Wolfighter

[DublinDevil]

Hi all,

A mate of mine at the club recently received an O’min branded cue from Wolfighter in China (Aliexpress). It seems like a very nice cue. Anyone else had any experience with these?

[Bilston Cues]

There are two companies trading as omin.

The two owners are brothers and produced cues in Thailand. Then the one went to China registered the name omin and had cues made there.
The Thai company sadly now do not have the rights to the name apparently, their buisness was badly effected with the influx of the cheap chinese poorly made ones and today stands at less than half it once was.

Hope it's a Thai one, i have had some of the Chinese ones and they simply were **** poor.

[147888J]

Hi all,

A mate of mine at the club recently received an O’min branded cue from Wolfighter in China (Aliexpress). It seems like a very nice cue. Anyone else had any experience with these?

Have a Chinese (by 'Mr. Li') and a Thai made O'min cue. The Chinese cue is lovely to be honest. A bit 'lively' at the butt end in terms of aesthetic, but the shaft is clean and hits the balls beautifully.

[DublinDevil]

Well I’ll keep you posted on what I received, I ordered one which should arrive any day now.

[147888J]

Well I’ll keep you posted on what I received, I ordered one which should arrive any day now.

I will post some photos of my cue when I have time. I use it mostly for Chinese 8-ball now.
I have a Niche Cues Ultimate that I have taken a fancy to as my main cue, and a Cheshire Cues Ultimate as my reserve.

Personally, I feel this cue is as good as any. Certainly holds up against some friends Thai bought O'min cues (comparing quality not business ethics here lol)

[itsnoteasy]

Have a Chinese (by 'Mr. Li') and a Thai made O'min cue. The Chinese cue is lovely to be honest. A bit 'lively' at the butt end in terms of aesthetic, but the shaft is clean and hits the balls beautifully.

How do they compare to each other? I think it's seen, well in my mind anyway, as the Thai ones are better but who's to say the better cue maker out of the brothers didn't go to China.

[147888J]

How do they compare to each other? I think it's seen, well in my mind anyway, as the Thai ones are better but who's to say the better cue maker out of the brothers didn't go to China.

Out of the two I have, the Chinese one is better to play with. But it's so subjective. I feel it is purely because I am using it more often (and deemed it useable) for Chinese 8-ball and playing with it regularly. The feel is very well suited for this purpose. The quality of the shaft on both are more than enough for me. Straight and evenly spaced chevrons, and decent grain without blemish on both. I would say both shafts compare to any top brand I have seen aesthetically, and as for feel, they both play great.

I wouldn't use the Thai made one for 8-ball, as it has a bit more meaning to me personally, but both of them were more than plenty for my standard on the snooker table. I have other cues that are above them currently.

As mentioned, the Chinese cue has a bit more going on at the butt end of the cue... I have seen some friends with very nice Thai made O'min cues that I would say exceed both the cues I have. I have a friend who sells the Chinese O'min cues in his store, and some of their high-end cues are out of this world to look at (whether you think they are beautiful or not is again subjective, but they are very 'busy' in terms of detail - I saw him post on WeChat that they just revamped their range)

I would say, 'the original is best' and the general ethical conundrum raised by such business dispute/practice can easily swing opinions on something that is basically entirely subjective. I would say that because the Chinese brand is also marketing cheaper cues at 8-ball players in the domestic market in China, it is easier for people to label all of these cues as inferior without actually ever having tried one... Not to mention, the ones that are exported or make it outside, make it outside for a reason... they are bought to be sold on usually...

Let's not pretend that as players, we make most of the decisions based on aesthetic, or someone's word of mouth and marketing/branding. The rest is purely subjective, based on customer service, what a pro or good player has achieved with the same brand and endorsed or how it actually felt in our hand on the day we tried it and bought it.

