Finding Your Own Path

pescadoman

pescadoman

Randy
Silver Member
I'm new and not ashamed of that. I'll try and help anyone who asks, but I'm not afraid to say "I don't know".

I try and avoid looking at other designs because the last thing I want is to make copies. I have a gifted friend who has been making cues for over twenty years and every time he shows me something I say to myself "that is a really great idea" and then eliminate it from anything I would do.

I realize that just about everything has been done, but I was wondering how you found your own style? What motivated YOU and where did you find inspiration for design?

I've never been an artist or artistically inclined. In fact, even my penmanship is horrendous. I can fish, operate and dock a 200 ton boat, write well, and have mechanical skills.

I would like for someone to, without close inspection, be able to identify my work(and not because it is awful:))

I have and always will appreciate the help from this forum. The construction techniques I am learning have opened doors in my ways of thinking, but construction is different. A big thank you to Rick from Esoteric cues for taking time to share some of his methods with me.

Anyway, I've looked into ways of employing fish properties(scales, fins...ect) into cue design, but seem to fall short. Furthermore the last thing I want is someone to start calling my cues "fish sticks"(a joke that has already been used).

Any help would be appreciated....
 
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pescadoman said:
I'm new and not ashamed of that. I'll try and help anyone who asks, but I'm not afraid to say "I don't know".

I try and avoid looking at other designs because the last thing I want is to make copies. I have a gifted friend who has been making cues for over twenty years and every time he shows me something I say to myself "that is a really great idea" and then eliminate it from anything I would do.

I realize that just about everything has been done, but I was wondering how you found your own style? What motivated YOU and where did you find inspiration for design?

I've never been an artist or artistically inclined. In fact, even my penmanship is horrendous. I can fish, operate and dock a 200 ton boat, write well, and have mechanical skills.

I would like for someone to, without close inspection, be able to identify my work(and not because it is awful:))

I have and always will appreciate the help from this forum. The construction techniques I am learning have opened doors in my ways of thinking, but construction is different. A big thank you to Rick from Esoteric cues for taking time to share some of his methods with me.

Anyway, I've looked into ways of employing fish properties(scales, fins...ect) into cue design, but seem to fall short. Furthermore the last thing I want is someone to start calling my cues "fish sticks"(a joke that has already been used).

Any help would be appreciated....
Click to expand...

I definitely must say: There's something fishy about this thread!

Dick
 
Smells like fish. Plays like a chicken?

Feel free to use that as an advertising logo Randy.
I do whatever I can to help my friends.
 
Don't sacrifice functionality for art.
Solid construction before decoration.
Playability before vanity.
 
JoeyInCali said:
Don't sacrifice functionality for art.
Solid construction before decoration.
Playability before vanity.
Click to expand...

Tap, and as Joey well knows, it all starts with having select shaft wood 1st. Start buying it and keep buying it, processing and seasoning it.

Randy we have a lot in common. I operated a steel hulled trawler on Lake Michigan for many years, Net 25 ton not a 200 ton big boy. One thing you and I both knows as captains is that there are 2 speeds you operate at within a harbor, slow and slower.

I see a lot of similarities in cue making while developing your skills.
Rick
 
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I started with one lathe & a pile of broken & discarded house cues. I took the band saw to 2 broken cues. A Mcdermott & a Schon. Being a design engineer I measured everything about them. I made drawings of how they were constructed. That's how I got started. For 2 years I made Hustler type cues. In the 3rd year, after about a dozen failures, I made my 1st cue, from scratch. I cut up bleach bottles for my white rings & plastic oil bottles for green, black & red rings. I don't know why I didn't give up. There were no books, videos or many people that would help you get started. I still go back to those basic structural designs today. today I have 6 lathes, A bunch of other equipment, but basis construction is the basis for all cues. You'll figure out how to make them pretty & don't feel bad about "barrowing" designs from those that came before...JER
 
scdiveteam said:
Tap, and as Joey well knows, it all starts with having select shaft wood 1st. Start buying it and keep buying it, processing and seasoning it.

Randy we have a lot in common. I operated a steel hulled trowler on Lake Michigan for many years, Net 25 ton not a 200 ton big boy. One thing you and I both knows as captains is that there are 2 speeds you operate at within a harbor, slow and slower.

I see a lot of similarities in cue making while developing your skills.
Rick
Click to expand...

Do we also share the hatred of sailboats and EVERYONE in the harbor who know nothing about the rules of the road? :)

Rule 9 "The REALLY big 'boat' has the right of way all the time"
 
JoeyInCali said:
Don't sacrifice functionality for art.
Solid construction before decoration.
Playability before vanity.
Click to expand...

Joey, obviously is a genius:)

"It's easy to recognize an intelligent man by the way he agrees with you."
.....................................

