Hunt & O'Byrne 1/2 joint, hand spliced cue

[jorism]

Hi,

I have a Hunt & O'Byrne (green label) 1/2 joint, hand spliced cue which I bought in 2001 in the Netherlands (I live in the Netherlands). I hardly used it and for many years it has been lying in its case (which I bought along with the cue). I looked up Hunt & O'Byrne on the internet and it appears that this is not your everyday manufacturer of cues. Through the forum I would like to find out a little more about this cue. Also, I may be looking to sell it.

Dimensions:

• Length: 57 inch
• Tip: 9 mm
• Weight: approx. 17.5 ounces

In order to be able to show some photos, I created an eBay listing: http://www.ebay.nl/itm/-/201660805374?

Best regards,

Joris

[Chappy5]

Is it just me or are those splices out in the last Pic??

[jorism]

Chappy5, thanks for your question. You are correct. There are 4 splices, all of different length. I do not know what that amounts to. Anyone familiar with unequal, uneven splices?

[jimmymoller]

Hunt and Obyrne were effectively the old version of John Parris. They made cues some good some not so but made their name by giving cues away to ranking players. At one stage half of the ranked players were using them. Giving a player a decent cue is good marketing, the olayer gets a freebee, and the maker uses that endorsement to sell more and more at a higher price. Exactly what John Parris has done to make his name and to charge silly money for his cues.
Adidas I learnt recently paid £1000 a man to the England players of 66 and of course they all jumped at a £1000 back then. All that is except for Gordon Banks who refused the offer preferring his Puma boots. Nowadays those two german giants are I think no longer dominating the market. The American company Nike is in at the same level, and they all today are paying way more than a grand to a player. They could all be made in the same sweatshop in asia somewhere as far as I know and all about the same standard. Just like a cue though it's the player who scores not his tools.
Your two piece isn't really worth much, very few folks want a two piece nowadays and with pretty naff uneven splicing as it has it's the worst example I've ever seen of their cues, maybe it's a fake, maybe it was made by one of their apprentices but getting the splices level at the top and the bottom is a sign of a cuemaker who knows his trade, is good at it and takes time and care in finishing a cue.
Not sure if there's any significance in the badge being green perhaps someone else can enlighten us there. I've not really taken much notice of them as they are not very commonplace cues nowadays although I saw one the other day where the price was £800 a very nice cue but most of that money was for the 50p badge. It'll no doubt go to some label buyer with more money than sense.

[DeanH]

Green plates are the mid range cues.
Black being top of the range and Red plates being base range with machine spliced butts (Green and Black plates cues being hand spliced butts).

[Chappy5]

I was going to say it was a fake ( or may be one ) as i cannot imagine splicings like that even making the grade to apply a badge on with the H&O/Byrne name on it.

[DeanH]

I was going to say it was a fake ( or may be one ) as i cannot imagine splicings like that even making the grade to apply a badge on with the H&O/Byrne name on it.

Even the catalogue of theirs from 1990s has photos of cues with offset bottom splice-points

[jimmymoller]

well c**n likes it. Wasn't it nice in the old days when you could see the full name of the bidder, recognise it as a TSF mate come back her and tell him to naff off bidding on such and such?

[jorism]

@jimmy. Thank you for your analysis! Personally, I do not think it is a fake. I bought the cue at a shop in Tilburg, specialized in billiard and snooker items. I bought the cue for the equivalent of about 100 euro. I know this is not very solid evidence but I think the shop was not the type that would sell fakes as real. Aside from that, you have a good point about professional cue makers not willing to do shoddy work (if uneven splices exclusively point to shoddy work).

[jimmymoller]

Never ever dismiss a cue because the sharper lower points of a splice are uneven. It makes no difference and the very best of them cant always get it perfect. Consider it to be in with the phrase" HAND MADE"
They aim to make the top of the splices level all round as that is the most noticeable and by using a jig they mostly get the front two sharpies level and often the back two but not always all 4.
I have a decent cue made by James Butters (he wouldn't badge cues he was unhappy with so I heard)where the sharpies were really way out. I got them level ish in the end but it took a while with a razor blade and a lot of sanding. Luckily it was quite a thick butt to start with and if he were to see it today I bet he'd be happy to badge it.

[Neil Taperell]

The majority of splices on H & O that I've seen were not level . When Will went to work for Rob his splice work wasn't good enough and Rob wouldn't send the cues out with uneven splices , but Will couldn't see why not .