Cue Made with Japanese Hand Tools

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

Good morning. My name is Dan and I just joined this site. I live in British Columbia, Canada, and I am a big fan of snooker.

Unfortunately, I do not know anyone who even knows what snooker is, let alone plays it, so I wanted to come on here and
see if I could meet some people online. There are also no tables anywhere near where I live, though I do have a little snooker
table at home. I watch a lot of snooker on YouTube. My favourite Canadian player is Kirk Stevens. My favourite current professional
player is Kyren Wilson. I also like Yan Bingtao.

Recently, I also tried making my own snooker cue. I had no prior woodworking experience, but I am pleased with how it turned out.
I would be interested in hearing what other snooker fans think of it, so I have attached a link to a video I made of the process. It is
about 25 minutes long, and a bit detailed.

Anyway, greetings from Canada and nice to meet everyone

Dan

[DeanH]

welcome to TSF
we do have some members from your neck of the woods, not been on for a while but you never know

[balkend]

Well done ! very nice cue , how many hours did you put into it ?

[Cue crafty]

Hi Dan, welcome to TSF! You done a great job on the cue, and certainly didn't choose an easy design! Shame snooker has seen a demise in Canada over the last 30years as I grew up watching snooker in the eighties and the Jimmy White v Kirk Stevens matches were pure magic.

You played some nice shots too for someone who doesn't play on a full size very often, you need to move closer to that place!

[itsnoteasy]

Enjoyed that video Dan, welcome, there are a few cue makers on here who might have advice for you if you want to make more cues.

[JC_snooker_37]

Moonlight snooker.

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

Well done ! very nice cue , how many hours did you put into it ?

Thanks It took me a very long time. So long that I didn't bother counting hours. I worked on it gradually for many many months.
Wenge is hard to work with, and it was perhaps not the best choice of wood for a first attempt.

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

Hi Dan, welcome to TSF! You done a great job on the cue, and certainly didn't choose an easy design! Shame snooker has seen a demise in Canada over the last 30years as I grew up watching snooker in the eighties and the Jimmy White v Kirk Stevens matches were pure magic.

You played some nice shots too for someone who doesn't play on a full size very often, you need to move closer to that place!

Thanks very much. I am glad to join here and hopefully meet more people who like snooker.
Yes, it is hard to see snooker having all but disappeared here. When I started playing in the late 80s, all billiard halls
here had mostly snooker tables, with maybe one or two pool tables. I moved to Japan in 96, and when I returned to
Canada in 2011, I was surprised to see that snooker tables had all but vanished. They are hard to find now.
I have watched the White vs. Stevens matches many times on YouTube. You're right. They were terrific to watch!

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

Enjoyed that video Dan, welcome, there are a few cue makers on here who might have advice for you if you want to make more cues.

Thanks. I am glad you liked it. I'll definitely have a look at what some of the experts have to say on cue making. I probably won't do much
more of it myself, but I do find it very interesting how they are made. Appreciate the tip

[vmax]

Very nice cue and a strange but logical way of putting it together. My first cue was wenge and yes, it's a bitch to work but the end results are beautiful when finished properly, and like myself you like to feel that it's actually wood your holding in your hand so no need for a glass smooth shiny finish. I like to feel the grain in the wood and as I hold the cue in the same place all the time there's a familiarity that isn't there in cues that are very highly polished.

As a critique, your badge needs to be flush with the butt and the screws that attach it need to be flush with the badge, also you can angle the cue in the bed and cut the flat only with the plane, far easier. The balance of a one piece cue has been worked out for us by history, the cue will balance naturally with the hardwood splice tips at around eighteen inches from the end, and though the cue will be quite light it will play fine. Poorly balanced cues are those weighted by drilling up from the end and inserting the weight too close to the end of the butt so that it's butt heavy and shaft light, the other way around is quite difficult to do as the weight needs to be inserted under the splices prior to planing so is a rarity in a one piece but quite common in poorly made 3/4 split cues where the weight of the joint hasn't been taken into consideration.

As a player, well.................two handed and pot some really nice balls, good on you!

[golferson123]

i call total bull****, no woodworking experience as biden says come on mannnn

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

i call total bull****, no woodworking experience as biden says come on mannnn

This project was indeed my first attempt at woodworking. All together, it took about 18 months. I learned as much as I could from the
Internet on how to use the tools in question, and I bought the tools gradually. The bench was easy to build because it was just
pre-fabricated (I just bought the plastic legs online and the 2x4s and pre-cut plywood and mdf boards from the hardware store).

