First thread! Barry Cameron cues

Very nice, Ross! Barry did a terrific job...as always.

Will be nice to see the '3 Amigos' all together once they're completed. Or maybe it should be the '3 Banditos'...for all the dinero they're gonna help you lift off the unsuspecting...LoL.

BTW, a great way to 'pop the cherry' on the new forum section!

Lisa

First off, great review on an awesome looking cue. Can't wait to see the others.

Second, thanks for the new forum.

Something about those butts with a hoppe ring without the padding (rubber bumper), just gives me a warm feeling. Nice looking cue!

Very nice cue! Ilove the plain cues dont get me wrong the cues with all the bells and whistles are great but simplicity is sometimes a beautiful thing. Nice review and i think the new cue review section is a great idea.

Cat's new Cameron

Here are a few pics of my new cue from Barry Cameron, I think it is a great looking cue. I'm no photographer, bear that in mind.

According to my crappy scale, it is 19.2 ozs, and accordinging to my reliable ruler the balance point is approximately 19.5 from the butt cap. The wrap is elephant ear, I didn't get a nice picture of it but it looks quite nice. The feel of the Elephant ear is different than anything else I've ever used, but I thing I like it. More on that after I take it for a real test ride.
Joint, ferrules and inlays are ivory. Forearm Hawaiin Koa, points are ebony with white-blue-green veneers. Butt sleeve is ebony.

I've played with this cue a lot in practice and for a total of 3 nights in league, I am very satisfied with it. Below is the review I posted on the IPM Jimbo Forum after about 6 hours of use.

I've only played with the shaft with the tip provided by Manwon as a trial, I don't want to chalk the Moori unless I have to. It plays stiffer than I'm used to, but I like it. I thing the tip is harder than a Moori medium which I'm used to and that may contribute to the "stiffer" hit. It is also 12.8 instead of 12.7 (or less) I don't see how that would make it feel stiffer, but it might. At any rate, the sum total is it produces a hit and feel I like. I was actually shooting quite well today, but my proficiency goes up and down so I don't attribute that necessarily to any aspect of the cue. I will be taking it to league this week and give it a test in live competition, but I expect to be equally satisfied with it.

As to the elephant ear wrap that a few people were curious about. It is harder I think than cowhide and textured as well, I'm used to relatively smooth cowhide. At first it was a bit distracting because of increase friction between my hand and the wrap, but the more I used it I came to be very comfortable with it. I noticed a little "hot spot" developing on one of my office worker fingers, I assume that will turn into a small callous (sp?). The wrap feels fine and looks great.

The tip was provided to me by Manwon with the provision I provide a review of it here. I was pleased with it, I would describe it as neither better nor worse than a Moori. I was told it was equivalent to a Moori medium, but I thought it ran harder than that. It reminded me a little of Stratos tips, a few of which I've bought from Muellers. In summary, I'd as soon have that on my shaft as I would a Moori. Maybe Barry might have an additional comment about installing them.
Eventually I'll use the Moori for a more direct comparison, but it looks so nice unchalked.

BTW Barry, thanks for a job well done.

Steve.

catscradle said:

Here are a few pics, I think it is a great looking cue. I'm no photographer, bear that in mind.

Click to expand...

That goes without saying, Stevie... those are the worst pictures of what looks to be a great looking cue I've ever seen. <g>

great looking cue Cats. I purchased a Cameron cue from Barry about 18 months ago and I love it. I'm sure you'll enjoy yours.

georgeh

I came close to buying a Cameron, but have decided to go with Jim Lee. But Cameron makes some awesome looking sticks!!

catscradle said:

Here are a few pics of my new cue from Barry Cameron, I think it is a great looking cue. I'm no photographer, bear that in mind.

According to my crappy scale, it is 19.2 ozs, and accordinging to my reliable ruler the balance point is approximately 19.5 from the butt cap. The wrap is elephant ear, I didn't get a nice picture of it but it looks quite nice. The feel of the Elephant ear is different than anything else I've ever used, but I thing I like it. More on that after I take it for a real test ride.
Joint, ferrules and inlays are ivory. Forearm Hawaiin Koa, points are ebony with white-blue-green veneers. Butt sleeve is ebony.

I've played with this cue a lot in practice and for a total of 3 nights in league, I am very satisfied with it. Below is the review I posted on the IPM Jimbo Forum after about 6 hours of use.

I've only played with the shaft with the tip provided by Manwon as a trial, I don't want to chalk the Moori unless I have to. It plays stiffer than I'm used to, but I like it. I thing the tip is harder than a Moori medium which I'm used to and that may contribute to the "stiffer" hit. It is also 12.8 instead of 12.7 (or less) I don't see how that would make it feel stiffer, but it might. At any rate, the sum total is it produces a hit and feel I like. I was actually shooting quite well today, but my proficiency goes up and down so I don't attribute that necessarily to any aspect of the cue. I will be taking it to league this week and give it a test in live competition, but I expect to be equally satisfied with it.

