Please Vote for the AZB 2011 Cue of the Year

[cueman]

Can someone please tell me what makes the Gracio 360 Tribute so special????? Im new to cue collecting and just wondering. Thanks

His choice of wood combinations and the difficulty of execution is what makes it special. It is made as a tribute to one of the most famous line of cues from many decades ago; The Brunswick 360. There are many fancier cues in the contest, but his is not something we have seen in a while so that is the main thing that made it special, and the voters sure seem to like it. The cue I presented took a long time to build and had over 700 inlays in it and it only got a handful of votes. But Celtic knot work has already been done enough that it is no longer as new and interesting as something that has not been seen much, like Scotts design. My hat is off to Scott for his work on this cue, as it is gorgeous.

 

[LGSM3]

Can someone please tell me what makes the Gracio 360 Tribute so special????? Im new to cue collecting and just wondering. Thanks

compile a list of every cuemaker you can find on the planet, starting with the very best, then begin to call them to see if they can build one. You will find out rather quickly why its so special.

 

[SeanC]

+1 for Kenny Koo's Hercek

 

[CueCaps]

The cue I presented took a long time to build and had over 700 inlays in it and it only got a handful of votes. But Celtic knot work has already been done enough that it is no longer as new and interesting as something that has not been seen much, like Scotts design. My hat is off to Scott for his work on this cue, as it is gorgeous.

Chris,
Your Celtic Knot Cue is a great contender, just as ALL THE CUES LISTED..
They ALL are, the "Best" of the year 2011... AND, All are winners..

Too bad, That,
Just so happens, The title is " Cue of the Year"...
So, only one winner here, but, in reality, All you Cuemakers are winners!!!!
Congrats and Thanks for a year full of your talents and contributions..
You are all appreciated by us,
The Az Famliy of cue lovers

If the world survives to December 21, 2012, we will be seeing many breathtaking cues.
The talent and motivation of you cuemakers will bring out a lot of Winners..

 

[cueman]

Chris,
Your Celtic Knot Cue is a great contender, just as ALL THE CUES LISTED..
They ALL are, the "Best" of the year 2011... AND, All are winners..

Too bad, That,
Just so happens, The title is " Cue of the Year"...
So, only one winner here, but, in reality, All you Cuemakers are winners!!!!
Congrats and Thanks for a year full of your talents and contributions..
You are all appreciated by us,
The Az Famliy of cue lovers

If the world survives to December 21, 2012, we will be seeing many breathtaking cues.
The talent and motivation of you cuemakers will bring out a lot of Winners..

I'm a Cake Decorator... , I voted for Paul Jr. Designs... "

I wondered if anyone else would know where he got that last line from. I thought Paul Jr's bike beat Jessie's also. We are all cake decorators to some degree. Some of us just do more of the recipe from scratch than others. The least attractive part of our Celtic cue was the center piece and yet it was by far the hardest to excecute. The silver was inlaid in deep and had to be hand fit to curve around the cue. I saw all four axis' moving at the same time when cutting those pockets, so my son is convinced he used true four axis work on the silver. Then he hand cut and filed each silver part to fit by hand. All the other silver was hand cut to fit each pocket. So CNC does not do it all for someone like many think. Of course you know this with the awesome joint caps you make.

 

[scdiveteam]

His choice of wood combinations and the difficulty of execution is what makes it special. It is made as a tribute to one of the most famous line of cues from many decades ago; The Brunswick 360. There are many fancier cues in the contest, but his is not something we have seen in a while so that is the main thing that made it special, and the voters sure seem to like it. The cue I presented took a long time to build and had over 700 inlays in it and it only got a handful of votes. But Celtic knot work has already been done enough that it is no longer as new and interesting as something that has not been seen much, like Scotts design. My hat is off to Scott for his work on this cue, as it is gorgeous.

Chris,

I think the Celtic Knot cue is amazing and 700 inlays is crazy.

