Hardest cue design to make??

[JasonOwen]

What would you guys think is the hardest design to make?

Quadruple spliced possibly?
Splicing the butt 4 times and getting all splices even maybe?

Connoisseur style maybe, with veneers?
This is hard as the splice flats have to be perfect or the veneers dont line up?

Ive seen one design that Stamford do that has a lot of splices offset.

[jonnylovessn8ker]

A dave coutts supreme cue wannabe, made with connoisseur design. My understanding by looking at the graphics and description on dave's website is that the shaft is hand made using layers of different wood and splice them together like u do with the butt. Maybe thats not how he does exactly it, but i have yet to see one cue maker do it or carry out this concept.

So say u are ambitious and want perfectly planed and 12 evenly spaced arrows in the front and back.. thats a lot of hard work there.

Essentially your design is:
entire shaft front and back=[12 (black colored wood as arrows, say ebony)+13(light colored wood, say maple)] x 2 (there's the back too) = 50 long, perfectly even splices

butt area = 4 ebony + 4 maple + 4 rosewood long even face splices = 12

this is also assuming that the front and back arrows are evenly opposite each other too.

that's a total of 62 splices...if i am correct (i think) please correct me if i am wrong.

[poolqjunkie]

Actually I think any cue is not easy to do if you want to be perfect--even a plain ebony cue. A plain ebony cue with a perfect looking shaft is very beautiful in my opinion, and it is not easy to be really perfect. I mean a cue has to play well first and formost, so we are talking about a cue that is perfect in everyway, i.e. top quality of wood, flawless finish, perfect shaft chevrons (front, side, and back), flawless precision of fit, perfect balance, a shaft with the perfect taper, perfect combination of spring and stiffness, and last but not least, the best playability. It is also very subjective because one needs to understand what the customer is looking for before one can make the cue feel perfect for that player.

Some woods are more difficult to work with such as snakewood, burr, and so on. But even regular woods such as birdseye maple, cocobolo...are not that easy to deal with if you want to have a "perfect" piece with the best grains, finish and just the right tone so it contrasts and coordinates perfectly with the rest of the cue. And sometimes a simpel design can be just as brilliant.

Fancy splicings look tough to do but I think the basic principle is the same--if you cannot make a basic cue "perfect" you cannot make a fancy cue "perfect" either.

In my humble opinion, it is not all about even splicings but more about how to balance the cue well when you are working with so many different woods. It is easy to get carried away to try make a cue that is very nice to look at while forgetting the playability side. As they say beauty is skin deep. Playability is intangible and is what really seperates a great cue from an average cue, in my opinion.

You can try to jot down the details including dimensions of the splices and so on after you have had a successful attempt at one fancy design and the second one will be easier to do. You can buy more precise equipment to help with making more precise cues. However, to make a great playing cue, plus great splice work, in my opinion, is where the real challenge is. I will take a great playing cue with some splices that are a bit off than one that plays terrible but with all perfect splices.

A good wood worker can make all splices even given enough practice, but a great cue maker is one that knows how to make a great playing cue. Of course we should strive to get everything perfect but I am just saying in my opinion the heardest cue to make is not one with a very fancy design but one which exhibites top playability--to do so requires great understandings of wood and the mechanic/physic behind cue construction (what would make the cue do certain things and why) plus the ability to understand and connect to what the customer is looking for.

Looking forward to more great creations from you. :-)

[MikeWooldridge]

What would you guys think is the hardest design to make?

Quadruple spliced possibly?
Splicing the butt 4 times and getting all splices even maybe?

Connoisseur style maybe, with veneers?
This is hard as the splice flats have to be perfect or the veneers dont line up?

Ive seen one design that Stamford do that has a lot of splices offset.

no idea.

what do you think is the hardest join to put in properly?

[JasonOwen]

no idea.

what do you think is the hardest join to put in properly?

Just hurry up and get that tool made for me!

[jaffa.johnson]

Do you remember that multicoloured / patterned Trevor White which was on ebay a good few months ago.

I imagine that would be difficult.

[JasonOwen]

Airin,
I get what you mean, making a good playing cue is always going to be the goal.

I was thinking more if there were designs or woods that you look at and think, wow how is that done. There are plenty of designs that scare me still.
Ive been making cues now for 11 months and have a goal over the next 12 months to make a cue with 4 sets of splices. As you say the basic splicing principle is just repeated so not too hard there, but I was thinking that I would save wood and use short length splices and use an extra piece of wood on the bottom of each splice that would ultimately be waste. Not sure if I have explained myself very well there.

I have lots of ideas to experiment with but also have a lot of orders for single front spliced cues to fulfill first.

[old school]

Could not agree more Airin , playability is king , but very subjective and beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder, this is why cues made by people such as yourself ,TW,MW,Robin,Kev,Glovers etc will always be in demand.Hand crafted cues ,by people who understand timber and its natural characteristics will always produce better playing cues than a CNC or other machine made,push of the button,factory line process.The inset work done now by some machine made cues ( butt work , in particular) is stunning,but a machine can t test for spring,resonance,density etc in the way that a craftsman can.

[JasonOwen]

Do you remember that multicoloured / patterned Trevor White which was on ebay a good few months ago.

I imagine that would be difficult.

Scott,
That wouldnt be too bad if you ensured that you got all the grains running the right way. There is a fair bit of prep though in gluing the woods together.
Not sure if I liked the end result though. Might look good if made with varying shades of orange and red down the splices.

[jaffa.johnson]

Scott,
That wouldnt be too bad if you ensured that you got all the grains running the right way. There is a fair bit of prep though in gluing the woods together.
Not sure if I liked the end result though. Might look good if made with varying shades of orange and red down the splices.

I didnt like it.

[warren132]

Why don't you do a special cue with only 3 hand splices/fingers ? the normal cue has 4 as everyone knows and others have 2 i.e. butterfly splices so why has no one ever mad a cue with only 3 splices ? just a thought !

[old school]

There have been cues made with only 3 splices,on 24th November I passed comment on a cue with 3 splices and Jim Evans responded by saying he has seen one at Craftsman,which they did,last time he was up there.Not common but they do exist.

[warren132]

There have been cues made with only 3 splices,on 24th November I passed comment on a cue with 3 splices and Jim Evans responded by saying he has seen one at Craftsman,which they did,last time he was up there.Not common but they do exist.

Thanks for the info Old School.

[Belloz22]

does anyone have a link to that square patterened cue trev made for a pool player?

[jrc750]

does anyone have a link to that square patterened cue trev made for a pool player?

Is this it ??
http://files.vandeweyerstudios.be/tw/cues/tw_67.jpg