As to the elephant ear wrap that a few people were curious about. It is harder I think than cowhide and textured as well, I'm used to relatively smooth cowhide. At first it was a bit distracting because of increase friction between my hand and the wrap, but the more I used it I came to be very comfortable with it. I noticed a little "hot spot" developing on one of my office worker fingers, I assume that will turn into a small callous (sp?). The wrap feels fine and looks great.

The tip was provided to me by Manwon with the provision I provide a review of it here. I was pleased with it, I would describe it as neither better nor worse than a Moori. I was told it was equivalent to a Moori medium, but I thought it ran harder than that. It reminded me a little of Stratos tips, a few of which I've bought from Muellers. In summary, I'd as soon have that on my shaft as I would a Moori. Maybe Barry might have an additional comment about installing them.
Eventually I'll use the Moori for a more direct comparison, but it looks so nice unchalked.

BTW Barry, thanks for a job well done.

Steve.

Click to expand...

So you're the guy that got the sister to my cue. I'm glad that it went to someone on here. I have the other Curly Koa cue, (cue 1, page 1 in his gallery). There's actually a story behind both of those cues. Before I get into that though, I'll give my review of the sister to yours...

I received it in Mid-November from Barry when I traveled home to CT to play in a Joss Tour Event in New London. I recieved the cue and was blown away initially by how it looked in person. After letting Barry break it's cherry with a couple of shots, I began hitting some balls with it as well. Now I have to preface that I've been playing with a Barry Cameron for the past 7 years. This is the first Cameron that I've played with though with an Ivory joint. (all my playing shafts have ivory ferrulles) My initial reaction was that it really didn't hit that much different than my other Cameron, which was great. I was getting a bit more action on the CB, but I wasn't sure if that was from table conditions, ect. though. The balance point was right where I wanted it, and the handle was just a tad skinnier than my other Cameron. (I'll post pictures of it when I get it back from being refinished.) Just as my other cue, this one felt great. Nice stiff hit, good feedback from the tip to the handle. When my vacation was over, I broke out my other shaft, which was curly maple. A bit stiffer hit, but after playing with it for a day or so, I wouldn't trade it for the world. The combination of curly maple shaft and ivory joint for me has become the stone cold nuts.

As far as construction goes, I've only found one thing on it that wasn't spot on perfect, and that is the phenolic black ring below the joint is a hair lopsided. But, my opinion is that if you have a custom stick that was done by hand, there are going to be imperfections in it. For me it adds character.


Now, story time...not too long though. In early 2006 I was deployed to Afghanistan (in the Army). After a few months over there, I decided that I was going to have a cue made by Barry as a gift to myself for the deployment. I knew the type of wood that I wanted to use for a forearm, the Curly Hawaiian Koa, and the buttsleeve being ebony, but that was about the extent of it. Had a few ideas floating around. I knew I wanted an ivory joint, and some ivory inlays, maybe some Llapis Lazuli inlays, as that is found all over the place in Afghanistan. After talking to Barry a few times over email, I put the order in. That was around May or June of 06 I believe, maybe a bit earlier. Barry wasn't actually able to find any suitable Curly Koa for a few months, until maybe October or so. He aquired 2 blocks big enough for forearms +. We had decided on ebony points, but couldn't decide on the colors for veneers. I wanted some green in there, as well as blue, but the third color was throwing me off. White? Yellow? Orange? I was going to be home over Christmas, so I stopped by while I was there and we did a visual comparison by stacking the veneers and seeing which one's looked the best. At the time, witout them being in the wood, the white green blue looked the best, with the yellow just looking like it was going to drown out the other colors if it were used. But Barry decided to do forarms for both and see how they came out. A few months later, I get an email from Barry saying that he's got the points and veneers in and that he thougt I would like the yellow a bit more. Which I did...and we went from there. when I visited again in July, he told me that someone else had reserved the other Koa Cue, and I was always curious who ended up with it. As I said earlier, glad to see it also came out looking awesome, and that it went to someone on here!

Dags

I owned Barry

I bought it second hand; likely fifth hand

It was a beautiful bubinga merrywidow, with an excellently executed leather wrap.

The joint pin needed to be re-set and etc, he REALLY took care of me and I sincerely appreciate it. Also, does a great finish job as well.

I no longer own the cue but it played very nice. His laminated shafts play very well, I would say as good as a predator shaft. Thanks again Barry.

Dagwoodz said:

So you're the guy that got the sister to my cue...

Dags

Click to expand...

At first it was missing it's sister, but it has sense developed a friendly relationship with the Tucker next door in my cue case.

Glad to see your review, Barry makes a pretty consistent feeling cue from what I can tell.