Bob Jewett said:

I think the alternative to ivory at the time was wood. "Mud" balls or "clay" balls I think were mostly Bakelite with minerals added, like this:

View attachment 908144

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this ball looks like the set I played about 70 years ago when I first started...1955 or so.

vintagecollectibles831 said:

I would like to start out by saying that on many previous occasions, a Mezz United Joint shaft would fit on a standard 5/16x14 joint just fine. Like, on a Joss cue, for example. It was a very tight fight, during the last few turns, but I never had any issue putting a Mezz United Joint shaft on a regular Piloted 5/16x14 butt, that was not made by Mezz.

For the 1st time ever, I am experiencing a Mezz United Joint shaft that is is getting stuck, about 3/4 of the way down, and will not turn any further, on a regular 5/16x14 Piloted Joint pin.

Any ideas on why this is happening? Have you ever experienced this issue, when trying to put a United Joint Mezz shaft, on a regular Piloted 5/16x14 joint pin butt, that was not made by Mezz?

About 3/4 of the way into screwing the shaft in, it really feels that it does not want to go any further, so I did not want to try to screw it any further, for fear of it really getting stuck (lol), to the point where I would be unable to unscrew it. Also, please keep in mind that I am very weak, if that makes a difference, lol. I just really did not want it to get stuck.

This is the 1st time I have ever had this issue though, with other United Joint Mezz shafts. The last few turns were always pretty tight turns, but nothing that felt like it might get stuck, if that makes sense.

Maybe this shaft is just defective? I do not know. I assume it would probably fit fine on a Mezz United Joint butt though, but I honestly do not know.

Anyways, thanks a lot for any thoughts.

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This may or may not help. My Mezz 5/16-14 is a slightly undersized pin. I assume they all are. Maybe not as undersized as Schon, but for sure smaller than my Tascarella and other full-size. My Mezz shaft will not screw all the way on the Tasc or Adam Balabushka for sure.

I have a Cynergy 5/16-14 that fit on my Schon and Mezz, but not the Tasc or Adam Balabushka. I ran a 5/16-14 tap, and no issues. I did Ask the Cuemaker first just to get some confirmation that this is a known thing. Of course, like all internet questions, some of the answers make me question our educational system.

What's wrong with Cashiers Check or a Money Order? Brian.

Duane Remick said:

Some times -R- in the butt cap....
Reach out to Jerry on facebook, He'll reply

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He’s never replied to me!

cuesblues said:

Evan Clark used to go nuts when people called that an acme. Pin.
It's just a 5/16-14 pin that is not interchangeable with other Schon shafts
Some of them actually are interchangeable.

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Not quite sure what you’re saying but that pin, that pilot nosed 5/16-14 Schon pin that Evan created in 1993 should fit every Schon 5/16-14 shaft (except for maybe the S-series). That was Evan’s pride… that all Schon 5/16-14 shafts fit all Schon 5/16-14 butts. He thought he was the first to be able to say that. He was a little chuffed when I told him that Ray Schuler could say that of his cues and shafts from way earlier.

straightline said:

This is a function of global genome tampering to enhance visual compatibility of the general population.

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I have had 2 beers and a gin and tonic... Can't make head nor tails of it

straightline said:

This is a function of global genome tampering to enhance visual compatibility of the general population.

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What the... Are you talking about

The only thing that was done to it by a Cue maker in Town was a different butt plug put in it to it to accommodate an extension. From what I’m told


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Poolmanis said:

And it seems it is very hard to move your rating at highest level. I feel every point is bigger than 600+ or 700+

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I know what you mean... I have been trying for years to get over 500

bpeacock said:

You could have stopped with nothing wrong with these balls.. What do you mean by it's time for a change? Ball color should change every so many years because old timers like them?

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This is a function of global genome tampering to enhance visual compatibility of the general population.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Bob Jewett said:

I think the alternative to ivory at the time was wood. "Mud" balls or "clay" balls I think were mostly Bakelite with minerals added, like this:

View attachment 908144

Click to expand...

I lived in an antebellum home in about 60-62. No sign of a pool table but a handful of clay balls out in the grassless part of the yard. These were solid color, Apparently baked clay all the way through. I don't remember details well at the moment. Big chunks knocked out of them. This home was haunted and families moved through it rapidly so impossible to say what era or family the balls dated from. There was a huge loft/second floor but most of the floorboards weren't nailed down and exploration was risky to say the least! A huge patch in the ceiling where someone had broken through the ten or twelve foot ceiling and broken a hind leg.

I remember trying to find all of the balls but found less than a half dozen. I suspect earlier children had found a set and took them to play with. No sticks or table pieces ever turned up that I recall. The home burned later, I think the seventies.

The haunted house was an upgrade, I had lived in a slave cabin on our farm after our farmhouse burned! I was surprised to see the slave cabin had been drug out to the highway intersection and was being used as a little novelty shop not too long ago. I would have visited but it was closed when I went by.

Wouldn't swear to it but I have always thought that one phase of balls were ivory cue balls or billiard sets and clay balls. I noticed that they were killing 12,000 elephants a year for billiard balls when the search was launched for a substitute. Celluloid was the first substitute, I think it claimed a $10,000 prize. Minor detail, those balls literally exploded when hit too hard. I thought phenolic wasn't too far behind.

There were sets of mixed ivory and clay at one point, I think while the search for a plastic was on. I can't remember full sized wooden balls, some miniature toy balls that I ran across were wood.

All I know about the old balls and then some!

Hu

Lowell said:

For the record, I am not a Predator fanboy (I think their cues are generally not great looking and are overpriced). But after watching a lot of pro pool over the last few months, I find the Predator events to be a clear winner over WNT.

Some advantages:

-Free on youtube
-Usually have mens, women's, and mixed events at the same time
-Uses traditional ball colors
-Uses a non-template rack (makes the racks more exciting IMO)
-The set format is interesting
-The shootout is fun. And a good way to decide very close games, because it's purely a test of potting under intense pressure without factors like lucky rolls deciding the match

I bought a subscription to Matchroom to watch the WNT events, and I was disappointed that they don't even let you watch on demand until it's been a day. I live in the US, so I can't really watch the Euro events live, and by the time they're on demand they're old news.

While this is not the case for Predator events on Youtube, where you can start from the beginning at any time.

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Other than the ridiculous shootout they are good events. Glad they are bringing it back here to JAX in December, although bummed they moved the Women's World Championship.