Cue making

[poona]

I've been playing on and off for 13 years now. H.B - 123

And I still can't tell the difference between a hand spliced, machine spliced and hand made cue.

Anyone fill me in as to how to tell the differences? I always thought it was round splices v pointed splices.

Cos I recently bought a o'min cue 1 piece there and thought it was hand made. It feels a little bottom heavy and not much weight up top which leads me to believe it is machine made?

Am I wrong?

[mooneyy]

...I always thought it was round splices v pointed splices...

That's probably the best indicator
Rounded: hand spliced
Pointed: machine spliced

However, this is not always true. Mike Wooldridge for example makes rounded
splices with machines for his Shark series cues.

[eaoin11]

Cos I recently bought a o'min cue 1 piece there and thought it was hand made. It feels a little bottom heavy and not much weight up top which leads me to believe it is machine made?

Am I wrong?

Cuemakers doing custom cues generally take more care with balance but
I think the materials are the same, and it's the materials that determine the weight and balance.

Trevor White has said that nobody can tell the difference between a shaft tapered by hand or machine, but I don't know about the spilcings. Experts such as ADR 147 might be able to tell you.

Where is the balance point of the cue? TW says it's best between 16-18. If yours is butt heavy there may be some things you can do to change that. You could remove weights (if there are any), add secondary splices with a lighter wood than ebony, or have the butt drilled to remove ebony and make it lighter.

All of these mean sacrificing total weight though.

[DandyA]

not too sure about that ... the rounded/pointy splices say whether it's hand or machine spliced (well except two rounded splices are machine "butterfly" spliced as in MW's Shark series) ...

but are they made the same? I thought machine-spiced was the shaft spliced onto a solid butt ... whereas on a hand-spliced cue the shaft runs all the length from tip to the end of the butt with splices added on ...

but I may well be wrong ... and as to whether it makes any real difference - I doubt it with my cueing action, I'm personally capable of cueing across the line with any cue

[sunny3909]

)
but I may well be wrong ... and as to whether it makes any real difference - I doubt it with my cueing action, I'm personally capable of cueing across the line with any cue

I doesn't make any difference playability wise whether its machine apliced or hand spliced.Its all cosmetic.

[mtws]

don't think it is just cosmetic right? Maybe MW or TW or any cue makers can enlighten us..

[mooneyy]

I can imagine that a hand spliced cue with the shaft running from tip to but
gives you more and better feedback - not sure though...

[khizzy]

there is a better feel of the shot in a good hand made cue,but a good machine madecan be better than a badly made hand spliced cue.

[KeithinFrance]

A 1 piece hand-made cue has the shaft running all the way through the cue, whereas a hand-made 3/4 cue has a solid ebony butt and the shaft runs from the tip to the top of the 3/4 joint.

A machine-spliced cue has sharp points and a hand-spliced cue has rounded points. A butterfly-spliced cue is machine-spliced but has only 2 rounded points, so it's easy to differentiate.

Any cue can be butt-heavy, it depends on the weight placement/distribution, and it's not a sign of a machine-spliced cue.

If you really want to know all about this topic, go into Mike's website, it's got all the info you need, but what Khizzy said is very true as well.

Hope all this helps, Keith

[poona]

Thanks for the infos Keith.

[KeithinFrance]

You're very welcome. If you want to know anything else, just post!