Pool Cue News and Review

Yeah, I’ll be going to Charlotte next week for the BCA Expo. Looking at the current exhibitor list, there’s going to be 185 companies there showing off their wares, but the real question is whether or not there will be anything that’s actually “new”. I know Predator will be showing off their new P3 cues and after the unmitigated disaster that was Poison, they could use a hit (although I heard they did sell one or two of those 314 shafts last year). Of course you wouldn’t know that they actually want the P3 to sell well considering the fact that the “countdown” image is linked to their cases page…

In addition to the new P3’s, I’m sure I’ll be treated to the annual glut of the exact same cues with new stickers. You can’t blame the companies though. After all, it is the lower end cue that drives this industry. The market for the custom cue continues to shrink, so there’s no reason for companies to not roll out the same cue with a different design.

This all begs the question: Does this industry really need an annual trade show? There’s rarely anything that’s actually “new”, so why have a show every year? The technology is still the same, there haven’t been any decent training tools released in years and its not like people are going to the show to write orders.

At any rate, I’ll be running around the show snapping pictures and checking out the new stuff, so I’ll be sure to have lots of posts following the show. Sorry about not posting much this week, but the industry is taking its annual summertime snooze and that real life thing managed to catch up to me.

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.

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.

Dammit! Well, I might have to go to the stupid Super Billiards Expo after all. It seems that Predator has signed up ultra-hottie Shanelle Loraine to be their player rep for their line of Poison Cues and she’ll be at the expo. Apparently those guys at Predator are pretty smart after all. I’m guessing that Charlie Williams had something to do with the sponsorship since Shanelle hasn’t really done all that much in the way of winning championships, but who cares!Personally, I think the Poison cues are pretty stupid. Why would I pay Predator prices for a cue that doesn’t have a 314 shaft on it? The “Double D” technology doesn’t sound like much and their Sarin tip is nothing new either, as it was done first by 5280 with their Red Line Tip.

When you hit the expo to ogle Shanelle, make sure you take a whiff of one of those Poison cues with the funky wrap. They smell like an impossible combination of rubber and ass. Oh, and leave a comment if you try one out. I haven’t had a chance to play with one yet, but I doubt its anything special. After all, if they were Predator quality, why wouldn’t the company slap a Slazenger …err… Predator logo on it?

The Elite “Heavy” Break Cue 

It seems to be a matter of great contention when the discussion comes up about whether or not you should be breaking with a heavy cue.  Some people feel that the extra weight means extra power, but the reality is that it depends on both the weight of the cue and the speed you’re hitting the cue ball with your breaker.

For those of you that feel like you really “need” a heavy cue, there is now a ridiculously heavy break cue from Elite.  The one I tried out weighed in at a little more than 28oz.  Honestly, it felt a bit silly hitting with this break cue, but it did seem like my break was quite a bit stronger with this cue than with my normal break cue.  I then watched a couple of my buddies break with it and one ended up flying the cue ball off the table.

For me, I’m quite happy with my Predator BK2, however if you feel like you need to pack a little something extra, you might as well give the Elite breaker a try.  You won’t have much control over your break, but you’re bound to hit the crap out of the ball.

Elite “Heavy” Break Cue at PoolDawg