The lumber I purchased included three pre-cut, 5' square lengths of ash, measuring 2" by 2" and two pre-cut 5' square lengths
of maple, measuring about 1.5" by 1.5". The lumber store did not have any ebony, so when I asked for a dark hardwood that
could be used instead, they said they had a big block of wenge, so I naively bought that. It was only later through more internet
research and attempts to work with it that I learned just how difficult it is.

My first three attempts were on ash and all of them failed. Perhaps because the wood was not perfect (it is full of knots) but more
likely because of my inexperience. I then tried the maple, hoping it would be easier, and it was. I was at least able to complete
the cue.

I learned a lot from woodworkers on the Internet. Four that come to mind are Paul Sellers (a Brit), Jonathan Katz-Moses (an American
who is particularly knowledgeable about using Japanese pull saws), Rob Cosman (a Canadian) and a Japanese fellow whose
name is not mentioned on his videos but whose channel is called DIY Japanese Joinery.

I also learned that woodworking is a very expensive and difficult hobby, and that I really bit off more than I could chew by starting
with a snooker cue. I should also mention that most of the jigs I designed and made did not even work.

Cheers

[Daniel Marc Brooks]

Very nice cue and a strange but logical way of putting it together. My first cue was wenge and yes, it's a bitch to work but the end results are beautiful when finished properly, and like myself you like to feel that it's actually wood your holding in your hand so no need for a glass smooth shiny finish. I like to feel the grain in the wood and as I hold the cue in the same place all the time there's a familiarity that isn't there in cues that are very highly polished.

As a critique, your badge needs to be flush with the butt and the screws that attach it need to be flush with the badge, also you can angle the cue in the bed and cut the flat only with the plane, far easier. The balance of a one piece cue has been worked out for us by history, the cue will balance naturally with the hardwood splice tips at around eighteen inches from the end, and though the cue will be quite light it will play fine. Poorly balanced cues are those weighted by drilling up from the end and inserting the weight too close to the end of the butt so that it's butt heavy and shaft light, the other way around is quite difficult to do as the weight needs to be inserted under the splices prior to planing so is a rarity in a one piece but quite common in poorly made 3/4 split cues where the weight of the joint hasn't been taken into consideration.

As a player, well.................two handed and pot some really nice balls, good on you!

Thanks very much! You clearly have a lot of know-how and experience in cue making, and I appreciate the tips.
I am very interested in why you also chose wenge for your first cue. I chose it simply because the lumber yard did
not have any ebony and the wenge was the only dark hardwood they did have. Had I known how tough it is to work
with, I would never have chosen it. I have since managed to get my hands on some ebony, and I can honestly say
that it is a dream to work with by comparison. Why did you choose it? Was it just prior woodworking experience, so
you already knew how to work with it? I do not see many cues made with it, so I am a bit curious.

You're right about the badge and flat. I had intended to do both of what you recommend, but I ran into problems.
The reason I made the mini-butt first was so that I could practice doing everything on wenge before starting the cue
itself, including planing it into a cylinder, cutting the flat, and embedding the plaque. Most mini-butts do not have flats,
but mine has one because I needed to practise and did not want to waste valuable wood. I tried with the plane, and I
wanted to plane from the butt towards the end with the joint, because the blade would be starting from the same point
on each pass (i.e. against the end of the wood). However, I was scared that the wood would splinter upwards. Also,
I noticed that no matter how sharp I had my plane, and how fine the shavings were, the wenge stubbornly refused to
plane smoothly in consistently the same direction. It only planed smoothly from the joint end towards the butt end, but
I could not get the blade to always start from the same point, which made a mess. Eventually I just decided to do it
slowly with my saws instead. I tried to use my chisels to cut away a small indent in the flat in which to embed the
plaque, however, I could not get the edges of the indent sharp and clean, and it looked messy. So I had to sand it
away and just screw the plaque on as is. I actually do not mind the screws sticking up, as I like the way they feel
against my hand. I did that on purpose actually, as I remember liking the feeling of screws that stuck up slightly on
a previous cue I had used as a teenager.

Your points on balance are really interesting. Does that apply to both types of cue, hand- and machine-spliced?
Do they both balance out naturally, provided that the proper wood and techniques are used?

Cheers

[Delphi]

Pitty i can't send a pm to you yet...should work some time when you reach more posts.

[mrbluejay]

Not an Aurora project is it, I seem to recall they were in BC 😂