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I get very intrigued when a new craftsman comes our way and usually they are a budding hobbyist who wants to share their work or are just taking the first few steps in turning a hobby in to a career. So when Martin Jones (mtcase) comes along who has 27 years experience in case making under his belt I just had to take a look.
Martin had two cases immediately available for me to choose from and one design in particular matched my tastes better than the other so I went with that one. I did have a couple of reservations about the design. Firstly having such a brightly coloured interior is certainly not to my taste and I feel that rounded ends on a case make them look sleeker and less cumbersome than a square end, although looks vs functionality does come in to play when your beer bellied team mate knocks your case over a guaranteed twice per season!
Communicating with Martin by email was great, always replied swiftly and kept me updated with delivery information etc. The case arrived by courier today having been sent yesterday and was wrapped with layers of bubble wrap and then layers of corrugated cardboard keeping it very well protected.
I will stop waffling for a bit and show you some pics.....
Two things struck me straight away, firstly it was so light but felt so rigid and secondly the quality of the leathers is incredibly high. Ostrich skin has become a very used material over the last ten years and the quality has been dipping as the demand grew but the skin used here is top notch.
As you look further you see the quality of the craftsmanship is fantastic, really fantastic and what at first I thought was a real negative in the square ends have become my favourite feature with the brilliant contrast stitching looks incredible and provides some structure and solidity to the ends. Even all the screwheads are aligned horizontally which shows a real attention to detail in my eyes.
The interior is very tidily crafted and robust but my mind has not been changed about the interior colour at all! The one point I am going to make is that many of us absolutely cherish our cues and like to know that when we put them to bed they are safely snuggled up and encased by some foam but this case does not have any padding apart other than the lining material itself. Adding foam lining to his designs will lift these cases to being up there with the best which in my experience has been Crispian Jones and the sadly no longer produced Glover cases.
In summary I am delighted with the case and am very impressed by Martin's work. He is offering his unique style of craftsmanship to the cue case market and is well worth a chat with if you are looking for a completely bespoke case.
Here are ways to get in touch with the man himself.
martin-jones'AT'sky.com
http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...p/36813-mtcase
https://www.facebook.com/martinjonescaseman
Martin had two cases immediately available for me to choose from and one design in particular matched my tastes better than the other so I went with that one. I did have a couple of reservations about the design. Firstly having such a brightly coloured interior is certainly not to my taste and I feel that rounded ends on a case make them look sleeker and less cumbersome than a square end, although looks vs functionality does come in to play when your beer bellied team mate knocks your case over a guaranteed twice per season!
Communicating with Martin by email was great, always replied swiftly and kept me updated with delivery information etc. The case arrived by courier today having been sent yesterday and was wrapped with layers of bubble wrap and then layers of corrugated cardboard keeping it very well protected.
I will stop waffling for a bit and show you some pics.....
Two things struck me straight away, firstly it was so light but felt so rigid and secondly the quality of the leathers is incredibly high. Ostrich skin has become a very used material over the last ten years and the quality has been dipping as the demand grew but the skin used here is top notch.
As you look further you see the quality of the craftsmanship is fantastic, really fantastic and what at first I thought was a real negative in the square ends have become my favourite feature with the brilliant contrast stitching looks incredible and provides some structure and solidity to the ends. Even all the screwheads are aligned horizontally which shows a real attention to detail in my eyes.
The interior is very tidily crafted and robust but my mind has not been changed about the interior colour at all! The one point I am going to make is that many of us absolutely cherish our cues and like to know that when we put them to bed they are safely snuggled up and encased by some foam but this case does not have any padding apart other than the lining material itself. Adding foam lining to his designs will lift these cases to being up there with the best which in my experience has been Crispian Jones and the sadly no longer produced Glover cases.
In summary I am delighted with the case and am very impressed by Martin's work. He is offering his unique style of craftsmanship to the cue case market and is well worth a chat with if you are looking for a completely bespoke case.
Here are ways to get in touch with the man himself.
martin-jones'AT'sky.com
http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/boa...p/36813-mtcase
https://www.facebook.com/martinjonescaseman
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