GENUINE WILL HUNT PROFESSIONAL 3/4 SNOOKER CUE & Cue Craft Ally Case.

[RGCirencester]

Dear Lord is this still going on?

This is such a grey area, what if the wood suppliers cuts the ebony blanks? Sells turned shafts? Cuts the shafts to 60" lengths?

And say stu at greenbaize made a cue himself, to the same standard as his others cues, and stuck a greenbaize badge on it but never stated he'd made it. I bet i can guarantee not a single person would complain that they expected to get a cue from Thailand.

The badge is "bling" to use a modern term if you ask me. When u buy a cue I'm personally paying for the standards I expect from that maker, the style, the materials I expect, not whose hand did what.

If the end product is up to a good standard then that's surely all that matters?
I know some people might not agree with the original advertising (which I'm sure wasn't intentional if anything incorrect was said) but I don't see a problem with calling it a will hunt now. After all will hunt has effectively declared him self a "brand" and not a craftsman.

[crispian jones]

Dear Lord is this still going on?

This is such a grey area, what if the wood suppliers cuts the ebony blanks? Sells turned shafts? Cuts the shafts to 60" lengths?

And say stu at greenbaize made a cue himself, to the same standard as his others cues, and stuck a greenbaize badge on it but never stated he'd made it. I bet i can guarantee not a single person would complain that they expected to get a cue from Thailand.

The badge is "bling" to use a modern term if you ask me. When u buy a cue I'm personally paying for the standards I expect from that maker, the style, the materials I expect, not whose hand did what.

If the end product is up to a good standard then that's surely all that matters?
I know some people might not agree with the original advertising (which I'm sure wasn't intentional if anything incorrect was said) but I don't see a problem with calling it a will hunt now. After all will hunt has effectively declared him self a "brand" and not a craftsman.

you raise a good point there mate, ive badged a 100% handmade cue with a customised badge b4 and i have two 100% handmade cues here that i will probably badge as customised one day, this is just down to cosmetics, not 100% on the lower points, and the demand for perfection from the buyers

i will have two options eventually, customised = dressed up thai cues, or handmade = with pictures and a certificate included
but when the standard set by the cuemakers already established is so high, i personaly feel it is a good way for me to use up any
cues with minor errors, without ruining my reputation before it starts !

also when you have a shaft that has cost you to buy, and you have spent a few hours working on turns out to have one or two
blemishes that are not realy that bad, i would rather persevere with what i have started and splice it, then if after i have planed
it down to size i feel it would not justify the price i would want as handmade, i will hapily put a customised badge in to it

the thing is, if you are making cues from scratch, at this stage you have done most of the work anyway !
you have bought the board, cut it in to squares, waited for them to settle, then slightly tapered them, then waited a little more,
then retaper them again, then finaly you get to turn them in to a shaft me personally i think this is the hard part, unfortunatly
the splicing is (although fairly easy) what most guys look at first and if not perfect, then most are not happy !

[ADR147]

[QUrealityR147;696366]Will Hunt is perfectly entitled to do this and the cue is legally a Will Hunt cue, the question of who did what is not really important to the end product the customer buys, surely if Will is happy to put him name to the cue that is what you are paying for? in reality all cues are imported in various levels of build because ebony is not indigenous to the uk.

In reality all cues are imported in various levels because ebony is not indigenous to the uk. Are you having a laugh so in reality Trevor white who I know for fact makes is own cues start to finish cant really say there handmade by him because he doesnt grow his own wood. he takes raw materials and turns them in to a cue. What will hunt / coutts cues did was deceived there customers I know hes entitled to import cues rebadge them and legally call them a will hunt but he should have stated this from the beginning but if he had done that would people have bought them.[/QUOTE]

As far as i am aware everybody, other than dave coutts, has the shafts turned down on a cnc lathe for them so does that mean they didn't make the cue? i am not in anyway saying i approve of what will hunt has done or is doing i am just saying surely the cue should be judged on it's own merit?

