How do I get wood like this? :)

Yesterday I stumbled on the stock photographs of the Players Cues Classic Series C950:

http://www.ozonebilliards.com/plcuc9.html

I've fallen in love with this cue, or at least this picture. I love the color and grain of the wood and how it looks glossy and glowing and 3-dimensional.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this same wood/stain/finish in the cabin veneers of an expensive Lexus at a car show a few years ago and it was pretty stunning.

There are two reasons why I haven't ordered this cue yet:

1) I'm not even sure the cue looks like this. The only non-stock photo of this cue that I can find is on Amazon and it just looks like regular brown-stained maple in that picture. None of the curly "glowing" grain of the stock photo:

http://www.amazon.com/Players-Cues-C950-Includes-Case/dp/B001FYLVDU

2) I have some reservations about the quality of the cue. Some of the reviews on Ozone complain about the wrap and one reviewer says there's even a gap in the joint. Of course it's an $85 Players cue so you can't expect every one to be a masterpiece. But I would happily spend $200-$300 on a cue that looked like the picture if it was well-made from high-quality materials.

So I guess I'm soliciting ideas about how I can get a good cue that looks like the one in the picture. Should I just buy the Players cue and see what I get, or are there cues from other manufacturers that are more likely to look like this one, or is there some way I can get a custom cue made that looks like this... ? Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

ideologist said:

Redwood Lace Burl is relatively inexpensive and will give you identical color and better figure. It is red with dazzling chatoyance.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies guys.

I hadn't heard the term "chatoyance" but that's exactly what I'm looking for, thank you.

I searched for redwood lace burl and found this similar-looking custom cue from Al Bautista / Black Pearl Cues. I hadn't heard of him or his company before. His web site seems to be down at the moment. I sent him a message on Facebook.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=2323796&postcount=13

Thanks for the info!

mortuarymike-nv said:

I have a uncut slab I have been sitting for a couple decades .
Pm me, (maybe ) we can work something out.
What is the fair market price for enough to make a cue out of that the wood has been being dried for a few decades. ???????

Here is a picture of part of the slab, I was using the slab as a back ground for photographing the Varney bem cue in the photo..
...

Click to expand...

Looks beautiful, thanks for the offer, but I wouldn't know what to do with it.

I ended up buying the Players cue online after finding some more pictures of it on eBay. It seems there's a significant amount of variability in the figuring in the wood and color of the stain/finish.

Sort of like the Schon STL 1, I really like that cue too but $500+ is a bit out of my price range. But if you look at pictures of those on eBay, you can see some of them are almost white and others are very dark brown. But I like how the wood looks in all of them.

I will post pictures and write a review of the Players once I get it.

I received the Players cue yesterday and posted a review, here:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=5451820