I only have one question for you. Where do you get the time to accomplish all you do with all of your interests and commitments you have to all of your customers and still find the time to execute something like this in your spare time. I am building a big cue right now that only has 160 inlays and the time commitment is crazy. It is a time bandit.

My guess is that you are an alien from another planet that does not require any sleep.:killingme:

JMO,

Rick

 

[cueman]

Chris,

I think the Celtic Knot cue is amazing and 700 inlays is crazy.

I only have one question for you. Where do you get the time to accomplish all you do with all of your interests and commitments you have to all of your customers and still find the time to execute something like this in your spare time. I am building a big cue right now that only has 160 inlays and the time commitment is crazy. It is a time bandit.

My guess is that you are an alien from another planet that does not require any sleep.:killingme:

JMO,

Rick

You will notice I only build a handful of mid-range to highend cues a year as that is all I have time for. My son does most of the inlay work and we about split the rest of the cue making. He has put over 200 hours in a single cue before and this one just about got there also. He does make some lower end cues, but most of them get sold locally. I do the leather wraps and any V-points, butterflies or veneer work as those things bore him.

 

[snowmon34]

Congratulations to all the cue builders....This a special group of cues...:thumbup:

Could somebody post a link to last years showing...Thank you in advance..

 

[HIRUN526]

I think this is a wonderful display of old school to new school and everything in between in cues.

I had a very difficult time trying to decide which one to vote for....I narrowed it down to about 8 and then to 5, then to 3 and then to 1.

Congratulations to all of the cuemakers that are displayed in this cue poll...I think they all are excellent representations of every cuemakers work.

The cue fanatics have spoken!!

Ps. Cuemakers please keep up the good work and let's even step it up a notch in 2012!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sealegs50]

Hard to believe that someone could fix 71 of 385 votes in a forum like this. If someone has that level of skills influencing an election, I am sure one of the weaker Republican campaigns would appreciate some help before the caucus next week.

I can understand how much a high end collector would appreciate owning a Cue of the Year. But this is a popular vote with no requirements for registration.

Congratulations to the cue makers and the cue owners. Beautiful stuff.

I voted twice this year. Once in this poll and once with my dollars for a cue that wasn't included in this list. I am very happy with both votes.

 

[Worminator]

I have said nothing bad about anyone's cue. Only compliments and facts.

The fact is Nick, you have provided no facts... not one. The only things you have provided are your opinion (which you 100% entitled to), speculation, accusations, and lies.

I do not appreciate being accused of rigging or manipulating this poll in the least bit. You owe me an apology for even suggesting it.

To everyone else, I apologize for where this thread has taken us. I posted it to show off some amazing cues, and have a little fun with the voting. I'm sorry some people can not see it that way. But I will not remain silent when someone accuses me of manipulating the vote or calling it BS.

As I stated earlier, I have never owned or sold a Gracio cue. I have never talked to Scott and do not know him. I do not own any of the cues in the poll and the outcome of the vote does not matter to me. It was all in good fun... too bad someone had to ruin it.

Sincerely,
Jamie Wernsman

 

[cueman]

What many arguing here have failed to realize is that people have very varying taste. The race has come down to two opposite designs. One is really old school done well (Gracio's 360) and the other is very intricate inlays (Black Boar).
Now let's forget those two cues for a minute as those would both be the monsters of their classes. But there are some other pretty simple cues in the contest and yet they have more votes than many of the other fancier cues. So we seem to have a few groups of people voting here, those who like simple old school designs, those who like intricate and fancy designs and those who vote for a name.
It is like politics. I can't for the life of me understand how some canidates could ever get a vote, yet they get millions of votes and others can't even get on the ballot. We are indeed a very varied group with very varied tastes.

 

[scdiveteam]

What many arguing here have failed to realize is that people have very varying taste. We are indeed a very varied group with very varied tastes.

Hi,

Tap.

Cue Making is indeed an art and everyone who participates in it reveals a snapshot of where their talents and focus lies with each a every cue they build. That is a constant that no one can dispute. After the item is finished and then judged by a variety of people with different tastes, herein lies the critical mass for opinions.

