Hunt & OByrne cue

[The Doctor]

Trev is right. The Red plate cues are pre turned by machine to an over size taper then all hand finished to size, they are available in certain specs. A green plate will be a cue that has been taken down by hand from Square timbers and again will be avail in certain specs or made to order spec and will usually offer the highest standard of timber(like trev said)
The black plate are much the same as Green, with the exception that the customer can specify in ash the no. of arrows and blemish free maple. When you consider what Trevor says, it takes about a 6-10 months to take a cue to settle from Kiln dried form to finished cue and after hand planing a shaft over months, if its not suitable you need to start again, its only then you consider the amount of work going into the making of a cue.
In regard to the joint not being even with the wood, this could be down to shrinkage as is common with ebony and might have been due to how the cue was stored.

[Rojjj]

New Cue

Well, I went and visited Hunt and Osborne in Tooting recently and purchased a new 1 piece cue. I had every intention of getting a black plate made to measure but was pleasantly suprised that they had quite a stock for me to try. After knocking balls around on their little 6ft table I ended up settling on a Red Plate cue that seemed to make the balls disappear more than the rest of the 15 cues I tried.

I was very happy with the service and quality of the cue. It feels every bit as good as my Parris that I have had for the last 15 years. (I was looking for a 1 piece as my previous was a 3/4 and I was looking for a slightly longer cue)

I know its hard for some of you guys in Canada and around the world buy. Trying the cues saved me around £200. Thats nearly an airfare across the pond.

[mattyshinobi22]

Well, I went and visited Hunt and Osborne in Tooting recently and purchased a new 1 piece cue. I had every intention of getting a black plate made to measure but was pleasantly suprised that they had quite a stock for me to try. After knocking balls around on their little 6ft table I ended up settling on a Red Plate cue that seemed to make the balls disappear more than the rest of the 15 cues I tried.

I was very happy with the service and quality of the cue. It feels every bit as good as my Parris that I have had for the last 15 years. (I was looking for a 1 piece as my previous was a 3/4 and I was looking for a slightly longer cue)

I know its hard for some of you guys in Canada and around the world buy. Trying the cues saved me around £200. Thats nearly an airfare across the pond.

hi mate

meaning to go down with next couple of weeks to have a look, what are the cues like, standard?
customer service?

live in yorkshire so hope is gonna be worth the treck

matty

[keith auld]

I used to look after Jimmy's and Tony's (Tony Meo) cues and prepare them before competitions when I had a workshop and retail shop in Wimbledon in the 70's and 80's.
Jimmy had a round butt and he had a Hunt & O'Byrne with a white badge with black lettering

[garysnooker]

it will be worth it had 2 of my old cues straight buy them great blokes showed me around the workshop well impressed buy there cues

[Argee1977]

I've always wanted an old hunt & o'byrne as the guy i used to play against years ago had one, it was a lovely 3/4 black plate and cost him a fair bit at the time, but the pricing of them now is getting a bit daft, £510 for a black plate 1pc is a bit steep, and there's a green plate on ebay looking like it will pass £400, which is twice as much as it cost new, and green plates aren't as collectable or desired.

[keith auld]

This is going to sound a bit strange but the whole basis of the original Hunt & O'Byrne cues being so good all those years ago, wasn't down to the cuemaking as good a cuemaker as Will Hunt is - it was down to Mick Rees who made, fitted and balanced the joints in all their cues. Most of the Hunt & O'Byrne cues used to be delivered to Mick with instructions regarding joints, weights and balance; Mick still has a load of lead from those Hunt & O'Byrne days in stock - I know because I went back to using Mick for all my cues after a time thinking I could put joints in as well as him, and even with specialised equipment, I couldn't! Will Hunt is undoubtably a top cue maker but his cues have never been the same since he put the joints in, in conjunction with Robrt Osborne. Robert is, and has a good reputation for his hand made cues, and so he should; I taught him!, but I didn't teach him to make 3/4 cues, this he either learnt by himself or learnt from Will Hunt. I'm a cuemaker, but not an engineer, Mick Rees is an engineer but not a cuemaker, what he is though is a very good snooker player who not only played Davis in his prime but also beat Higgins in his prime; he knows what a cue should be like. My cues come back from him absolutely perfect, straight, balanced where my customers want and perfectly matched grains or points; to me the man is an absolute genius! So you see we cuemakers are good at what we're good at - I don't believe we're necessarily capable of being able to produce the entire package on our own

