custom cues

berlowmj

berlowmj

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There are those making projections that wood is becoming sufficiently scarce
that cues will soon be made from other materials.

What sort of wooden custom cue would be a good investment & play well?
 
I would get some references from people who have had cuemakers build them a cue in the past. I would really concentrate on the way the cue still looked and hit after at least 5 years. I know certain cues I have worked on in the past where the glue or epoxy has broken down and parts have come loose and fallen off. Finishes that are all chipped off, yellowed terribly, and where you can feel every inlay or ring from shrinkage. The woods are still out there to pick from and some of the newer technology of coring wood and the use of G 10 material for balance and weighting, etc. are worth considering also. I refinished a cue that was over 20 years old that was made out of curly maple which I have heard and tend to believe is very unstable. When I removed the finish I could smell the distinct odor of a certain wood stablizer most cuemakers use or have used in the past, the cue was still straight as an arrow and easy to refinish. Just my .02 worth...
 
berlowmj said:
There are those making projections that wood is becoming sufficiently scarce
that cues will soon be made from other materials.

What sort of wooden custom cue would be a good investment & play well?
Click to expand...

You are going to get a number of opinions and here is mine any hardwood with good tone, properly aged and dried, properly turned and assembled can play very well.

Now this is the tricky part when looking for all the above, no matter how well a cue plays, it is a name that will make it a good investment not the cues playability. In fact a cue that doesn't really play well all that is made by a Big Name Cue Maker well still be a good investment because people will buy the name.

So, only buy cues from the top cue makers, and remember investment potential and making a profit on a cue sale has nothing to do with playability, and you can take that to the bank!!:)
 
Mine, because I only use Kosher woods.

I think SW's will keep going up in price b/c most people buy them to flip them.:rolleyes:
 
There will never be a material to replace the playability of wood. There are some hardwoods that are getting more scarce but there is still good old maple.

(I also think that some people say its scarce just so they can jack the price....)
 
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ratcues said:
There wil never be a material to replace the playability of wood. There are some hardwoods that are getting more scarce but there is still good old maple.

(I also think that some people say its scarce just so they can jack the price....)
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What he said...

IMHO - we're not likely to run out of Maple anytime soon:)

I've made a few pretty sporty playing cues from plain old maple,
not very fancy, but plenty good functional-wise.

As was mentioned, if your looking for investment value, the wood
is much less important than who made it, how fancy, how rare, etc.

Dale
 
run out of wood? I don't think so. Not anytime soon anyhow. I don't think I could picture there not being any wood to work with. That is plain crazy.

My friend, any wood (hardwood) is good wood. What makes the difference is where it is from, how it was manufactured, and so on.

IE. Ebony, Cocobolo, Purple Heart, Bocote, Rosewood, and are all good woods to use, but plain old rock hard maple is king. I know there are many, many cues out there that are made of maple and because of that, we take that for granted, but maple and just about all species in the maple family will do quite nicely.
 
JCIN said:
Hard to flip when the cue price from SW is the same as secondary market. That waiting list is going to come way down in the next couple years.
Click to expand...

The waiting list may come down but the price won't and they still will not be able to keep up with orders, imo.

Dick
 
investment vs playability

manwon said:
You are going to get a number of opinions and here is mine any hardwood with good tone, properly aged and dried, properly turned and assembled can play very well.

Now this is the tricky part when looking for all the above, no matter how well a cue plays, it is a name that will make it a good investment not the cues playability. In fact a cue that doesn't really play well all that is made by a Big Name Cue Maker well still be a good investment because people will buy the name.

So, only buy cues from the top cue makers, and remember investment potential and making a profit on a cue sale has nothing to do with playability, and you can take that to the bank!!:)
Click to expand...

As always, you make a good case. I guess I will stick with my Universal Smart shaft & invest in what I know- turnaround situations in the market.

I will be long dead before my ability is equal to the capacity of my current cue. Thank you.
 
Hi,

Now that all the wood is drying up maybe we can use wood from the petrified forest. Nobody has been harvesting there! :wink:

Rick G
 
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