Sneak Peek of Steve Lipsky's New Cue

Tony Zinzola

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I haven't been posting cues in progress lately, but wanted to show this to a few people, so figured I'd just throw it up here. I won't post it again until it's done. Hopefully not too much longer. I still have to inlay the butt.

4 African Blackwood Points on Quilted Maple. Black Papers between the Veneers and Blue Paper next to the outer black veneer. Photo shows a white phenolic joint, but that will be replaced with Ivory. It's just there as a guide.

Cue still needs one more pass with the router and sanding. I did sand the point inlay a little so I could get a better idea of how it looks.

There is not a drop of filler epoxy in this cue. The pockets in the points for the ivory and in the ivory for the silver were cut with a .010" cutter. The Ivory Pieces were also cut out with a .010" cutter. The only bits I broke were the ones I dropped. Maybe next time I'll be even more brave and try a smaller cutter. We'll see what happens.

Photos are a bit rough because I took my light box down during the summer because I can just take photos outside with a sheet over the cues, but it's dark out, so I did the best I could.

When I was resizing the photos, I had a super closeup of the point inlays, but the tripod must have moved, so I just zoomed in on the forearm shot and left that section full size. It looked to me like the side points are cut off in the photo, so I went and grabbed the cue and a loop and they are fine. I'm not sure what caused them to look like that in the photos. Maybe I'll take a better closeup tomorrow when it's light.

Also, the inlay is missing in the upper point in the photo because I broke one putting it in (I actually broke 3 but had made 6). I'll cut a new one out in the morning.



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Tony; from a cuemaker who has been making cues for a long time....YOU ROCK! I have followed your work, since you started to post pictures here. I am so impressed with your work. Thank you for taking this medium to a higher level...JER
 
Cool ring work

Nice forearm figuring. In addition the ringwork looks great as well. Looks similar to Tads ring work. I like this look. Keep up the great work and let me know when you are ready to start another cue for me.

Kevin
 
Very nice looking cue. You know i really like the way the cues look without the glossy its just something about it cant put my finger on it.
 
I haven't been posting cues in progress lately, but wanted to show this to a few people, so figured I'd just throw it up here. I won't post it again until it's done. Hopefully not too much longer. I still have to inlay the butt.

4 African Blackwood Points on Quilted Maple. Black Papers between the Veneers and Blue Paper next to the outer black veneer. Photo shows a white phenolic joint, but that will be replaced with Ivory. It's just there as a guide.

Cue still needs one more pass with the router and sanding. I did sand the point inlay a little so I could get a better idea of how it looks.

There is not a drop of filler epoxy in this cue. The pockets in the points for the ivory and in the ivory for the silver were cut with a .010" cutter. The Ivory Pieces were also cut out with a .010" cutter. The only bits I broke were the ones I dropped. Maybe next time I'll be even more brave and try a smaller cutter. We'll see what happens.

Photos are a bit rough because I took my light box down during the summer because I can just take photos outside with a sheet over the cues, but it's dark out, so I did the best I could.

When I was resizing the photos, I had a super closeup of the point inlays, but the tripod must have moved, so I just zoomed in on the forearm shot and left that section full size. It looked to me like the side points are cut off in the photo, so I went and grabbed the cue and a loop and they are fine. I'm not sure what caused them to look like that in the photos. Maybe I'll take a better closeup tomorrow when it's light.

Also, the inlay is missing in the upper point in the photo because I broke one putting it in (I actually broke 3 but had made 6). I'll cut a new one out in the morning.



Tony, I absolutely love the choice of veneer color's and wood combinations used in that cue. Keep it up man, hopefully in the not to distant future I will also have some V-spliced cues to post, and I also hope that mine will turn out as good as your's.

Thanks for sharing Tony.
 
Tony; from a cuemaker who has been making cues for a long time....YOU ROCK! I have followed your work, since you started to post pictures here. I am so impressed with your work. Thank you for taking this medium to a higher level...JER

Thanks for the compliment Jer. I still have a long way to go, but have been getting some valuable help lately. We'll see how it comes out when it's all finished.

Thanks to the others too. Kevin, you can order your cue whenever you decide what you want to do. I have almost all of my current orders started finally.

I took some better photos of the inlays this morning and also took one of the inlay pocket. The size of the piece is .721" x .2584". The notches are .027" wide. There's some glare on the silver from the sunlight, but they look better in these photos than the ones from last night. I know Steve's in Vegas, but I'm waiting for him to have a look. I haven't given him any photos yet or any idea what I was doing with the inlays.

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Looking just great, Tony! You are really moving forward at an incredible clip.
(When he says he's been getting valuable help - believe it... BIG - BIG names...)
Looking forward to the continuing progress on mine.
Super stuff.
 
good to see you are using a different ring pattern, looking promising, keep up the good work and effort
 
Very Nice looking Cue Tony-

Thanks for the close-ups!

You always have the greatest choices in veneer colors!
 
Thanks Danktrees. I call them double notched diamonds. As far as I know, I'm the only one that has done them, but I'm sure now that I posted this, somebody will have a photo of them someplace else.
 
Thanks Danktrees. I call them double notched diamonds. As far as I know, I'm the only one that has done them, but I'm sure now that I posted this, somebody will have a photo of them someplace else.

Sorry. but it looks like this guy beat you to the punch.


Oh. Wait... (:thumbup:)
 

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Hey Tony... just want to say that the cue looks great. I very rarely get excited about cues but I simply can't wait to get this one in my hands.

I think we're going to go with elephant ear on this one. Has anyone had any experience with that? How does it hold up? Are there any softer leathers out there?

Thanks!

- Steve
 
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