Dr No[Moderator Omega - Wristscan]
34793
pplater has one. And now, so . . .
Jun 29, 2020,11:04 AM
. . . do I.
I'm referring, of course, to a Tasmanian blackwood pool cue fitted with a Tasmanian huon forearm and butt. pplater posted his several months ago . . .
[photo credit: pplater, Dec '19]
. . . and now there's a near twin . . .
. . . in my burgeoning collection. I opted for a single Euro-taper purpleheart shaft, while pplater ordered all three options, oak and maple in addition to purpleheart. And there are differences in joint materials, with pplater going down the buffalo horn route while I went with ivorine. But they are otherwise identical, with a handle formed from a solid piece of Tasmanian blackwood accented by Tasmanian huon fitted over the fore and aft ends. The huon sections are essentially floating on the blackwood core, so they're not really functional - the 'hit' of the cue is determined by the resonance of blackwood.
The ivorine joints . . .
. . . are dressed with rings of zaratite made from the same rock sample used on pplater's. The rings separating blackwood from huon . . .
. . . were cut from the first zaratite pplater sent, and have a slightly darker appearance. The tip is attached to an ivorine ferrule . . .
. . . separated by a thin pad of carbon fiber.
I've practiced several racks with it; it plays harder than any of my other cues with ultra-soft tips. I'm not sure what to attribute that to, but in all likelihood it's the resonant quality of Tasmanian blackwood that accounts for its feedback. Paradoxically, I noticed that playing with it seems to modulate the force I normally use down a notch. This is a desirable quality, as accuracy goes up when velocity goes down.
So, you may be wondering, how's my game these days?
You had to ask.
All called shots.