Why don't cuemakers do this? More to the point why don't we let them?

[meridianblades]

I know but I rather have a custom than resort to having to buy a Benchmade.

Ok well, I really like this guy's work...(RJ Martin) You can check out his blades here... Note: you may need to register first, but its a great forum and worth your time, if you're into knives.. There are other makers there worth checking out as well.

http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/62-RJ-Martin-Tactical-Knives

 

[jordan23042000]

Justin has great ideas. If you want to bring pool back just give this guy a boatload of cash. I miss the TAR studio


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JCIN]

Very interesting thread.... I travel in both circles. You're right there are many areas that cross over.

I have seen the show raffles JCIN, and the flood to buy the blades right after they're done. People get a raffle ticket that "allows them to buy a blade at the price stated".... and then they flip it 10 mins later....

Here is my opinion on this....

1). Net presence is the future for both, not in person shows. (unless you refuse to buy without physically laying your hands on it first). There are less and less shows for blades... of course there is still Blade and the gathering etc, but in general its dwindling.

2). Raffles are successfully done ALL the TIME on various knife forums... Yes it allows folks to get a blade they normally couldn't afford, and / or wouldn't want to wait for, on a list.

3). Here is the primary difference IMO..... Knifemakers are willing to keep and maintain subforums to display their work. A lot of them do this instead of having a website of their own. They have these subforums where the customers are already present, looking for blades. Of course this wouldn't help cuemakers who have lifetime lists, (They already have enough work), but to me it would sure would be interesting to see. Facebook has a lot of this already too, but I still prefer the forums. One of the best is http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/forum.php

Take a look at the pic below... This is from the Jerzee Devil.... and it gives you an idea of all the subforums for individual makers might look like. This is just a sample.... Lots of these guys show almost every step they take in their WIP threads.... And there is knives raffled off quite frequently...As a matter of fact there is a Halloween build off over on the Jerzee Devil that I am entered in, and I believe a lot of these blades will be raffled off, after it is over...

I am a member of Blade forums, USN and Jerzeedevil. I don't expect cues to copy knives exactly and what custom knives are today took how long to come to be? All I am saying is take an idea from an outside industry that generates excitement and modify it as necessary to do the same in pool.

Kind of like I did with the TAR podcast which has umpteen thousand views and interviews with all kinds of players that will be watched after I'm dead. Its not a new concept. Find sh!t that works other places, use what works for your application and throw out the rest.

Edit to add: You missed the biggest difference between knives and cues. That is the demographic of the people spending money. I see tons of 20-30ish guys spending decent money on knives. How many 25 year olds you see buying $2000 cues? I have seen em buy the hell out of knives. Big factor in this is the move to the web you discuss. But if you don't start somewhere you never get to that point.

 

[Schwinn]

I know but I rather have a custom than resort to having to buy a Benchmade.

What's wrong with benchmade? I have one and like it so far.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[meridianblades]

I am a member of Blade forums, USN and Jerzeedevil. I don't expect cues to copy knives exactly and what custom knives are today took how long to come to be? All I am saying is take an idea from an outside industry that generates excitement and modify it as necessary to do the same in pool.

Kind of like I did with the TAR podcast which has umpteen thousand views and interviews with all kinds of players that will be watched after I'm dead. Its not a new concept. Find sh!t that works other places, use what works for your application and throw out the rest.

Edit to add: You missed the biggest difference between knives and cues. That is the demographic of the people spending money. I see tons of 20-30ish guys spending decent money on knives. How many 25 year olds you see buying $2000 cues? I have seen em buy the hell out of knives. Big factor in this is the move to the web you discuss. But if you don't start somewhere you never get to that point.

$400-500 for a blade is still not $2K.... plus market size differences, so I'm not sure the analogy works for me, but I get your point. Funny, had I known you were on the JD I would've let you know what I really thought, when Trent Cowgill empty boxed me. That whole mess was taken care of by one the best cuemaker's out there, in my estimation. Had that not worked itself out that way, I dunno if I would have had another custom cue made.

Regardless, I would love to see cuemakers develop their own subforums, and show their work....The knifemakers pay a yearly or monthly fee to have that advertising space. Well worth the money IMO. WIP threads are interesting and they work. Ever see one of those WIP threads by Nick Wheeler on BF? Amazing attention to detail... Not sure I have ever seen anything like that involving cues....few misc. youtube vids but that's about it.

 

[JCIN]

$400-500 for a blade is still not $2K.... plus market size differences, so I'm not sure the analogy works for me, but I get your point. Funny, had I known you were on the JD I would've let you know what I really thought, when Trent Cowgill empty boxed me. That whole mess was taken care of by one the best cuemaker's out there, in my estimation. Had that not worked itself out that way, I dunno if I would have had another custom cue made.

