There are some incredible pieces of wood out there available for less than $10 a stick
I have bought a number of really old house / bar cues from the local Brunswick dealer for anywhere from $1.00 to $10.00. They pick them up with old tables and from various other sources. It seems that the warped ones got thrown out years ago and what is left are pretty straight cues, old wood with tight grain and a great old dark coloring similar to recovered lake wood.
I have made numerous jump cues, break cues and jump break cues out of them by installing joint pins and a one piece phenolic ferrule-tip. Not much out there stiffer than a 50 year old bar cue!
They tend to be on the light side once re-tapered but if you use a brass radial pin and mix and match butts and shafts you can get both the weight right & the length right resulting in really cool cues. (e.g. rob Peter to pay Paul and cut a longer shaft & butt for break or sneaky pete cues and shorter shaft and partial butt for jump cues)
Add a nice phenolic linen butt cap & joint collars (deco rings optional) and you have a really cool, highly functional cue with a ton of history. Again, when you start with a cue that has survived since the 1960's you end up with a pretty good hitting finished product. If you make a player, don't scrimp on the ferrule... buy a good Ivorine III or IV ferrule and use a quality tip.
With the dirt cheap cues that are warped, I cut 1-2" pieces out of the center full splice area and make matching joint protectors that show the full splice construction. Truly cool!
Same money but no comparison to Player or other imports