Buying cues is both a 'mug's game' and a **** talker's wet dream! I would say there is no substitute for knocking balls around in real life before you buy your cue. Naturally, we can't always do that and must take a risk. I like the English names they have given the cues on AliExpress, they make me giggle. The Chinese names on Taobao are a little more badass lol I have not had experience using AliExpress, as I am in China, but most stuff on their is going to be lesser quality than what you can find domestically in China in my opinion.

Can tell the morning coffee has kicked in! Hope this helps, and I will eventually get around to posting a couple pics once I'm not working like a dog! Haven't been able to play all bloody week!!!!!

[itsnoteasy]

Great post thanks. It's very interesting to me that it's the inferior cues that get sold abroad as over hear its the top cues that go to Asia. Obviously the size of the market will decide that.
I pick a cue on the hit and the hit only, the rest of it is just packaging to me,although the hit is just as subjective from player to player as any other reason a cue is picked.

[Cue crafty]

Yeah I enjoyed that read too, I think other than for those who admire cues, like cue collectors who like designs etc, it's good to remember from a playing perspective there are cheap and cheerful options that may work well for many players.

I started back up playing with a cheap Jian Ying Chinese cue that played great, only reason I sold it was because I realised it was painted and not real splicing. Stupidly I thought well at my age I should have a decent cue, anyway 5 cues later, I found a more expensive cue that I could play just about as well with....🙄

I would just add that one of the 5 cues was a 1 piece GRAND Emperor cue that cost £95, which for me felt horrid , poorly balanced and stiff as a poker but with no feel at all. So I guess the moral is cheap can be good but not always. You need a bit of luck with a cue and you need to spend enough time with each one you buy to understand what is good about it and works and also more importantly what you don't like. Then if you decide you're happy with the make you can alter your spec slightly and hopefully find a cue that plays well in all departments for you.

Its good to remember that Ken Doherty still uses a machine splice cue he found in a rack down his club many many years ago.....

[147888J]

Great post thanks. It's very interesting to me that it's the inferior cues that get sold abroad as over hear its the top cues that go to Asia. Obviously the size of the market will decide that.
I pick a cue on the hit and the hit only, the rest of it is just packaging to me,although the hit is just as subjective from player to player as any other reason a cue is picked.

I totally agree with you. But that packaging really does matter to some people! Even just the smallest bit of 'identity' or flare can have us favouring one thing over another. Psychologically that can have such an impact. From shooting a camera, to racing a bike. We do take value from the aesthetic property of our tools. Also, there are a lot of other factors that we naturally use to navigate what it is we actually want... what we all truly want is Excalibur, a magic giant slaying cue to just fall into our lives. My friend was likening snooker cues to samurai swords the other day and he had me in stitches 😂 mentally we are all looking for cheat codes!

My first cue was a two-piece Riley made of maple, that I convinced my dad to buy me for 15quid from Oxfam. Had a light and dark green veneer that looked cool to me at the time. I accidentally broke it in frustration, 3-0 down in a snooker tournament in Plymouth about 15 years ago. Since, I used a cheap one-piece (fleaBay jobby) and played sporadically against my dad (winning the odd frame, but mostly taking a bashing as he can notch up big breaks), then started playing pretty much daily since post-Covid, purely because I want to kick his ass a few times. Played a LOT of other cue sports in that time.

Playing more, and being in lands far, far away, kind of inspired the collector in me a little - first, I wanted to find a cue similar to the spec of my one back home, then I just kept saying, "well this will be a nice reminder of my time here" 😂 I am wanting to try and get a cue made from each country I have spent some time in - how successful I will be at that, is very unclear!

Totally agree with Crafty, given the price, we are always searching for 'similar' and hoping a minor adjustment pays off. Hard to do otherwise, unless you have a lovely friend who does long-term loans (when you find the guy, introduce me 😂)

[147888J]

Well I’ll keep you posted on what I received, I ordered one which should arrive any day now.

Did this arrive? Keen to see what actually showed up.