Sin Bin cues?

[cueman]

After Jason decided to sell a few of his sinned cues it got me wondering just how many cues most cue makers discard on average per month/year? Obviously a cue can be discarded for a number of reasons, the main ones being mistakes but sometimes the grain can be the only reason a cue is sinned which for me doesn't make it a bad cue.

Also do you think that cue makers will now see a market for their offcasts as jason has proved that he can still make money on cues he wouldn't normally have expected to? Personally if the cue played well I honestly couldn't care less if the splice lengths were out, the grain wasn't in line, the taper is not consistant etc so I'd definitely gladly take a cue at a fraction of the normal cost because it wouldn't be deemed as good enough quality to charge at full price.

[willtyson]

I was thinking the same thing. I once bought 2 sin binned cues from Jim Evans, and they are both outstanding cues! And I ended up getting two for under £100, one of which had four splices of tulip with with snakewood front splice and the other was an alternately spliced purple heart and ebony with a maple veneer, absolutely fantastic! How many good cues really go to waste? :snooker:

[JasonOwen]

I think you will find that the more established cue makers will not have the same level of messed up / sin bin cues.
They will pretty much get the splices right, know where the taper goes wrong and allow (leave extra wood in these areas) for this and have the eye to spot some bad grain early on before it is worked on and disregard or cut round it. They will also know how to correct problems.

[cueman]

Good point actually Jason, though I still expect they do make mistakes now and then, the difference is they probably just discard the cue as they wouldn't want to put their name down to a cue which doesn't represent their normal level of excellence. That said though I'd still think that some would take a cue of their's unbadged as it would still represent a good playing cue but for a reasonable price for those who can't extend to the full price.