Patrick Johnson opined... > Less squirt.

Of course you're right. When I took away most of the squirt then the swerve became the dominant factor, whereas with my old shaft I had them working in pretty good harmony.

After several hours tonight I've got my stroke adjusted to eliminate the swerve effect (for the most part), and so I reran my spin test. I can now report no appreciable difference in sidespin range between the new 314 and my old shaft. I did notice a tendency to over-draw the ball alot with the 314, but I'm prepared to assign responsibility for that to the fact that the 314 has a softer hit than the Schon shaft.

I still can't do a valid squirt test with the 314. The pivot point is somewhere in my butt (of my cue :)) and the friction caused by the finish, along with the very awkward stroking position, makes a consistent squirt test impossible.

Another thing - I'm unable to jump very well at all with the 314 on my cue. Even with the Schon shaft I'm no Sammy Jones, but I can clear most reasonable obstructions. With the 314 it pretty much needs to be a Hellen Keller jump shot for me to be able to clear the obstructing ball.

And another thing - When I first played with this thing this afternoon it was 52 degrees in my basement. Tonight for my practice I had the temperature at a more reasonable 70 degrees. This certainly affected my cushion performance but I'm not sure how.