My workshop

[vmax]

Nice Vmax, never heard of Olive Ash before the grain reminds me a bit of Oak.

Thanks John, olive ash has brown heartwood and white sapwood and the white melds into brown the nearer the heartwood you go, so the shaft has streaks of brown in it as seen in the photos.

[John Flaf]

Nice Vmax, never heard of Olive Ash before the grain reminds me a bit of Oak.

[vmax]

one piece 58 inch olive ash with an ipe (eepay) tabacca butt with two long and two short splices, ipe mini butt, balanced at 18.5 inches, 29mm diameter butt with 9.8mm diameter brass ferrule, 18.2 oz's. The ipe is a species of ironwood and is a real pig to plane, hard as stone but lovely when finished. I'm currently doing another one of the same design, just the finishing left to do.

https://ibb.co/album/qFjbPk

[vmax]

Finished the two 3/4 cues I've been making this past week or so:

58 inch beech 3/4 with an ekki butt and dark rosewood splice that melds into white, balanced at 18 inches, 9.9mm brass ferrule, 29mm diameter butt, weighs 17.8 oz's
https://ibb.co/album/dw8BvB
59 1/4 inch ash 3/4 with a pau rosa butt with darkrosewood splice that melds into white, balanced at 18.5 inches, 9.9mm brass ferrule, 29 diameter butt, weighs 17oz's
https://ibb.co/album/F5T3gx

[vmax]

Going to fit joints to these two 3/4 split cues I've been making this past week. I join the shaft to the solid hardwood butt by means of a glued dowell and fashion the cue as a one piece, then I cut it at the join and fit the brass joint, you can see the join in the pictures.
One is an ash shaft with mexican rosewood butt and the other is a beech shaft with an ekki butt. Both cues are nicely balanced very near the join and are heavy enough to not add any extra weight other than the 1 & 1/2 oz's the joint weighs.

https://ibb.co/album/1fnJg2

[vmax]

Nice to see you are back in the workshop Vmax. Keep posting the pics.

It seems like you have a nice deep almost burnished look to the cue shaft finish; looks really good.

Bought a smartphone so I have a better camera now than the little kodak I was using

[Shockerz]

Nice to see you are back in the workshop Vmax. Keep posting the pics.

It seems like you have a nice deep almost burnished look to the cue shaft finish; looks really good.

[vmax]

I choose the weight that suits the cue in order to get it well balanced. Some shaft timbers are denser, therefore heavier than others so need a little more weight in the butt to balance it so that it doesn't feel heavy or light, either in the grip hand or on the bridge, the weight is irrelevent, it just feels good in your hands and this is why balance points must vary as not all timber is the same.

It's my belief that if one uses a very firm grip then the balance point doesn't really matter, but if one uses a looser grip, as one should, then the cue must rest nicely in the bridge as well as in the grip hand, and touch then comes from the grip hand and it's relationship with the balance of the cue, so IMO it's wrong to shy away from a cue that one deems too light or too heavy, it's the balance that matters.

I think Jimmy's cue might be poorly balanced as it has a very long hardwood butt. There must be less flex in the shoulder of that cue, which is the point at the tip of the splices on most cues and therefore less dense shaftwood, and if the balance is too far forward it could be a tad light in his grip hand, but Jimmy's problems come mainly from the fact that his cue action has changed over the years and he now has a longer follow through and tends to drop his upper arm into the delivery stroke, when he was young he didn't, he kept his elbow high, Hendry was the same in his prime.

[Cue crafty]

nice work Vmax. Glad you are on the mend. I note your cues generally seem to keep to traditional weights probably just based on the wood, no added lead/metal.

When you get time, i'd be interested to know your thoughts on cue weights again. I seem to remember you saying about Jimmy White playing with a heavier cue in recent years and you didnt think it suited his game?

I have, possibly like many others, upped the weight in my chosen playing cue to 18.5 (+) since younger playing days when i used 17.5 to half decent effect. The weight feels great! but i am well aware it has pro's & con's, i feel im losing some "touch" but gaining solid potting on general punch stuns etc.

[vmax]

Also re-tapered, finished and straightened an ash 3/4 that wasn't quite straight at the joint

60.25 inch ash 3/4 with amargo amargo butt with a palmira splice on wenge and maple veneers, 20 oz's, 29mm diameter butt, 9.8mm aluminium ferrule, 20 inch balance point with a 6 inch ekki mini butt

https://ibb.co/album/0s6Hm4

[vmax]

Been on furlough for the past two weeks so I've been busy in the workshop rather than watching virtual snooker
Finished these two today.

57.5 inch ash 3/4 with amargo amargo butt, 17.5 oz's, 29mm diameter butt, 10mm plastic ferrule, 17.5 inch balance point, spirolock joint for extensions.

https://ibb.co/album/Q7g2JT

57.25 inch beech 3/4 with cocobolo butt, 17 oz's, 29mm diameter butt, 9.5mm brass ferrule, 16.5 inch balance point, 5.5 inch cocobolo mini butt with spirolock joint.

https://ibb.co/album/sjyVmW

[vmax]

ImgBB
works similar to tinypic

On it Dean, thanks

[DeanH]

ImgBB
works similar to tinypic

[vmax]

if you are using the TSF attachment function - yep you probably have, and it is renowned as difficult to manage

hence I use image-sharing sites like ImgBB and TinyPic (this one may no longer be free)

I was using Flickr but they have been inactive over the past 18 months due to a take over and are now impossible to log into, I went to TinyPic but they have now stopped trading so I shall look for another.

[DeanH]

if you are using the TSF attachment function - yep you probably have, and it is renowned as difficult to manage

hence I use image-sharing sites like ImgBB and TinyPic (this one may no longer be free)