Trevor White Cues?????

[Greeny]

Before I begin I would like to assure Mr Trevor White that I mean no offence by this and am only raising this as it was brought to my attention a few days ago.

This was recently suggested to me by the owner of a successful private snooker club which will remain nameless.

Trevor White is supplied cues from a person either directly or indirectly from Cuecraft. Trevor then uses these blanks to make is own cues by adding the various splices etc.

I am not saying that the cues Trevor makes are not of the highest quality as I firmly believe that they are of the very best quality available and may even be regarded as 'thee best' available at present.

It did however get me thinking. All the cues that I have seen by Trevor have looked fantastic; the splice work has been amazing and very precise. But how a cue looks is insignificant to how it actually plays. I agree that looks are important to some people, but does it really make any difference to the cue's playability. It may very well make the owner feel a better player but will not actually directly improve their game from appearance alone.

I do not deny the skill involved in producing such a cue is intense. Being able to make the balance correct with differing densities of wood, along with the other aspects of a cue is highly impressive. However, if what has been said to me is true, then is a standard cuecraft cue not better value for money than a Trevor White cue? It may not look as impressive, but looks aside it would it not play the same?

Now before everybody gets on their high house and start berating me for what I have said. I have not started this to offend anyone or insult Trevor White. Nor do I expect him to have to defend himself. I brought it up to start two different debates.

1: Is it true?
2: If it is, is it important or not?

Reading many threads on this forum it is very clear that there is an almost "super group" of members who feel they are in a position to talk down to other members and verge on insulting them just because they disagree with what they say. I hope this does not become on of those threads.

Last point, I will never reveal the name of the club or the person who said this to me. All I can say is that they have been involved in the game for over 20 years and are well respected. They had nothing to gain by saying this to me at all. In fact it was said as advice as I had mentioned I was looking for a new cue.

[trevs1]

I'll reply to this directly if it satifies you.

Cuecraft do some turning of timber blanks for me, and by that, I mean ash and maple which has been selected by me and shipped to them via a pallet delivery service.

There is no more to it than that.

Anyone wishing to confirm this can call Cuecraft if they wish and speak with Dave or Steve, who are the main guys there.

I am astonished that this even gets a mention, as many other makers source shafts and part made cues from all over the place.

I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING PART MADE FOR ME

This timber is turned to an oversize and is then worked with from this point, and no more than that. In fact, I am arguably one of the most self sufficient cue makers in the country.

I am more than happy to discuss the methods I use to source ALL the materials I use and how I use them.

I wonder if all other makers would be so willing?

[Greeny]

Trevor,

Thank you for your response. It certainly covers in detail what was said originally.

I do have one question however if you are ok to answer.

Why are you astonished this was brought up?

I would of though anybody would be happy to put straight any issue relating to themselves or their business. Surely by clarifying this you prove you have nothing to hide and may even make more people enquire about your cues as they may have had some doubts and had heard the same thing.

As I said, I in no way intended to insult you and if I did I apologise. I mearly wished to bring to attention something which people on this forum may have been able to shed light on.

You raise a very interesting point yourself. Would any other cuemakers who use this forum be willing to state if they use third party's for any aspect of their own cuemaking?

[biggus stickus]

Personally for me it is not important at all.

I guess at the initial stage it might be a lot more cost effective for him and it has no bearing on the final result. It gives him more time to spend on the excellent cues he makes so we all don't have to wait quite so long (and we know how that feels).

If there was a problem with the blanks upon return I am sure Trevor would pick it up and discard it or fix it.

At least you know you are still getting the personal Trevor White touch that unfortuatly does not come very often from some other cuemakers anymore.

Well thats my 2cents worth.

Cheers

[Wity]

I imagine 98% or so of people asking Trevor for an ash cue will stipulate tight staight grain and even the number of v's they want to see and as top quality shafts of that nature amount to no more than 2% of all shafts made a one man band such as Trevor would be out of buisness in no time were he not to either buy in from bigger outfits selected shafts or do as he does as he'd not be making cues merely turning shafts all day long and discarding 98% of them.

I applaud Trevor for doing it like this he's selecting the boards and or blanks cuecraft ae doing the initial turn and I guess its at that stage Trevor can select fom his own selected palletful the ones he wants as by that stage the finished look is recognisable and cuecraft buy the rest from him. Thats quality control at it's best !

[Darth_Spud]

Well I’m one of Trevor’s customers and this issue really doesn’t bother me at all, wood is wood no mater who turns it down. As long as you’re happy with the cue that he has made for you then I see no problem with sourcing blanks instead of making them. As Wity stated, the man would probably not be in business if he didn’t do it this way. Id be interested to hear from Mike about this as I’m sure there’s a picture on his website of unturned shafts. I wonder how many of those get discarded?

[eha]

Personally for me it is not important at all.

I guess at the initial stage it might be a lot more cost effective for him and it has no bearing on the final result. It gives him more time to spend on the excellent cues he makes so we all don't have to wait quite so long (and we know how that feels).

I Totally agree that - and think about Mercedes vs AMG or Jaguar vs Daimler. If the base is good, why not use them if You can make them a lot better... Difference here I think are the costs. One man company might not have time or resources to import all materials abroad and waste more than 90% of them. There should be quite a staff to handle all this and of course machinery invests for turning the timber. Would You like to pay extra for this even the quality of cue wouldn't be any better? I think many of us not. I don't think (as Trevors customer) that quality of what he lets out of his hands couln't be better.

Wood is wood anyway, more important is how it is chosen and I think Trevor has good eye on this issue and he's also a decent snooker player so he knows how the cue should work.

Esa