Every cue here as well as every cue built this year has the same basis for revealing that snapshot in time for all to judge. What's more, every new cue maker that built their first cue this year has created his own art and should be proud of their effort, good or bad. Development and lessons learned from experience is the best teacher and is a milestone or notch on the belt.

We as cue makers are all traveling down the road of development. Some are doing it haphazardly, some with a plan, some with artistic genius and some with very hard work. Then there is Ernie who is traveling in Hyperspace on an intergalactic road.

Whatever the case you got to ask yourself one thing, are you having fun and enjoying what you are doing with this time that is being invested in cue building.

If you are having fun and enjoying your life's path, opinions about who likes one thing over who likes another style vs. cnc and old school become moot.

Cues are things that bring joy to people who own them to play with or collect them as an interest. What is cooler than that!:clapping:

BTW, Jamie should put out a poll for cue makers to show the "Ugliest Duckling Tomato Stake Cue" or mistakes from the closet of buried memories. Now that might be a poll I could win!!:idea2:

JMO,

Rick Geschrey

 

[Mr Hoppe]

My favorite cue in the line-up is the Gracio Brunswick 360 tribute. I am not treating this poll as a popularity contest, and I recognise that Scott was not the "artist" who created the design, but he certainly was the "craftsman" who executed the design to a superior level. It's nice to see such public support and praise for a vintage design, and I'm glad that Scott refrained from adding un-needed embleshments.

Classic design, very challenging build, and exceptionally well done!

 

[DBK]

I think 360-th one of the most interesting cue in the history of billiards. And Gracio "Brunswick 360 tribute" is great example of this vintage design with a modern edge. A little of inlays. and a lot of the cue. Bravo Gracio!

 

[paulybatz]

Rackrunner

Hi Rackrunner, can you start a thread and post pics of your Searing please!
I remember Dennis talking about that cue, at least I think it was that one.

 

[paulybatz]

It is...

What many arguing here have failed to realize is that people have very varying taste. The race has come down to two opposite designs. One is really old school done well (Gracio's 360) and the other is very intricate inlays (Black Boar).
Now let's forget those two cues for a minute as those would both be the monsters of their classes. But there are some other pretty simple cues in the contest and yet they have more votes than many of the other fancier cues. So we seem to have a few groups of people voting here, those who like simple old school designs, those who like intricate and fancy designs and those who vote for a name.
It is like politics. I can't for the life of me understand how some canidates could ever get a vote, yet they get millions of votes and others can't even get on the ballot. We are indeed a very varied group with very varied tastes.

...it is also about who is the flavor of the month...I dont know, I think they should play as good as they look in my opinion too...AND even that is subjective...I like a stiff DPK/SW/Sugartree style hit and others like more flex in their taper

 

[cueman]

If there were no names attached to the cues I think the Gracio 360 and Black Boar would still be the two leaders. But I think another top five cue probably would not have gotten many votes at all. It is solely riding on the name and not the design. Looking at difficulty to build and hours put in, I would put mine near the top quarter, but it is near the bottom in vote. Another maker only has one vote at the time of this post and his cue is much nicer looking and harder to execute than one of the top five. So Nick is right on some of his points about a popularity contest, but is wrong when it comes to knocking the 360. Scott is not as well known as most of the other cuemakers and yet his design is winning. But other cues are riding on the name and not the execution. But they are not winning, so it does not matter anyway.
But seeing simple cues doing so well makes me wish I had had put the bottom cue on this link in the contest.
http://www.hightowercues.com/index.php?page=cues17

 

[cornerstone]

where did richard black or rick chudy or arthurcue place on this list? of the finest artist out there? Like rockola
http://www.cornerstonecues.com/cue508.htm

 

[Worminator]

where did richard black or rick chudy or arthurcue place on this list? of the finest artist out there? Like rockola
http://www.cornerstonecues.com/cue508.htm

Bill.

There were no entries posted in the original thread for any of those cuemakers. As for Rockola, I do not believe that cue was made in 2011, therefore it would not be eligible.