Cue care

Chopdoc

Chopdoc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
After posting about my adventures with the wrap on my old Viking and seeing the SNAFU with the snapped BEM cue and snapped G10 pin, I really got to thinking. I also got to see how the cue makers talk about the customers and what they do with their cues.

About 22 years ago I leaned my JOSS against a wall while my opponent broke a rack. He jumped the table and squarely nailed my JOSS. To this day I cringe and look for a ding or scratch from that day and can't find anything....thank God. My cue always gets leaned against something secure while playing and OUT of the walking path so it does not get kicked. But things happen..... After seeing that snapped BEM cue I will never break with my JOSS again, and I have been doing that since 1985 (only when I don't happen to have my break cue with me since 1990).

I was once told by a cue maker to NEVER lay a pool cue on a table. I was also told to NEVER roll a cue on a pool table. I was also told that waxed paper helps smooth out a rough wrap. I have also been told the opposite.

I have been told, heard, and read many things over the years about caring for my cues and I consider myself only the guardian of these cues. They should outlive me.

What are the basic things to do and not to do in caring for our cues?
 
Chopdoc said:
After posting about my adventures with the wrap on my old Viking and seeing the SNAFU with the snapped BEM cue and snapped G10 pin, I really got to thinking. I also got to see how the cue makers talk about the customers and what they do with their cues.

About 22 years ago I leaned my JOSS against a wall while my opponent broke a rack. He jumped the table and squarely nailed my JOSS. To this day I cringe and look for a ding or scratch from that day and can't find anything....thank God. My cue always gets leaned against something secure while playing and OUT of the walking path so it does not get kicked. But things happen..... After seeing that snapped BEM cue I will never break with my JOSS again, and I have been doing that since 1985 (only when I don't happen to have my break cue with me since 1990).

I was once told by a cue maker to NEVER lay a pool cue on a table. I was also told to NEVER roll a cue on a pool table. I was also told that waxed paper helps smooth out a rough wrap. I have also been told the opposite.

I have been told, heard, and read many things over the years about caring for my cues and I consider myself only the guardian of these cues. They should outlive me.

What are the basic things to do and not to do in caring for our cues?
Click to expand...

I don't know why you would never roll a cue on the table. That seems silly to me.

I leave my cue laying on the table when not in use. I have done it or 30 years. I don't see why not.

You should not lean it against a wall for week or so. I might take a slight bend. Although I have done this and never had a problem.

I think some people try to over think everything and make up rules for themselves. If you think is is silly..... then it probably is.

Kim
 
I think the advice not to roll a cue on the table was to keep it from picking up chalk dust and therefore blueing the shaft.

Or maybe the advice was from a cuemaker who couldn't quite get his joints true, so didn't want people to roll his cues.

Either way, it's just a guess on my part.

Gary
 
I was given two reasons not to roll a cue on a pool table.

1) It picks up the grime of the table.

2) Isn't about rolling really. Some say lay your cue on the table to prevent it being knocked over. I was told two things about this.

a. Refer to #1
b. The balls could be rolled into the cue as people are setting up to rack.

I never lay my cue on the table. Never.

I won't roll a cue on a table unless I can see it is very clean, but that's kind of just good sense I think.


About six months ago a guy grabbed my JOSS and took it upon himself to roll it on a bar table while my back was turned. I had thrashed him through six racks of eight ball and he was just trying to be a jackass I guess. He made a big deal about the very slight taper roll on my secondary shaft compared to his K-Mart cue which was perfectly straight (and new). Needless to say we had words about him touching the cue. He would do better to touch my wife.

I don't need to roll my JOSS. That wood is so old and stable that unless it is exposed to unusual stresses or moisture it ain't gonna move. That taper roll has been there, exactly the same, for 25 years.
 

I leave my cue laying on the table when not in use. I have done it or 30 years. I don't see why not.
The table cloth absorbs moisture.
Laying the shaft there might make it absorb moisture as well.
Worse, it's on one side of the shaft only.
 
