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Shaft of cue sticks

Shaft of cue sticks description/claims

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to cue sticks for playing billiard or pool and, more particularly, to an improved shaft of a cue stick.

2. Description of the Related Art

A prior art billiard cue disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,702,292 has a body portion formed of a plurality of longitudinal wood sections secured together and a hollow metallic reinforcing core received within the body and extending throughout the length of the body. Although maintaining the cue against warping or becoming distorted, the improvement is followed by a drawback that the flexibility of the impact end of the cue is decreased. As a result, when the cue is lined up to strike the cue ball off center, the cue ball striked does not follow a path of movement that is parallel to the line of stroke of the cue.

For eliminating the drawback mentioned above, U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,437 discloses an improved billiard cue having a ferrule with a bore, and a wood shaft with a tenon inserting into the bore in such a way that a hollow portion is formed in the impact end of the shaft to absorb part of the impact forces imposing thereon. As a result, the inward buckling of the impact end of the shaft on off center hits is decreased so that the cue ball hit can follow a path of movement that is parallel to the line of stroke of the cue.

However, for having a wood shaft, this improved cue provides a poor radial consistency. Speaking detailedly, the meaning of “radial consistency” is that when a player uses each of contact points defined by the same radius of the hitting surface of a cue tip mounted on a shaft to hit a cue ball in the same way, such as the same hitting angle, the same hitting force, etc., the cue ball hit, in each hitting, should have the same response.

Due to the fact that the grain and density of wood materials are non-homogeneous, the center of gravity of a wood shaft does not locate on the axis thereof. As a result, when a player uses a prior art wood shaft to hit a cue ball in the same way but with different contact points defined by the same radius of the hitting surface of a cue tip mounted on the wood shaft, the cue ball hit, in each hitting, would have different response.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,370 suggests an approach to improve “radial consistency” of a wood shaft of a billiard cue. The approach is to provide a wood shaft laminated by a central elongated wood member and a plurality of surrounding wood elongated members. For having a wood elongated central member, such a laminated wood shaft could have a center of gravity located on the axis thereof. Thus, “radial consistency” of the laminated wood can be improved.

However, it had been found that, in practical using, “radial consistency” of the laminated wood shaft mentioned above could not be improved effectively. The primary reason is that the wood elongated central member is not rigid enough to resist averagely the outer compressing force coming from omnidirection during laminating processes so that the center of gravity of the laminated wood shaft would be shifted from the axis thereof alter laminating processes.

Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved shaft of a cue stick of which the inward buckling of the impact end on off center hits is minimized and, in the same time, the center of gravity is exactly located on the axis thereof.

To achieve the desire, the present invention discloses an improved shaft of a cue stick which comprises an elongated body tapering from a first end to a second end. The body is laminated of a plurality of wood strips. Each of the wood strips in cross-section thereof includes a sector section having an arcuate outer surface and an arc inner notch. The wood strips are laminated in such a way that after laminating, the arcuate outer surfaces thereof form an outer surface of the body and the inner notches thereof define an axial hole of the body. The shaft further comprises a circular core tube made of materials having a larger rigidity than wood materials. The tube is shorter than the axial hole of the body and firmly received therein in such a way that the body forms a front hollow section extending a predetermined length along the axis thereof from the first end thereof to the second end thereof.

The foregoing and others features of the present invention will become more apparent by referring to the following detailed description and drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a cue stick with a first preferred embodiment of a shaft constructed in accordance of the teachings of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view generally taken along line 2-2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view generally taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view generally taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4 but showing a cross sectional view of a second preferred embodiment of a shaft constructed in accordance of the teachings of the present invention; and

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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