Parris Film - Please Please Read

[jb134]

I watched the Parris film today on BBC and am very confused. He was discussing buying wood for cues, hand made cues and at one point he said

"The boards are around 16 feet long and we cut them to different sizes for our one piece and 3/4 cues"

Now, that's possibly not a verbatim quote but there is no doubt that he inferred he uses different lengths of ash for his 3/4 and one piece cues.

Now, my understanding of a hand spliced cue is that the shaft runs the full length of the cue. I would have thought 3/4 would be a one piece with a joint put in. Am I wrong?

Does Parris make shafts for 3/4s and then add butts? Does this mean it is not a truly traditionally hand made cue?

Please clear this up for me I know there are experts out there.

Thanks.

[Qubit]

Most 3/4 cues are made with a solid butt and a spliced 3/4 shaft (ie not made as a 1 piece and then cut and jointed)

[jb134]

Is it fair to call it hand spliced then?

[Qubit]

The shaft is still handspliced but obviously the splices are shorter. So on that basis yes.

[platt]

What a plug for any business millions of snooker players watching and to get a time slot like that for free, it showed a few clips of guys putting a cue together without giving anything away very clever. Also the mystery of Davis cue was answered as his back playing with his old wand.
If you go to robert osbourns website it shows loads of pictures in stages of a cue been made. Sorry cant do the link.

[LWB]

That was one of the best adverts I've ever seen. How does he always get the plugs from the BBC???

[BITTER]

Giving free cues away helps

[-Matty-]

It is the best form of free advertising.

[LWB]

How does giving a few players free cues get you on TV? Tell you what, if you can get a top player to play with your cue and all you have to do is give them the cue for free, then that's just extremely cheap sponsorship, effectively.

[cueman]

Its only because John is so famous through other players using his cues that the BBC used him to show the public the cue making process. I'm sure Steve Davis working with the BBC would have been a big influence in this film as he was the first professional player to have work done by John back in the mid 80's.

[ADR147]

its a total disgrace that he is allowed to do it.

[jb134]

This is a bit away from my question. JP is obviously the most famous and best marketed cue maker in the world so I don't see who else BBC would choose.

So is a 3/4 made this way still a handspliced cue then?

[ADR147]

your missing the point - you are not allowed adverts on the bbc. yes its still a hand spliced cue.

[paulbur]

i was just wondering why a lot of people on here have a problem with john parris? ive bought cues off him at his shop and he seems like a nice enough bloke

[ADR147]

he is a nice enough bloke but its not fair competition. nobody i know has a problem with him personally