Sarisbury Green Snooker Cues

[bmck]

See Keith Auld's website is up and running.
www.sarisburygreen-snookercues.co.uk

[noel]

See Keith Auld's website is up and running.
www.sarisburygreen-snookercues.co.uk

Nifty new site!
Cues seem rather pricey, but kudos for selling blanks to encourage continued cue craftsmanship!


"A large investment in the most modern and specialised machinery; made and imported from America, has been made to allow for the manufacture of the highest quality Snooker, Billiard and American Pool cues to be made in England using the skills of handcrafting together with the precision of the machine – ‘a best of both world’s scenario’ for the discerning player"

Say, is this the same Keith Auld who held forth here on the blasphemy of using power machinery in cue production?


Confuded... =o/


Noel

[noel]

.... correction... confused.


Noel

[totlxtc]

Nice to know the cues are made outside. You can see this in the cue process gallery. Also the lathe is nicely setup on 2 black and decker workmates.....very professional

[Watford]

Not cheep at all but the blancs and pearwood is quite cool.
This is Keith Auld who used to frequent the forum.
Let's not drag up all the unpleasentness
Why is it so coy about who has used Keiths cues?

"World Snooker Champion, British Open Champion, and for winners of virtually every major title in the Snooker world, including some that no longer exist under the same name."

Why not say who?

[poolqjunkie]

This "machine from America" is just a cue smith lathe made by Chris Hightower from GA, USA. It is not a very high tech lathe. I think he has the bed extention made to accomodate the length of the one piece cue. Then there is a router to cut and taper the shaft and butt by sliding the router along a template made with rubber attached to an aluminum rail. The tapering is not that consistent with this lathe, becaue it is all done by the rubber template mechanically.
This lathe is not that precise. There are movements especially with such a long cue, without any support in the middle.
The lathe is supposed to come with a few supporting post for house cue fixing and such but I do not see them in the pictures. It requires a lot of caliberation from time to time because the chuck will sometimes come loose, and sometimes it is not completely centered. The router could be set to automatic but it sometimes can get stuck. The moter is not very powerful, and the belt breaks after a while. Everytime the motor is turned on, it will jerk. Unless you really secure it on a work bench, it will creat a lot of movement as it turns. I see he has put the lathe outdoor on two stands, not sure whay he does that?
I know this lathe very well, because I have the same lathe, with a few upgrades. Been using it on and off for about three years, when i finally decided to use it only for putting on tips, and ferrules.
I was expecting a CNC lathe from Keith, when he made it sounded like with this new machine anyone can make a cue--which is simply not true with the Chirs Hightower cue smith. It is certainly not a lathe made for mass production of cues.
Why buy a lathe from america--does he think British lathes are not good enough?
Just imagine a guy with a British accent trying to talk to a guy with an american southern accent on the phone in the middle of the night when the British guy has a problem..it is priceless.
(I still remember Keith said to me, "you may turn everything in Canada, but here in Britian, we dont!. We hand plane our cues!" So, it seems that Keith is now a Canadian. Welcome...)

[BITTER]

Health and Safety ain't been round yet judging by them pictures?

On the plus side the cue in picture does a great job of holding that tree up.

[poolqjunkie]

Why is it so coy about who has used Keiths cues?

"World Snooker Champion, British Open Champion, and for winners of virtually every major title in the Snooker world, including some that no longer exist under the same name."

Why not say who?

Because it is "virtually EVERY major title [winner]" so there are too many to list.

[poolqjunkie]

I think the fern is used to let us compare the straightness of his "new" cues. So, as you can see, the cue in picture is quite straight, almost as straight as the fern.

[stephen23]

dun think it is the best you can get from Keith

Strange ferrule


Unfinished Butt


Different Ebony Splicing (WEIRD!!)


Unfinished Badge



Returned Straight away after view by cue expert in Hong Kong

[totlxtc]

Thats is one of the worst jobs ive seen!! Too bad to even be firewood!

[poolqjunkie]

I remember master cue maker Keith Auld said some people were using photoshop to discredit him.

He also said that these imperfections are like the bubbles in handmade glasswares--they are part of the benefits of getting a real hand made cue. His cues are supposed to be very responsive well liked by good players and world champions, so these cosmetic issues should not matter.

I never quite figured out the logic behind what he said--are these pictures of imperfection photoshoped, or are they real but just insignificant because that is what a hand made cue is supposed to look like?

The bottom of the cue also do not look symmetrical from the pictures. What happened to the tip? Is that also hand made made be from his shoes? Guess the machine made mass produced tips are not responsive?

[totlxtc]

After using Photoshop for over 15 years as part of my career I can say that the pictures shown are not photoshopped as there are too many imperfections on the actual photos to pic up on. Those pics, as sad as they are to the world of cue making, are real in my opinion.

[poolqjunkie]

When Keith talked about helping the long suffering snooker public with his master hand planed taper, I did not know he was also referring to tapering the ferrule.

[cocked hat]

Keiths site

I think you're all being too hard on the guy,I was quite impressed with his site,
especially the fern shots.I'd like to buy one of those owls.