If you’ve played pool for any length of time, chances are you’ve played with a few warped pool cues. This is especially true if you do the majority of your playing at a pool hall or bar, where house cues are notorious for being warped and beat up in general. The causes behind all that bent wood are more mundane than you might think.
There are many reasons why pool cues warp including excessive exposure to heat and cold, moisture absorption, improper storage, poor cue maintenance, and poor quality wood being used in the construction of the cue itself. However, most warping can be prevented simply by keeping your cue in a case when not in use and stored in a dry, room temperature environment.What Actually Warps a Cue
Pool cues are made of wood, and like any wood product they expand and contract as temperatures change. Wood is also porous, so it soaks up moisture from the air around it. Those two traits, the swing from heat to cold and the moisture the wood absorbs, are what drive most cue warping.
Why Some Cues Warp and Others Don’t
Good cue makers know wood behaves this way, so they put the shaft through drying and sealing steps to pull moisture out and keep it out. The exact process varies by maker, but it usually means a drying period that removes moisture from the wood, then a sealant to lock it back out. Cheaper cues cut that corner, which is why they tend to go crooked first. If you want to see which makers have a track record for straight, stable cues, our roundup of the best pool cue brands is a good place to start.
How Storage and Care Undo Good Wood
Even the best drying and sealing only goes so far. Stand a well-built cue in a corner of a damp basement for a few months or leave it in a hot car, and the wood will still move. How you store and handle a cue matters as much as how it was made.
How to Prevent Your Cue From Warping
Prevention comes down to two things: buy a well-made cue, then store it right. Not all pool cues are built equally. Some makers use better wood than others, and the steps they take to prevent warping differ too. For that reason it’s always smart to buy from a reputable company that uses high-quality woods and a real drying and sealing process. Most that do will even back the cue with a warranty against warping.
Moisture is your pool cue’s biggest enemy. Cues are porous, so they will absorb it if you don’t take steps to prevent it, and enough absorbed moisture eventually leads to warping. Never store your cue in a damp basement or anywhere with high humidity. The cheapest insurance is a padded cue case that keeps the shaft out of humid air between sessions, and burnishing the shaft from time to time helps close its pores and lock moisture out.
How to Check If Your Cue Is Warped
Checking a cue for warp is simple, and there are two methods worth knowing. The first and most reliable is called sighting. The other is rolling the cue across a flat surface and watching for wobble. Both take about as long as chalking up.
Sighting a pool cue is typically the most accurate way to check for warping. To do so, hold the butt end of the cue at eye level, with the tip of the cue facing away and at a slight downward angle. Slowly rotate the cue 360 degrees as you observe the shaft and especially the tip. If you see any bends in the shaft, or if the tip moves irregularly, you know you’ve got a warped cue.
Rolling Your Cue on a Flat Surface
Alternatively, you can roll your cue across a flat surface and check for wobble. This method isn’t the most reliable, though, because it requires a perfectly flat surface. And while pool tabletops are obviously flat and generally level, small imperfections or variations in the felt can cause your cue to wobble even if the shaft itself is straight.
I still roll house cues on the table out of habit before a game, but sighting is what I trust before spending real money on anything.
The best defense against warping is buying a quality cue in the first place. McDermott cues come with a lifetime warranty against warping, which is hard to beat, and our best pool cue brands roundup flags which other makers stand behind their wood the same way.
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