Good Cue ? doubt it

[barking]

At this point I have purchased 9 snooker cues from a variety of makers. Omin, mastercue,dufferin, riley, peradon, dark horse and others and have yet to get a straight shaft or a decent finish or properly cured woods or straight ferrule or whatever. WTF. And to get money back you have to spend half of it on shipping to return the cue. not to mention the shipping to get the piece of crap in the first place. WTF. I dont think snooker cues are made worth a crap. Some have been fairly expensive highly touted cues. same story. None of the sellers actually stand behind their cues or they would give back the god damn shipping. Dream on. In my opinion they are all equally cheesey with the machine made cues being better made. Never had any issues with pool cues and ive had a few. This last cue is the last straw. Think im gonna put an 11 mm shaft on a lathe and turn it down to 9.5 and screw it on a mcdermott butt for all it matters. Thousands wasted on british and asian (mostly asian ) junk.

[nrage]

I notice you don't mention any of the custom hand made cue makers like; john parris, trevor white, tony wilshaw, .. etc .. have you tried any of these guys?

You might want to send a PM to Terry Davidson, he's in Canada (i.e. closer than the UK) and knows his cues. Unfortunately you just missed out on his cue sale:
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ad.php?t=29367

He should be able to help you decide on and source a decent cue.

[gem]

Had a custom O'Min and the build quality was fantastic. Arrow straight and all fittings were perfect.

[peeweedogue]

Well I'm not a professional player but perhaps you haven't tried the right cue maker yet. I recently purchased a used 2007 Mike Wooldridge cue off of a highly respected forum member here. His name is Terry Davidson. The cue is just amazing, it just feels right. I would suggest trying a MW cue or perhaps another respected cue maker, Trevor White... ? Good luck.

Jamie

[ste bed]

you haven't mentioned a good british cue maker if your after a very good cue out of all the cues i have owned and i have had them all except for coutts. then either wooldridge, t white or robin cook are your best bet if you want a good cue imo these 3 makers are the ones who make the best cues.

[barking]

right.

i dont believe a cue can come to this climate and be any good. UK and Thailand and the rest probably are more close than the desert where i live. Very dry here. Woods have to be well and slowly dried to survive here. I would never again buy a cue that isnt UNCONDITIONALLY guaranteed, shipping and all. I would have to be insane to buy a true high dollar cue cause the same would likely occur. You have to really go the extra mile with the woods to send them here. Probably unnecessary with most places they go to. Wood supplies aint what they used to be. Wood doesnt get to sit long enough and the natural humidity where these are built precludes their survival here. I now have to deal with another seller who puts all the risk on me. Pathetic. maybe this seller will stand behind his product like he said he would. I dont wanna spend one more dime on this cue. Think he should take it back and gimme all my costs,all shipping included. He can fix it up and sell it to someone in a climate where poorly cured woods do well.

[barking]

in every case i can begin to feel a ridge where the wood shrinks away from the join and that is it. trouble

[peeweedogue]

From what I've researched on this forum and some different websites, all the top cuemakers plane their shafts in stages. After each stage the shaft is left to sit naturally for a certain amount of time in order to let it settle (for a lack of the proper terminology). Then the process is repeated. I'm sure a forum member will clarify this. What do I know anyway ?

http://www.greenbaize.com/wooldridge.htm
http://www.handmadecues.com/info/10-introduction.htm

Jamie

[ste bed]

At this point I have purchased 9 snooker cues from a variety of makers. Omin, mastercue,dufferin, riley, peradon, dark horse and others and have yet to get a straight shaft or a decent finish or properly cured woods or straight ferrule or whatever. WTF. And to get money back you have to spend half of it on shipping to return the cue. not to mention the shipping to get the piece of crap in the first place. WTF. I dont think snooker cues are made worth a crap. Some have been fairly expensive highly touted cues. same story. None of the sellers actually stand behind their cues or they would give back the god damn shipping. Dream on. In my opinion they are all equally cheesey with the machine made cues being better made. Never had any issues with pool cues and ive had a few. This last cue is the last straw. Think im gonna put an 11 mm shaft on a lathe and turn it down to 9.5 and screw it on a mcdermott butt for all it matters. Thousands wasted on british and asian (mostly asian ) junk.

i dont believe a cue can come to this climate and be any good. UK and Thailand and the rest probably are more close than the desert where i live. Very dry here. Woods have to be well and slowly dried to survive here. I would never again buy a cue that isnt UNCONDITIONALLY guaranteed, shipping and all. I would have to be insane to buy a true high dollar cue cause the same would likely occur. You have to really go the extra mile with the woods to send them here. Probably unnecessary with most places they go to. Wood supplies aint what they used to be. Wood doesnt get to sit long enough and the natural humidity where these are built precludes their survival here. I now have to deal with another seller who puts all the risk on me. Pathetic. maybe this seller will stand behind his product like he said he would. I dont wanna spend one more dime on this cue. Think he should take it back and gimme all my costs,all shipping included. He can fix it up and sell it to someone in a climate where poorly cured woods do well.

so maybe its got nothing to do with the cues being junk and maybe more on the climate where you live?. english and thai cue are the best made snooker cues in the world so if all of them your buying is experiencing the same problems then maybe its something else thats at fault.

