Alice ! Alice ! Who the **** is Alice?

Just got me fingers crossed that i'll like playing with a pearwood shaft, Ive seen em but never even run one through my fingers.

My mate Dan Shelton (Totlxtc) is the cuemaker btw.

Alice (after me nan) will i'm pretty sure be my last cue, well my last 'keeper' anyway.

From scratch. Dan and I have been on msn regulary now for a good while sourcing woods off ebay and the sites of timber yards and such like. The champor came off ebay much the same time as i bought the big leaf maple burl which in the end i had spliced by craftsman cues to a b+w cue i bought off ebay. Had craftsman do it as they were the only cuemakers i could find that had dealt with spalted wood before and it wasn't stabalised (craftsmans did a cracking job with it using superglue)
See: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=153099

Originally intended a four spliced champour to maple cue but when cut to splices one was no so nice a pattern as the other three and at £60 it was too expensive and difficult to find another piece as nice at that length So Dans used one piece on another cue he's since sold. one on this and ones marked for a cue for my son.

Shopping around for maple we found a yard offering a fair price in Lincoln but then discovered they had some steamed pear and they sorted out an absolutely flawless piece for me. Ebony's come from Mastercraft although we bought some elsewhere first which wasnt so good. Butt joints a spiral from craftsmans so i can use my existing tele extension and mini butt (got nearly as many as cues now bloody things are everywhere.) and i think the badge weill come from one of the german guys off TSF. All put together in Dans shed (Workshop he call it... snobby git )

Alex's (my sons) will be simlar but ash and 3/4. Any chance you can make an invisible joint for it, we both like them and it'd make it a truly international cue lol.

I'm anybodies.

Trevors cues are brilliant, so good in fact if your offered one for under £250 now you just buy it sight unseen but the demand for his work has gone through the roof this past 12-18 months he's even stopped taking orders for about 3 months and your looking at a 6 months waiting list today. When you ordered yours, you were going to pay a reasonable price for a perfect cue and have it in your hands in 3 months. (yeah ok there was a cock up and you probably still have the record waiting time but you were laughing all the way to the bank in the end) Now he's put his prices up you'd be quoted another £100 i guess and have double the wait. Your still getting a cracker of a cue but for my money it's no longer the best buy.

Dan on the other hand, is a newcomer to cuebuilding and as capable as any one in making a snooker cue. Lets face it, it's not rocket science and far less complicated than making a typical handmade pool cue so as long as the care in selecting the best materials and care and pride in ones work is there then there a perfect cue will result.

Put it like this, lets say your in the market for a Rolls Royce which would you prefer..

a/ Pay 250k and ordering one from the factory with a 6 month wait
b/ Pay 350k to a dealer and having it tommorow
c/ Pay 200k for a second hand one with low mileage
d/ Pay 175k for a brand new one delivered in 2 months thats got a different badge on it.

If your a multi millionaire whixh we all wish we were the answer is b but till i win the lottery i'll have d thanks.

Well shes finished at last and i pick her up on Saturday.

pdcue in another thread.. said:

"Very good looking cue - what is the accent wood? Is it a burl?"

Click to expand...

Cheers mate, yeah it's a one piece with Camphor burl, Gaboon Ebony and a steamed Swiss Pear shaft.

Having played with her for a couple of weeks now i'm at a loss as to why Pear is so rarely used nowadays it was the favourite especially of the rich long ago and it's definately my favourite now.

Pearwood is perhaps the smoothest wood you can get with a tad more flex to it than ash but not whippy and with a Mike Wooldrige pressed tip on her she hits sweat (mind i've been playing with Talisman tips for a couple of years now Mikes are definately softer) Hard to explain but she's definately a lady with a punch. Going to upset Dan though and ditch his badge and replace it with a brass one inscribed Alice.

Though i'n sure other cuemakers will use pear if a customer asked for it theres only two in the uk that advertise it on their websites B+W billiards near me in Cradley Heath:
http://www.bandwbilliards.co.uk/cues_custom.php
and Dragon cues in Wales who no longer quote it on their site:
http://www.dragoncues.co.uk/01-Mainpages/products_custom_cues.htm

Considering my piece cost £30 inc p+P opposed to 25 for ash and i think 27 for maple it's interesting to note B+W want £50 Extra to have a pear blank.

Yes it's prone to warping when air drying especially, which is why it's better to go for kiln dried but as a finished cue it's no different in that warping is down to how it's stored and where. Having spoken to a few players about pearwood of late I've come to the opinion now that most will consider an old pear shaft on a new butt but not a new pear shafted cue as they wrongly think once made pear has more chance of warping.

If you look at the website of the timber yard i bought it from and if their definiton of "movement in service" means/includes warping its actually less prone to than ash.

http://www.sykestimber.co.uk/timber/steamed-swiss-pear.html

"

Cheers Wolfgun. If your Tom Gauther is a bit of a Plain Jane you know it wouldn't cost you much to turn her into a lady Di.

See the transformation possible here...

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=153099&highlight=spalted+leaf