**Post Pictures of your cue!**

[sootyvrs]

I do like the look of that matt unfinished cue that you have EntertheDragon which makes a change from all the shiny butts tht we usually see.

I wonder if it's possible to have something to protect it and still for it to look like that?

[old school]

Probably Padauk , Tulip or Pau Rosa , something of that nature .That cue design of yours is quite elegant, simple but elegant.Suggestive of what a JP Traditional " might " look like with quad secondary splices,just.Please keep up the good work and continue to share with us,nice to see budding/hobby cue builders on the forum.

[Guy3103]

Judd has Bocote as the secondary splicing with thick maple veneers and purple veneers between the two... Looks very good that cue Dragon!!

[mrbluejay]

OK for the non facebookers...

It's 57", 18.25oz, 9.5mm tip, 29.5mm butt. Ash shaft, Macassar, Flame maple & Snakewood Butt. Looks the dogs !

[gazza147]

It's 57", 18.25oz, 9.5mm tip, 29.5mm butt. Ash shaft, Macassar, Flame maple & Snakewood Butt. Looks the dogs !

Loverly looking Cue mate hope you get on with it as its Not all about the Looks althou I also like a Nice Looking Cue...lol

[mrbluejay]

Loverly looking Cue mate hope you get on with it as its Not all about the Looks althou I also like a Nice Looking Cue...lol

No mate, you are quite right, looks are not everything...but they help !

[cally]

Very nice Jay, hope it's a keeper bud, Airin makes lovely playing cues fairplay...

[Acrowot]

Nice cue Airin, very nice indeed.

[Kevin DeRoo]

What Deroo does is that he puts a peel-off decal (like a sticker or an instant tatoo) on the cue before he sprays some thick varnish over, which is a very common way of marking 9 ball cues. Most lower end cues are marked that way. The higher end ones are usually engraved or signed or both, but some semi-high end US pool cues also use decal. I believe some very cheap snooker house cues are maked that way, too.

I have seen several Deroo's black ebony cues covered with a black dye under thick layer of varnish so I suspect if he puts on a real proper badge the black dye will cover up the badge making things quite messy. Using a decal will save him a lot of time and make things much easier for him. Also since his snooker cues are made like US 9 ball cues may be he just likes to mark them like one?

A decal is much cheaper to buy and can even be printed with a printer at home. If the decal did not go in the middle it can just be peeled off and re-done easily. It costs next to nothing and takes next to no skill to put it on properly.

With a real badge, if your hole is not drilled in the middle or if it was drilled too deep or not flat or even on the bottom, you are in a lot of trouble. You may even have to re-do the front splice if you really mess up.

When he tries to sand his finish on his lathe you can see that the flat is not always evenly sanded so when you look at his cues from the butt joint on they are not always symmetrical. This is because when you try to turn a cue with a flat on a lathe in one direction the flat will not be sanded even on both sides. I dont have this problem because I just sand and polish by hand.

Kevin makes a very nice playing cues. His cues play very solid and responsive on average.

But I just want to point out that my cues are made and constructed completely different--nothing like his and I have no interest nor intention to make anything like that whatsoever.

What I did was that I installed a real badge just like what most real snooker cue makers such as Mike, Robert...do, it is much more time consuming and requires more skill but I believe it looks much better and it is the proper way to mark a snooker cue. I am no interested in taking short cuts.

My logo is my pride and I am not going to represent my work with a piece of peel-off sticker.

When I install the badge I make sure the badge is flush and level with the cue by hand polishing and planning. My round badges are laser cut in Germany and they are very precise and round. I need to use a rubber hammer to hammer the badge slightly to make it go into the hole. Although I put epoxy on the bottom of the hole the fit is so precise no epoxy will come out through any gap aorund the badge because there is no gap. So, if I put too much epoxy they will just all got trapped in the bottom and raise the badge.

Since the fonts are hot stamped on the bottom--not on the top--of the badge, my logo is not printed on the surface but it actually sits underneath the surface, giving it a more 3-D look.

I have included a few pictures here. It is easier to see on a rounded butt cue:

Hi there forum members. I just joined the forum finally and wanted to respond to the above comments.

I'm not the kind of person to get into arguments with other cue makers but this is the second time that Richard has put out mis-information about my cue making and I wanted to make sure you were seeing my words, and not someone elses.

So using black dye and thick varnish (which is just a cheap product) is a false statement and completely manufactured by Richard. We don't use any dyes and our flawless high gloss finish is a trade secret. Sanding with a lathe is also an incorrect assumption because in fact I actually sand by hand.

After 25 years experience, I have my reasons for not using badges embedded in the cues. I started providing inlays in my cues (KDR) and decals became an option to use with the high gloss finish that some customers ask for.

[JasonOwen]

Cue completed this week, 1 of 3 for Teo.

Thuya and Amboyna burrs.

[willtyson]

Very nice cue Jason :snooker:

[Guy3103]

I love the original design!!! Looks fantastic

[yvonnebandw]

Hi. If you want some ideas for cues, check out this link to our Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=139270728096 :snooker:

[coomsey76]

Cue completed this week, 1 of 3 for Teo.

Thuya and Amboyna burrs.

Very nice Jason..... love the mini butt!!

[jrc750]

Lovely Glover replica Ye Olde Ash cue bought from matty, 58", 9.8, 17.8 oz, 3/4 Parris joint at 16", 18" balance point, Parris SD joint