Regardless, I would love to see cuemakers develop their own subforums, and show their work....The knifemakers pay a yearly or monthly fee to have that advertising space. Well worth the money IMO. WIP threads are interesting and they work. Ever see one of those WIP threads by Nick Wheeler on BF? Amazing attention to detail... Not sure I have ever seen anything like that involving cues....few misc. youtube vids but that's about it.

I think you are at step #22 in the process and I am talking about step #1. No way top guys are going to document stuff like knifemakers do at least any time soon. Would be awesome if they did but I don't see it. They don't need to do that for what I'm talking about. One or two weekends a year and a couple cues. But I think this thread has shown pretty much what I thought it would: Never gonna happen.

I think newer cuemakers or guys who have not reached that elite status could do themselves a lot of good by doing what you suggest. Tuffthumbz and the Grimsmo brothers built themselves a nice business through YouTube and a $400 video camera.

I don't follow the knife forums much anymore until Gathering time comes around. All the time I used to spend on them I now spend on precision shooting.

 

[CMD]

This knife takes about 12 hours to make:




And this knife takes about 16 hours to make:




It wcould never happen in the cue world...

 

[JoeyInCali]

Knifemaking has a tv show. Forged In Fire .
Cue makers will never have History Channel doing a show on cue making.
The cue world is a mino compared to the inife world.
I collect knives too. They are fun to play with and collect. But, not quite
as fun a pretty solid cues imo.

 

[meridianblades]

This knife takes about 12 hours to make:
And this knife takes about 16 hours to make:

QUOTE]

Wheeler probably spends 12 hours just hand sanding the blade...hahahaha. So I'm not sure we're on the same page in making these comparisons.

 

[meridianblades]

I think you are at step #22 in the process and I am talking about step #1. No way top guys are going to document stuff like knifemakers do at least any time soon. Would be awesome if they did but I don't see it. They don't need to do that for what I'm talking about. One or two weekends a year and a couple cues. But I think this thread has shown pretty much what I thought it would: Never gonna happen.

I think newer cuemakers or guys who have not reached that elite status could do themselves a lot of good by doing what you suggest. Tuffthumbz and the Grimsmo brothers built themselves a nice business through YouTube and a $400 video camera.

I don't follow the knife forums much anymore until Gathering time comes around. All the time I used to spend on them I now spend on precision shooting.

I say try the raffle if you can make it work. If everyone is in, it would be a great first step...

Question: Obviously the top cuemakers wouldn't "need" to demo their work to increase business... They have waiting lists already.. I guess that's what I am driving at, why do we never see this type of transparency in the cue world? Cuebuilding secrets?

You can go over to Knifedogs and see Bruce Bump make a WIP thread that's a hundred pages long.... that documents virtually every single step he makes and takes him a very long time to complete. He freely shares his methods with everyone.

Link (altho this a gun he is making) -> http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?18934-The-Strauss-Pirate-36-caliber

 

[CMD]

This knife takes about 12 hours to make:
And this knife takes about 16 hours to make:

QUOTE]

Wheeler probably spends 12 hours just hand sanding the blade...hahahaha. So I'm not sure we're on the same page in making these comparisons.

Maybe you misunderstood the OP. He suggested lottery/show knives. The first knife is a Rick Hinderer. The second is by Tom Krein. Both are examples of "show" knives. Both are roughly $800-1000 IF you win lottery and can be sold $1500-2500.

Hinderer goes to about 8-10 shows per year, not sure about Tom. Do the math...

I don't think he was referring to one-off super duper Museum Quality knives.

Don't know Wheeler...


Stay focused.

 

[purpdrag]

Great idea Justin

 

[JCIN]

This knife takes about 12 hours to make:



And this knife takes about 16 hours to make:


It wcould never happen in the cue world...

Take out the drying/hanging time and how long do you figure it takes to actually make a four point cue with no inlays? Outside of some heavily inlaid monster no one is putting a crazy number of hours of labor in a cue.

I agree with your final conclusion but not for the reason you state.

 

[lfigueroa]

I recently had a very nice experience with a knife maker.

I wanted a top quality kitchen knife so I searched around and finally found someone whose work was what I was looking for. I sent him an email and asked if he had the a particular style blade available or was planning on making one soon. He said no but I could go on his wait list, the next available slot being mid-December. We exchanged a couple of emails nailing down exactly what I wanted and when it came to picking handle wood he sent me a photo of a block of redwood burl he had. What I liked about the exchange was that he encouraged me to ask questions if anything was unclear. I liked the burl and he said he'd put it aside for me. He asked for a $50 deposit to hold my place in line and that was it. The whole thing happened over the course of seven hours.

Lou Figueroa