phoenix cues

[rob s]

Are Phoenix cues lacquered or oil finished ?

Got to admit have been looking at getting one of these next year.

The shafts are oil finished but the ebony butts are lacquered

[shredder]

the term machine v hand is slightly misleading as we all know. some handspliced cues are made with machinery and machine spliced cues can be made by hand.the comman notion is splices that are planed on are termed handspliced, and splices that are interlocked are called machinespliced,the main reason (hand spliced) cue tend to play better is the continuation of the shaft through to the hand.thats why one piece cues also tend to play better ie no lumps of metal separating the timbers.

Great explanation, thanks mate.
Phoenix cues are one of those I have my eye on

[snookerloopylewis]

Are Phoenix cues lacquered or oil finished ?

Got to admit have been looking at getting one of these next year.

The shafts are oil finished but the ebony butts are lacquered

See that would suit me as my current cue (an old ROS bce cue) is lacquered and sticks to my hands after an hours playing, but it would good to get grip at the back end of the cue.

[jrc750]

The lacquer is easy enough to take off, wire wool job, not too difficult

[Dave Walton]

Sorry for digging up this old thread (holy thread resurrection, Batman), but I just had to ask:

All this talk about machine vs. hand spliced: What exactly is the difference? Is the difference knowing that yours was tenderly made by hand and the other by machine, or is there something else playing a part? I take it they play the same?

Hand spliced cues are made by splicing/gluing ebony, rosewood etc to the shaft wood to create the butt, the shaft wood doesn't always run the full length of the butt though. Machine spliced the butt is a solid piece of wood being spliced in an interlocking fashion onto the bottom of the shaft, a well made machine spliced cue will play just aswell as a hand spliced cue, the biggest difference imo is the looks, machine spliced are much easier and less time consuming to make hence why they're cheaper

[TooDark]

I owned a couple Phoenix cues now and have a gorgeous plain ebony butt Phoenix Master 1 piece as my current playing cue and I personally love the laquered butt/oiled shaft combo and adds a bit of class!!
Some of their shafts are second to none.....simples!

[golferson123]

Hand spliced cues are made by splicing/gluing ebony, rosewood etc to the shaft wood to create the butt, the shaft wood doesn't always run the full length of the butt though. Machine spliced the butt is a solid piece of wood being spliced in an interlocking fashion onto the bottom of the shaft, a well made machine spliced cue will play just aswell as a hand spliced cue, the biggest difference imo is the looks, machine spliced are much easier and less time consuming to make hence why they're cheaper

interesting, have you ever tried to make a fingerjointed cue,def harder.as for less time consuming why the prevalence of "hand splicing" the majority of cue makers could never recoup the cost of the machinery in sales.as for playing difference two identical shafts will play totally different hand spliced v machine spliced

[shredder]

I owned a couple Phoenix cues now and have a gorgeous plain ebony butt Phoenix Master 1 piece as my current playing cue and I personally love the laquered butt/oiled shaft combo and adds a bit of class!!
Some of their shafts are second to none.....simples!

You say some. Do you remember which? And second to none - not even JP?

[jrc750]

You say some. Do you remember which? And second to none - not even JP?

I had a machine spliced Phoenix with a shaft as good as this !

[shredder]

^^Loving those clean arrows all the way to the tip!!

[TooDark]

Need to get some better photos but here's my Phoenix ebony master cue.

[TooDark]

Here's another I owned: this was the machine spliced cue I had off jrc750 which my friend currently owns

[shredder]

Need to get some better photos but here's my Phoenix ebony master cue.

I agree, looks very nice.

Been eyeing this Master 3/4 cue:


Doesn't cost the world, looks awesome and kinda has that JP Ultimate feel to it

[snookerloopylewis]

I was looking at this bad boy:



Love that amboyna burl wood.

[Dave Walton]

Hand spliced cues are made by splicing/gluing ebony, rosewood etc to the shaft wood to create the butt, the shaft wood doesn't always run the full length of the butt though. Machine spliced the butt is a solid piece of wood being spliced in an interlocking fashion onto the bottom of the shaft, a well made machine spliced cue will play just aswell as a hand spliced cue, the biggest difference imo is the looks, machine spliced are much easier and less time consuming to make hence why they're cheaper

interesting, have you ever tried to make a fingerjointed cue,def harder.as for less time consuming why the prevalence of "hand splicing" the majority of cue makers could never recoup the cost of the machinery in sales.as for playing difference two identical shafts will play totally different hand spliced v machine spliced

Tradition and looks, most players prefere the look of hand spliced to machine, as you say the machinery to make machine spliced cues would be far too expensive for a cuemaker to afford by themselves, however most machine spliced cues are mass produced and are turned on lathes with minimal work done by hand, doing it on a massive scale the way bce/riley do makes it an awful lot faster and cheaper than making hand spliced cues. As for two identical shafts playing differently that's obvious, as there is no such thing as identical shafts, every piece of wood is different and no two cues will ever play the same, a well made machine spliced cue can play every bit aswell as a hand spliced cue though and a well made machine spliced will be better than a poorly made hand spliced cue