[nrage]

i dont believe a cue can come to this climate and be any good. UK and Thailand and the rest probably are more close than the desert where i live. Very dry here. Woods have to be well and slowly dried to survive here. I would never again buy a cue that isnt UNCONDITIONALLY guaranteed, shipping and all. I would have to be insane to buy a true high dollar cue cause the same would likely occur. You have to really go the extra mile with the woods to send them here. Probably unnecessary with most places they go to. Wood supplies aint what they used to be. Wood doesnt get to sit long enough and the natural humidity where these are built precludes their survival here. I now have to deal with another seller who puts all the risk on me. Pathetic. maybe this seller will stand behind his product like he said he would. I dont wanna spend one more dime on this cue. Think he should take it back and gimme all my costs,all shipping included. He can fix it up and sell it to someone in a climate where poorly cured woods do well.

I don't know much about drying wood, but the cue makers are sure to. You might be right about wood needing to dry more for a drier climate. In which case, if I were you, I would contact the cue makers mentioned in this thread .. and there are others not mentioned. Most are very busy, but if you make it clear what you need, and are patient waiting for responses. I'm sure they'll know what needs to be done, you've just got to make it clear just how dry it is. Now, I'm not sure how much of a guarantee they can give, but I have seen cases where a cue arrived in another country defective, or deteriorated quickly and the cue maker (Trevor White) offered to repair it free of charge.

[Terry Davidson]

barking:

I do some cue selling and have bought around 30 cues in the past 3 years. I live in Ontario, Canada which is not desert-like but I keep my snooker facility at around 35% humidity and I've never had a problem with any of the cues I've bought. These have included O'Min, Dark Horse, Trevor White, Mike Wooldridge, LK.T, Parris, Robin Cook, Andy Travis and a few others.

I would like to make a couple of points though. In a very dry climate I would recommend you treat the shaft with a couple coatings of raw linseed oil to keep it from warping when the moisture dries out of it.

Also, it's a very simple exercise to straighten an ash or maple shaft as long as the cue isn't too old (like 50 years or more).

Since you have tried a variety of cuemakers and a lot of other people have tried these same cuemakers, including myself, and have never had a problem then I suspect it must be either your climate or else something you're doing to the cues. It is normal for a cue to get a slight warp over time and finding a perfectly straight cue can be a challenge unless you go to machine-made (CNC) cues such as most of the American pool cues.

Contact Trevor White or Robin Cook and tell them you live in a very dry climate and need to guard against warping due to moisture loss and I'm certain they can send you a perfect cue which will stand up to your conditions. I'm certain both of them have sold cues to the mid-east and Africa to countries where the climate is desert-like, and I doubt they've had any problems.

However, it will cost you around 400pounds and there will be a 4-month wait if you order a custom hand-made cue

Terry

[thelongbomber]

From what I've researched on this forum and some different websites, all the top cuemakers plane their shafts in stages. After each stage the shaft is left to sit naturally for a certain amount of time in order to let it settle (for a lack of the proper terminology). Then the process is repeated. I'm sure a forum member will clarify this. What do I know anyway ?

http://www.greenbaize.com/wooldridge.htm
http://www.handmadecues.com/info/10-introduction.htm

Jamie

The late Tom Gauthier, a custom cue maker near Vancouver, Canada was a master craftsman when it came to shaft wood. I have hit with many cues over the years and only shaft wood that is cut over a period of months (and in Tom's case years). Rumour has it Tom would cut shaft wood very very slowly over a period of several cuts and over several months time.

[Acrowot]

I would think it could take several years for wood to be properly seasoned, which is something that rarely happens these days. Would also think some of the cuemakers will keep plenty in stock, so giving it a certain amount of time.
:snooker:

[barking]

well see

I am goin to give the current cue maker a chance to remedy this situation before commenting on the current cue problem. I dont however want a repaired cue and more shipping charges on top of the price i already payed.The costs should be born by him, not me. I am in a service business where everything has to be as perfect as possible or i have to spend money to keep clients happy. The current cue is by a reputable and highly touted maker who says there has never been a problem. I guess that they should have no problem affording to treat me appropriately. Well see. I built guitars for a long time, archtops included and i am intimately aware of the characteristics and possible problems with wood. I have used many of the woods cuemakers use and there can always be problems. I am not a cuemaker but I know the signs of poorly or improperly seasoned woods. The steps that should be taken are usually not with regard to wood and nowadays, the seller of wood products (and most others) make the consumer take all the risk and pay for their problem. I am not up for that scenario. I think I should get a different, new cue for what I have already paid, shipping included. They can repair or whatever the returned cue and resell it. Thats fair. I am a particular consumer but not unfair i think. A3/4 cue shaft is bound to move a little and within reason is still very playable. When splices begin cracking through the finish and you can feel the ridges where there were none before it is not right. I dont want a repair either because i dont believe it can be repaired. It would have to be disassembled and cured and reglued. I imagine it would be smoothed over is all. Dont want that. Need a different cue or a full refund plus shipping.

[barking]

nope

Terry. Dont think im doin much to the cues beside playin them and wiping them down w a dry micro fiber cloth.
Dont think linseed oil would go through the finish on this last one. Some kind of urethane or other laquer - like finish. I really liked the play of this cue also. Quite ****ed that this has happened. I only want ONE good cue LoL.