[ADR147]

I Would Only Ever Buy A One Piece From Robert Anyway - The 3/4 Cues Might Damage The Suspension On My Car! :d

[keith auld]

In that case you wouldn't want one of my 3/4 cues either, as Mick still makes and fits the original joint he made and fitted in all the old Hunt & O'Byrne cues, in all my cues - it may be a big thread but it's stood the test of time and is still very much in demand by my customers abroad. In fact I have 7 special cues going out to Hong Kong at the end of this month (strange that they have all the money there now and only want handmade English cues) and was last night contacted by the distributor that I've licenced as sole marketer of my cues out there, to ask for Mick's original 2piece centre joint to be put in a number of cues for a forthcoming order. Considering their own cue industry and ability to copy virtually anything, there is something intangible about the way Mick makes and fits his joints and I'm pleased that he's only doing them for me now. I had 4 back from him yesterday that had to be 161/2 ozs and balanced at a particular point above the splice.
When they went to him they were 1piece and weighed about 13-14 ozs - they all came back exactly as specified and are all absolute peaches and I will have very happy customers as a result

[trevs1]

I think your comments about not being able to produce the whole package is maybe not entirely accurate Keith. I don't really think that fitting joints is any kind of dark art, although it is something you need the right set up to do. All my joints are British made to my pattern and fitted myself, and, I have no problems in doing so.

To your later post above, I think most well engineered joints do the job quite well and should stand the test of time, though there can be some difference in how these are fitted and finished betwen makers, I'd agree.

When it comes to getting the correct balance in a cue, jointing a one piece above the splices is probably the easiest way to ensure it is smack on every time in my opinion. This is due to the fact that you then have the optioin of adjusting the weight at the joint or the butt, depending on where the balance has to be.

[keith auld]

You are very fortunate indeed being able to produce the whole package yourself - most people buy in a ready made joint for a manufacturing source and then simply fit it - I used to do that - the fact that you are, (like Mick does for me) are able to make the joint yourself from brass rod, cut the threads for both the male and female joints as well as the threads to go into the cue, cut and tap the thread into the wood of the cue itself, fit, skim, allign and finish; is a dark art to me - I'll just stick to making the cues and let Mick take care of the jointing - at least that way I know there'll be no mistakes

[archalf1471]

interesting the way this thread is panning out, for as many people I have known that loved H and O cues, there as many who loathed the cues purely becausue of the joints being too weighty and "industrial" in appearence.

[trevs1]

You are very fortunate indeed being able to produce the whole package yourself - most people buy in a ready made joint for a manufacturing source and then simply fit it - I used to do that - the fact that you are, (like Mick does for me) are able to make the joint yourself from brass rod, cut the threads for both the male and female joints as well as the threads to go into the cue, cut and tap the thread into the wood of the cue itself, fit, skim, allign and finish; is a dark art to me - I'll just stick to making the cues and let Mick take care of the jointing - at least that way I know there'll be no mistakes

We have crossed lines here Keith,

I don't make the joints myself, I have these made for me by a UK based precision engineering company. I do fit and finish them myself though, which was the point I was trying to make above when I said I do ALL my own joint work.

Making the joints is simply not economically viable for me or virtually any other cuemaker, as we wouldn't have the kind of machinery to make the job easy enough. Doing that in any kind of quantity is getting into the realm of CNC.

Speaking for myself only here, I wouldn't have the knowledge to make my own joints either.

[keith auld]

that was why in a reply to ADR's thread I said 'he wouldn't want one of my cues' when he referred to his car suspension being compromised if he had a Robrt Osborne 3/4 cue, he was obviously referring to the size of the joint Robert uses, a joint he had copied from Mick Rees

[keith auld]

Sorry Trev - misunderstood - I put it down to age - In Mick's case his main job is hand making engines for McClaren cars so he has access to all the most modern and scientific machinery - he makes all the joints for me at his work during the day then fits everything for me in his workshop at home on his own lathe - I tell him how many male or female joints I need and he does the rest - he even cuts the 1 piece cues and at a price fitted and finished that I couldn't buy the brass bar for and what's more no stock holding for me - I'm very happy with the relationship and try to dissuade him from taking on anyone else's work - which is working so far - I'm dreading the day he retires and gives it all up