the ferrule.

Ever wonder what’s in those fancy 314 shafts that make them all special? Predator doesn’t really go into all that much detail on their website about it other than to say that their patented shaft reduces cueball deflection, so I decided to look it up and see for myself. Since the stuff is patented, the paperwork is all on file (thank you Google Patents).

As you might guess, the patents deal with the ferrule and the end of the shaft.

The shaft patent (#6110051) comes down to this: Predator hollows out the tip end of the shaft “having a wall thickness of about 0.030 to 0.050 inches between opposed ends of the bore”. Basically, they hollow out the tip end almost all the way to the end of the shaft “in order to minimize the buckling of the tip end of the shaft” which has the effect of reducing cue ball deflection. According to the patent, the bored out tip reduces the overall weight of the tip while maintaining the shaft’s stiffness.

I don’t know about you, but this is some pretty clever shit. You can find the full patent documentation through Google Patents. Thanks to the lawyers, it isn’t exactly in layman’s terms, but still worth a read if you’re interested.

Once upon a time, there was a cuemaker named Bob. He was both a cuemaker and a King in the town known as Byhalia. He made custom cues and the kingdom was happy. He was quite proud of his work and as such, gave them the name of Meucci Cues. The cues he made were good. They played nice, they had a good feel to them. His customers rejoiced. Some even thought that his cues were magical and could fix any game, even for a player that had an otherwise incurable case of the yips. Players young and old, rich and poor would all come to Castle Meucci for the chance to purchase one of King Bob’s fabled cues.

Then something happened at Castle Meucci. We know not whether the king became ill, if his apprentices became lax, or if some foul witch placed a hex on the kingdom, but whatever the cause, Bob’s materials turned against him. The fine hard rock maple, once straight and true was now warped and bowed. The inlays of magnificent mother of pearl would invariably pop out. The king could not understand what was happening. He was sure that nothing had changed, yet people no longer came from miles around to acquire his mythical cues.

Bob searched the globe for answers until one day he came to a far off land in the east. This land, referred to as “China” by the royal inquisitors, offered hope. He could not reveal his mystical secrets of the original Meucci cues to these strangers, so instead he commissioned them to build a new line of cues. He sat in his throne and proclaimed to his loyal subjects that he found a new artisan in the East, a cuemaker with powers that almost rivaled his own. These cues would be called “Medici Cues“. These cues would be built by master artisans from the land of “China” and be brought back to Castle Meucci. There, Bob would take each cue and apply his own master skills to the cue before presenting them to the kingdom.

After many months, the first shipment of cues from the east arrived. Bob proclaimed triumph as unlike his own creations, the new Medici cues rolled straight and true. They did not possess the mystical Black Dot Shaft that only original Meucci cues have, but secretly the king’s subjects rejoiced, as they never truly believed in the power of the Black Dot.

King Bob may never make a pool cue the way he once did, but thanks to his Far East connection, he can once again offer a quality product to his subjects.