To the OP:

First work on building a solid cue that plays like one.

Then, work on being able to repeat that goal.

The rest is just ornamentation.

A good cue is not a fashion statement - IMHO.

Dale(minority position))
 
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Finding Your Own Path

Incorporating yourself into your work will be evident in the manner things get done. Realize it or not your experiences will push you to do things in a way only a captain of a ship can. Count you blessings and be ever so glad that you haven't worked for the sanitation department instead. Your choice of colors etc could (more than likely will ) lean toward the water.

All the best
 
My suggestion is to go with what feels right. If it doesn't feel like it is something that you would be proud to put on the market don't do it. That does not mean not to try new things to see how it would look or work.

My first cue is still called "The Ugly Cue". It is so bad that I kept it to remind myself of what didn't work and how not having a plan is never a good idea.
 
BLACKHEARTCUES said:
I started with one lathe & a pile of broken & discarded house cues. I took the band saw to 2 broken cues. A Mcdermott & a Schon. Being a design engineer I measured everything about them. I made drawings of how they were constructed. That's how I got started. For 2 years I made Hustler type cues. In the 3rd year, after about a dozen failures, I made my 1st cue, from scratch. I cut up bleach bottles for my white rings & plastic oil bottles for green, black & red rings. I don't know why I didn't give up. There were no books, videos or many people that would help you get started. I still go back to those basic structural designs today. today I have 6 lathes, A bunch of other equipment, but basis construction is the basis for all cues. You'll figure out how to make them pretty & don't feel bad about "barrowing" designs from those that came before...JER
Click to expand...

Hi Jer,

That is a great story about your development and acknowledges that you have bootstrapped your cue making and developed your skills from the ground up.

It's all about making and identifying mistakes, learn and honing, corrective actions and lessons learned.

Rick
 
Yep, and the second tip that Jer added this week. Who woulda thunk that
plastic bleach and oil bottles would make rings for a beginner cue maker.
Not I.

Just goes to show that when Jer mentioned that at the time, there were no books or DVDs available, there were probably less cue suppliers out there too.
Just another proof that necessity is the mother of invention.
 
pescadoman said:
Do we also share the hatred of sailboats and EVERYONE in the harbor who know nothing about the rules of the road? :)

Rule 9 "The REALLY big 'boat' has the right of way all the time"
Click to expand...

Randy,

I don't hate sailboats as I used to participate in the Chicago to Mackinac race and I used to ferry 13 meter sloops back to Chicago for rich people when I was a young man. I do however hate Motorsailors because they don't sail well and don't motor well as they do both.

One thing I do love about sailboats is that when you are in heavy weather and waves, there is a very stable feeling of security you have because of the heavy deep keel and roll stability. In heavy weather I never got that feeling with my fifty foot steel hulled trawler because it was always sweaty arm pits manning the weather helm steering and adjusting power settings in high seas. Kinda like cutting a wrap groove edge on a finished cue, no room for a mistake.

Rick
 
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Yea Baby!

pescadoman said:
Do we also share the hatred of sailboats and EVERYONE in the harbor who know nothing about the rules of the road? :)

Rule 9 "The REALLY big 'boat' has the right of way all the time"
Click to expand...

When I was younger man I was a commercial fishermen out of Gloucester Mass. I have helped/rescued more weekend warriors, also known as summer sailors, than I care to count. Folks that have NO idea what the offshore waters are really like. They are notoriously unprepared, unskilled, and lacking in any form of respect for the ocean. I went overboard 90 miles offshore one winter day just about dusk. When you hit the water with all your heavy winter gear on you sink straight away. Interestingly I did not have time to get scared as I was overly consumed by the mere act of surviving. As I sunk deeper the water pressure became greater and I had to figure out which way was up, (it's dark down there btw) so I let out some air and followed the bubbles to the surface. I went under and back to the surface many times before I bobbed up right on the starboard side of the boat. The whole incident seemed like an eternity but I was only in the water for several minutes. Life expectancy is about 10 minutes in the winter waters off New England. I was pulled from the water by the owner, landed on the icy deck and just laid there in amazement at what had just happened. The waters can be an onforgiving place to play even for the professionals but to go out unprepared like so many do is asking for trouble! I still miss being out there though!!
 
I also am a newer cue builder.

It is hard to say about what you will build and what you cues are as a whole.

For me, I don't like wraps so you will never find a cue that I make with a wrap. I enjoy the grains of woods and can not imagine putting wrap on something. But that is just me. Do what you like, and that is who you are. Stay true to that and you will not be a copy cat.

PS - If you are concerned that you will be a replicator, then don't look at someone else's cues. And not everything has been done, people who say that don't have vision. Enjoy what you do and what you create.
 
