Overall you liked the cue. It’s lighter (about 17 ounces), the shaft is no longer radially spliced but has some sort of carbon fiber insert to remove weight instead. You will break 5 or 6 times with your current BK2 to get a baseline, then broke 8 – 10 times with the BK3. So not a long term test, but enough to get an initial feel.

You also purposely hit off center with both cues. The thing you liked about the BK2 was in the event you come through it on the left or right, in theory if you are bridging the same distance as the natural pivot point (which we believe is around 12″ – 13″) the ball will still go where aimed. Even though the BK3 is not using the same shaft technology. So the carbon fiber must lighten it up enough to still give it LD properties.

Since we use my BK2 to jump on longer jump shots, we also tested the BK3 on these. We was able to jump a full ball from 12″ – 14″ away, about my minimum comfortable distance with a full cue. Was also able to easily get enough spin to draw the ball back the length of the table, same as my BK2, with good control. We would guess that the BK3 might be even better for this, since it’s a bit lighter, but did not see any huge improvements in my small sample size.

So overall, it would be a great break cue for someone. The new shaft may be more solid than the BK2 shaft, where we have heard instances of the tip/ferrule just exploding at contact. Would like to see it with the sport wrap like on the BK2, although mine does not have that, just regular linen. However, we would say unless you are just tired of your BK2, or really want a lighter weight, the cues are similar enough that you don’t know if it’s worth the upgrade. Although in theory you could sell a BK2 in good condition for at least half the cost of a new BK3, so why not?

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