There is huge difference between today's Cues and those of nostalgic value.
Points / Veneers: Customer being to picky?
- Thread starter be1163
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DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
You never defined your expectation. Do you expect even within 0.005", 0.02", 0.05", 0.100"? Whether you are being too picky depends on your answer.
Expectations are not really a number for me, but more so that in a picture of the forearm or at arms length the difference in length isn't the first thing you notice. If it had to be a number, I would expect not more out of line than 0.125"!
its a very nit picky thing to bicker over.
1/8" or less variation for multiple veneers is probably about as good as you will get. I have seen MANY high end cues with more than that.
a pic of where is your tolerance would still help answer the question
just sayin
my suspicion is you are being too picky but i am not a cuemaker
I've spent a few days with Dieckman in his shop. He showed me a little how he would adjust his points, sharp or butterfly.
Just speculation but unless I didn't get the whole story, a cue from him with adjusted points wouldn't roll well. It'd still be absolutely straight but a roll test would likely fail.
Chuck up the butt with a ZigZag paper between the jaws and butt.
Likely other things could be used but these were always at arms reach so to speak.
Unless required, he really didn't care about this stuff. He tried to be reasonable but didn't spend much time with it.
Those that knew Dieck... Know
Just speculation but unless I didn't get the whole story, a cue from him with adjusted points wouldn't roll well. It'd still be absolutely straight but a roll test would likely fail.
Chuck up the butt with a ZigZag paper between the jaws and butt.
Likely other things could be used but these were always at arms reach so to speak.
Unless required, he really didn't care about this stuff. He tried to be reasonable but didn't spend much time with it.
Those that knew Dieck... Know
Last edited:
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
You want an answer without defining expectation. I wouldn't sell you a cue.
In fairness, if I built you a cue under that stipulation I think it would only be fair that you never lose games with that cue,,,,,,,, maybe I should come back here and tell everybody how bad you are representing my work. There is no reason a perfect cue should miss is there?
One thing is for sure, the nature of your question is a kind reverse elimination procedure. You are pretty specific of what you expect and those expectations might be a bit unrealistic and we allready know your are gonna study that cue in more detail than most buyers, and if your not happy, you'll sell the cue (possibly badmouthing the cue maker?) I would decline to build the cue knowing this. I think we all have had customers you know it's impossible to please or you just don't like they way they behave, I certainly have had a few of those and I straight up just decline to do any more work for those customers, no matter how trivial it is.
Glad to help. Dan is certainly a great cuemaker. As far as V groove veneer work done the old school way goes, Danny Tibbits and Mike Webb have turned out some of the best I have seen. Donald Bludworth turned out the best CNC traditional point look I have ever seen. I do okay on them, but no where near those three. My outer points are usually dead even, but veneer changes inside the points vary a little.
I'm sure you understand the reason for this? There's really only one way to correct it and that is to make sure all of the veneers you use are closer to the exact same thickness.
I noticed this problem early on and decided to start cutting the veneers myself to have a better control over that. I found the off the shelf veneers can be all over the place with thickness variations all over at ( +/- 3 to 4 thou) at times.
Yes I understand this. And I have taken the time to make sure all line up on a few cues. But not on every cue. I also usually take the time to make the inner wood points line up dead even on most cues. But I usually don't worry about the veneers as someone has to be a real cue inspector to even notice that part. And I never try to please the real Sherlock Holmes's of cue inspectors who pull out their Jewelers loops to inspect the cues. If they need a loop to find fault they are just too picky to do business with me. Now that I do not depend on cuemaking to make the greater part of my living I can tell it like it is. And I only buiild cues now when I feel like it.
I find it so amusing that hoping for and the esthetics of something are found to be 'nit picky'. Just goes to show that different people, have different standards.
As for the "bicker over", I have and will not argue over what I have asked about in this thread. I was simply looking for information in order to find out if I was being unfair to the maker. I would never back out of a deal or bad mouth anybody that was being fair and honest.
As posted earlier, the way I will be looking at things going forward is simple. If a maker of something is presenting a finished product, then I would hope they are proud of it. If this is the case and its just not up to my 'liking', then that's on me and I will have learned from that dealing to go elsewhere. Maybe the secondary market should be my focus, due to ability to handle the actual product being purchased.
With the current cue in question, the expectations that were communicated, were only that I'm really looking for "sharp and even points"! So when I saw pictures and this wasn't the case I was surprised, hence why I asked the question in the forum. I wanted to learn as well as determine if there was any kind of 'standard' and what I was seeing is the norm.
So I would say I did get out of this thread what I wanted. So I do appreciate the feedback/communication provided!
You associate looks of something to its actual ability to function and the skills of the user?
Good on you, to post something like that when you obviously have no idea what you are actually typing! LOL
You keep being you, and working on the 'hobbies' you enjoy!
my point proven, pages of paragraphs over points being even or not
This thread is making me want to build a staircase pointed Cue.
I'll call it
The AZ
Lmao
I'll call it
The AZ
Lmao
If the end of the points were even then the cuemaker fulfilled your request, no matter how the inside veneers line up.
People like you are why I quit doing custom build a long time ago. If I build it now and nobody bought it yet it's for sale. I build them the way I like them, if they don't sell I have another cue I like.