Quesports said:
When I was younger man I was a commercial fishermen out of Gloucester Mass. I have helped/rescued more weekend warriors, also known as summer sailors, than I care to count. Folks that have NO idea what the offshore waters are really like. They are notoriously unprepared, unskilled, and lacking in any form of respect for the ocean. I went overboard 90 miles offshore one winter day just about dusk. When you hit the water with all your heavy winter gear on you sink straight away. Interestingly I did not have time to get scared as I was overly consumed by the mere act of surviving. As I sunk deeper the water pressure became greater and I had to figure out which way was up, (it's dark down there btw) so I let out some air and followed the bubbles to the surface. I went under and back to the surface many times before I bobbed up right on the starboard side of the boat. The whole incident seemed like an eternity but I was only in the water for several minutes. Life expectancy is about 10 minutes in the winter waters off New England. I was pulled from the water by the owner, landed on the icy deck and just laid there in amazement at what had just happened. The waters can be an onforgiving place to play even for the professionals but to go out unprepared like so many do is asking for trouble! I still miss being out there though!!
Click to expand...

Wow, great story.

In the winter we called it liquid death and it sounds like you kept your head when things were going to hell. When you panic, all is lost.

Maritime environments can grab you in a moment's notice. You have to be two steps ahead with eyes in the back of your head or you will pay the price. As a marine professional working in those waters you are well aware of that.

Like you, I miss it also. Thanks for sharing that ordeal with a great outcome.

Rick
 
scdiveteam said:
Randy,

I don't hate sailboats as I used to participate in the Chicago to Mackinac race and I used to ferry 13 meter sloops back to Chicago for rich people when I was a young man. I do however hate Motorsailors because they don't sail well and don't motor well as they do both.

One thing I do love about sailboats is that when you are in heavy weather and waves, there is a very stable feeling of security you have because of the heavy deep keel and roll stability. In heavy weather I never got that feeling with my fifty foot steel hulled trawler because it was always sweaty arm pits manning the weather helm steering and adjusting power settings in high seas. Kinda like cutting a wrap groove edge on a finished cue, no room for a mistake.

Rick
Click to expand...

Maybe because I've never sailed... Maybe one too many 4th of July's trying not to kill someone who has been drinking and is driving his boat(think going to an ice rink when you were in school as a kid and trying to avoid getting knocked down or falling),not grasping the laws of physics(like HEAD REACH).

I don't hate them like I did when I first got my ticket, but I have always said anyone who buys a boat and wants to drive it should have some sort of license.
 
scdiveteam said:
Wow, great story.

In the winter we called it liquid death and it sounds like you kept your head when things were going to hell. When you panic, all is lost.

Maritime environments can grab you in a moment's notice. You have to be two steps ahead with eyes in the back of your head or you will pay the price. As a marine professional working in those waters you are well aware of that.

Like you, I miss it also. Thanks for sharing that ordeal with a great outcome.

Rick
Click to expand...

That IS a great story!! We don't have the colder waters on the west coast, but I have always acknowledged falling over would probably mean death. The nightmare of seeing deck lights travel away as you try and tread water is shared by everyone I have talked to about it. I do the night driving and for the most part am the only guy awake. I'll do a "walk around" every half hour to forty-five minutes and I consciously stay a few feet inside the rail when I do. Even with 25 other boats spread out on their way to fish, the chances of being found are very very small.

The only time I've gone in and been in a bit of peril was when I was a deck hand. We were at the dock and it was late. Back then business was much better and we cut 500-1000 fish a day on the way home and sometimes had to scrub after getting tied up. Carbon had built up on the transom and the most effective way to clean it was to move the boat back(we weren't Captains back then and loosened the lines to slide the boat back to the dock that ran behind stern). It was wet that night and windy, with a thick mist that has us drenched(I only wore slicker bottoms at the time). As I untied the spring(a line that stays on the dock at ties to a breast cleat) the boat swung away and I was unable get a line on. Now, we are at the dock and the boat is drifting across the slip. The ONLY thing that enters my mind is that I HAVE to get back on the boat.

I remember CLEARLY how my fingernails felt against the wet transom as they clawed, hopelessly, for grip when I leapt and MISSED the rail. Boots off......up....up. Fortunately for me my good friend and coworker Charles was there to get me out because the damn boat, which I went in the water for, had started astern(I think Charles had managed to get a line on). Well, I was oblivious to what was about to happen to me, but he was not. He YANKED me out just before the 75 footer would have smashed me between it and the dock. That boat, The China Clipper, where I cut my teeth and learned all my bad habits is now the Legend(Seaforth Landing, San Diego).

That was the only time I ever went in on accident. The other times I got thrown in....
 
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