JoeyInCali said:

I leave my cue laying on the table when not in use. I have done it or 30 years. I don't see why not.
The table cloth absorbs moisture.
Laying the shaft there might make it absorb moisture as well.
Worse, it's on one side of the shaft only.
Click to expand...


I have heard this before but just think about it....

How can the cloth on the table absorb any more moisture than is in the humidity in the air? The same goes for the slate on the table and also the cue itself. The air surrounds the cue on all sides all the time.

It sounds silly to me.

Kim
 
whammo57 said:
I have heard this before but just think about it....

How can the cloth on the table absorb any more moisture than is in the humidity in the air? The same goes for the slate on the table and also the cue itself. The air surrounds the cue on all sides all the time.

It sounds silly to me.

Kim
Click to expand...

Then the other side of the shaft absorbs more moisture.
Never mind all that gunk on the cloth.
 
The safest place for a cue is in it's case, that's doubly true if your in a pool room. I believe the 2nd safest place would be to have it laying on the pool table. The pool table may be dirty, but I'll wipe the cue before it goes back in my case anyways. Drunks can find and trip over a cue leaning up against a wall like a bear can find honey. I can't just wipe away the dings.

My 2 1/2 cents,
Alan
 
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I put my cue where it's safest, and I mean anywhere - if that happens to be a neighbouring empty table, I'll lay it down there, and usually protect my playing cue with the break cue on one side and the jump cue on the other, just in case someone jumps a ball from an adjacent table (don't laugh, you wouldn't believe all that's happened to me in 25 years of playing, and yet, all my playing cues minus one have remained intact).

Greetings from Switzerland, David.
_________________

„J'ai gâché vingt ans de mes plus belles années au billard. Si c'était à refaire, je recommencerais.“ – Roger Conti
 
While racking, I lay my cue on the table right across the middle. It has NEVER fallen or been fallen on in 20 years. I did have one moron break while it was sitting close to the cushion. That's why it's in the middle of the table now. Miraculously, he survived unscathed. I'm still berating myself for that though.
 
The wax paper for smoothing out a rough wrap may work. I haven't tried it, however, when I took my cue to my local cue make to get a new tip put on, he cleaned my linen wrap first with Simple Green, then he pressed the wrap, and finally put some bee's wax on it (using a rag to heat it into the linen). It worked very well.
 
whammo57 said:
I have heard this before but just think about it....

How can the cloth on the table absorb any more moisture than is in the humidity in the air? The same goes for the slate on the table and also the cue itself. The air surrounds the cue on all sides all the time.

It sounds silly to me.

Kim
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct.
 
framptonl said:
The wax paper for smoothing out a rough wrap may work. I haven't tried it, however, when I took my cue to my local cue make to get a new tip put on, he cleaned my linen wrap first with Simple Green, then he pressed the wrap, and finally put some bee's wax on it (using a rag to heat it into the linen). It worked very well.
Click to expand...

The wax paper is not going to smooth the wrap any more than spinning it under anything, the wax paper transfers wax to the wrap just like the bee's wax.

Smoothness comes from pressing with a hard object and/or sanding with sandpaper.

Depending on the feel you like, waxing the wrap with wax paper, bee's wax, candle wax, or nothing and the amount of pressing can give you a wrap with many different textures and feel.
 
A couple months ago i was playing pool against a pretty famous cue maker. As he racked he would put the tip and shaft end on the table and leave the butt up on the rail of the table, so the forearm and wrap area would not touch the table. He would do this with his break stick if there was a table next to him. Otherwise he would keep it together sticking out of his case off away from anyone.

I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to keep the wrap clean and chalk free and no other reason.

He also said that if it was a wrapless cue, he would put it on the table no problem.
 
Chopdoc said:
I was once told by a cue maker to NEVER lay a pool cue on a table.
Click to expand...

Don't lay your cue on a pool table for extended periods of time.

Don't lean your cue against the wall for extended periods of time.

Extended periods of time can be measured in weeks, months, years. Not minutes, hours or days.

Cues, especially shafts should be stored vertically, in a case, wall rack or whatever.

A shaft with a pro taper has an air gap in the middle, laying the shaft horizontal, gravity will eventually will have a negative effect.
 
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