[eaoin11]

you raise a good point there mate, ive badged a 100% handmade cue with a customised badge b4 and i have two 100% handmade cues here that i will probably badge as customised one day, this is just down to cosmetics, not 100% on the lower points, and the demand for perfection from the buyers

Sorry are you saying 100% handmade by you? Or by someone else. And if by you, why? Or is the answer below...??

also when you have a shaft that has cost you to buy, and you have spent a few hours working on turns out to have one or two
blemishes that are not realy that bad, i would rather persevere with what i have started and splice it, then if after i have planed
it down to size i feel it would not justify the price i would want as handmade, i will hapily put a customised badge in to it

So you mean that if something you did doesn't turn out so well, you'll badge it 'customized' to suggest that a thai maker did it? After you defined customized = 'dressed up thai cue'? The B.S you come out with is hilarious, overused smilies notwithstanding...

[paddybhoy30]

I think we could all start a cuemaking business.

[ADR147]

I think we could all start a cuemaking business.

to make it worth doing you need to get £500 plus per cue.

[paddybhoy30]

Yeh not if your buying a batch of cues from thailand to refinish and badge up.

[ADR147]

Yeh not if your buying a batch of cues from thailand to refinish and badge up.

even that is not as easy as you think! you always get problems such as bending cues, splices lifting, nasty varnish you have to remove, loose joints etc etc i know for sure craftsman stopped importing them because they were spending almost as much time repairing each batch as it would have taken to make the things themselves! then you have quality control issues because you can be sure the first batch you get are superb but don't count on the second lot being the same! then we have freight charges and import issues like packages going missing and huge insurance costs, oh and VAT plus certificates needed to import many of the woods because of various countries different rules on what is and what is not allowed all of that combined with the fact that the imported cues are not nearly as cheap as you might think means even this method is not that easy!

[farrelld91]

I was about to say they obviously cant be selling them that cheap otherwise theyd be as well just badging them up and selling them as finished cues

[eaoin11]

even that is not as easy as you think! you always get problems such as bending cues, splices lifting, nasty varnish you have to remove, loose joints etc etc i know for sure craftsman stopped importing them because they were spending almost as much time repairing each batch as it would have taken to make the things themselves! then you have quality control issues because you can be sure the first batch you get are superb but don't count on the second lot being the same! then we have freight charges and import issues like packages going missing and huge insurance costs, oh and VAT plus certificates needed to import many of the woods because of various countries different rules on what is and what is not allowed all of that combined with the fact that the imported cues are not nearly as cheap as you might think means even this method is not that easy!

Craftsman still import and sell loads of cues that are completely made in Thailand by Master cue and Phoenix cues. GBL and Chesworth also.... No nasty varnish to remove on the brands I have mentioned as they come with a quality oil finish and we know that these cues survive freight very well, or no international customers would buy from them. The prices are from 75 - 350 plus so quality stock is clearly available for low prices.

If these brands can do it, so can whoever's supplying UK 'cue makers'.

[ADR147]

Craftsman still import and sell loads of cues that are completely made in Thailand by Master cue and Phoenix cues. GBL and Chesworth also.... No nasty varnish to remove on the brands I have mentioned as they come with a quality oil finish and we know that these cues survive freight very well, or no international customers would buy from them. The prices are from 75 - 350 plus so quality stock is clearly available for low prices.

If these brands can do it, so can whoever's supplying UK 'cue makers'.

stu's margins are not big at all and if you check with him he still has those issues and has to fix them himself! and mastercue often have loose joints etc as well - i know for sure because i used to import them!

[culraven]

There's plenty of our own forum members doing this also, the difference being of course they sell them as refurbished or customised, and usually have a different badge so any future purchasers know what there getting! I really don't understand why people take issue with cuemakers doing this, there is no way a one man oufit could survive if they didn't do somthing to suplement there income, check there feedback, everyones happy with the end product!

[ADR147]

There's plenty of our own forum members doing this also, the difference being of course they sell them as refurbished or customised, and usually have a different badge so any future purchasers know what there getting! I really don't understand why people take issue with cuemakers doing this, there is no way a one man oufit could survive if they didn't do somthing to suplement there income, check there feedback, everyones happy with the end product!

i have a Hunt O'Byrne cue here I think is a copy mainly because it is far far better than any genuine will hunt cue i have ever seen!

[cally]

What cue range would you say these are in the category of then andrew, i mean what cues/maker would they be on par with these days do you think?

[ADR147]

What cue range would you say these are in the category of then andrew, i mean what cues/maker would they be on par with these days do you think?

which, the modern will hunts?