John Davis : a real class act

Arounceville

Arounceville

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I wanted to thank every one who attended the cue show at Big Dog Billiards (both venders and customers) the show went great and shows a lot of promise to keep growing. I had the pleasure of meeting John Davis and spent the weekend talking and sharing secrets! John and Tim Prince are doing some great work together , full splice construction and jaw dropping inlay work you can't really beat that combination.
John is a real class act and treated my like a friend even though we are direct competitors in a very small market( some case makers could take a lesson from him)
 

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I agree and really glad he's back on the pool scene. Love my Prince/Davis cue.
 
Andrew, I will post here since you didn't get back to any of my pms or voicemails.

Talk to you soon,
Ian
 
John is a great guy.

I visited him at his shop probably 5 years ago and picked up a few blanks.

Ed Young turned one into a cue and Bobby Hunter is making a cue out of the other.

I have a couple of Davis/ Scott Gracio cues, a couple of Davis/Alex Brick cues and one other Davis, cannot remember the cue maker right now.
 
Yep, agree to all above. Not sure how john is not sold out all the time for his blanks. This is as close as you will ever get in being part of history, a frequent supplier of blanks to many of the greats, including Balabushka . He was also a close friend and partner with another HOF cue maker, Burton Spain.

Now partnering up with Prince cues whose reputation for quality and tolerance is second to none. I believe he's a tool and die maker by trade, and gives him a very good perspective on being "balls dead" accurate, as they say :grin:
 
Agree to the fullest

No doubt Mr. Davis is a rare gem! A true gentleman and a
master of his craft. You could search long and hard and not
find anyone that has a bad thing to say about him. Keep up
the great work John! :cool:
 
His forearms are works of art. I don't quite understand why he doesn't make many full cues because every cue maker who made forearms for Balabushka - their cues sell for a ton of money.
 
Well -

I don't want to be the "Debbie Downer" but I saw a forearm that John Davis did here on AZ gallery and was really surprised at how poorly it looked.

As most mentioned, he is a legend and frankly I was expecting perfection, and it was 1000 miles away from perfection.

He may have been "the man" back when Balabushka was making cues, but IMO, there are several cuemakers that their points are much nicer today.

IMO, the forearm should have never left his shop.

Ken
 
Ken_4fun said:
Well -

I don't want to be the "Debbie Downer" but I saw a forearm that John Davis did here on AZ gallery and was really surprised at how poorly it looked.

As most mentioned, he is a legend and frankly I was expecting perfection, and it was 1000 miles away from perfection.

He may have been "the man" back when Balabushka was making cues, but IMO, there are several cuemakers that their points are much nicer today.

IMO, the forearm should have never left his shop.

Ken
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Well I'll say this for Ken, he calls them like he sees them...and I actually find that refreshing.
 
Ken_4fun said:
Well -

I don't want to be the "Debbie Downer" but I saw a forearm that John Davis did here on AZ gallery and was really surprised at how poorly it looked.

As most mentioned, he is a legend and frankly I was expecting perfection, and it was 1000 miles away from perfection.

He may have been "the man" back when Balabushka was making cues, but IMO, there are several cuemakers that their points are much nicer today.

IMO, the forearm should have never left his shop.

Ken
Click to expand...

I think such a statement should come with some explanation and qualification.

John Davis build blanks. Is that which you refer a finished cue or problems with the blank? I would be interested in knowing what the defect is/was and a link to the post as well.

If the problem was due to the cuemaker's work, the maker of the blank can't e held accountable for that. Unfortunately, there are people who are not cuemakers buying John Davis blanks and working them into cues.

Please post your information.

Thanks,
 
Type79 said:
I think such a statement should come with some explanation and qualification.

John Davis build blanks. Is that which you refer a finished cue or problems with the blank? I would be interested in knowing what the defect is/was and a link to the post as well.

If the problem was due to the cuemaker's work, the maker of the blank can't e held accountable for that. Unfortunately, there are people who are not cuemakers buying John Davis blanks and working them into cues.

Please post your information.

Thanks,
Click to expand...


Exactly. John didn't suddenly forget how to build blanks, and he would not be in such high demand by cue makers if they were not great. What happens after it leaves his shop cannot be blamed on him. I don't recall a cuemaker, and they would know, say that ever got a bad blank.
 
Exactly! Certainly some blanks are better than others but to blame the blank maker for a botched cue build out is flat out false. The fact is not all cuemakers know how to work up a blank to keep points even. John's blanks are better than ever right now.


Type79 said:
I think such a statement should come with some explanation and qualification.

John Davis build blanks. Is that which you refer a finished cue or problems with the blank? I would be interested in knowing what the defect is/was and a link to the post as well.

If the problem was due to the cuemaker's work, the maker of the blank can't e held accountable for that. Unfortunately, there are people who are not cuemakers buying John Davis blanks and working them into cues.

Please post your information.

Thanks,
Click to expand...
 
Ken_4fun said:
Well -

I don't want to be the "Debbie Downer" but I saw a forearm that John Davis did here on AZ gallery and was really surprised at how poorly it looked.

As most mentioned, he is a legend and frankly I was expecting perfection, and it was 1000 miles away from perfection.

He may have been "the man" back when Balabushka was making cues, but IMO, there are several cuemakers that their points are much nicer today.

IMO, the forearm should have never left his shop.

Ken
Click to expand...

For the people wondering, I am fairly certain Ken is referring to this cue:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=399753

And I do agree with Ken. However, this might not be John's fault. Wood
tends to move, and this blank could've been perfect when John was finished
with it (oversized). This gap in the veneer might not have showed itself
until the final turn. I am certain John would have happily remade the blank
if he was asked to. I have a Davis blank finished by Tim Prince that came
out very beautiful. If I had to complain it would be about some glue lines
in the return points, but this blank in particular is made of a unique high
figure burl wood, and I was told that he had to be super careful so as not
to split the irreplaceable piece of burl. There are only a handful of people
I would trust with making a blank, John Davis is at the top of the heap
regardless of this one less-than-perfect instance that popped up on AZ.
 
Type79 said:
I think such a statement should come with some explanation and qualification.

John Davis build blanks. Is that which you refer a finished cue or problems with the blank? I would be interested in knowing what the defect is/was and a link to the post as well.

If the problem was due to the cuemaker's work, the maker of the blank can't e held accountable for that. Unfortunately, there are people who are not cuemakers buying John Davis blanks and working them into cues.

Please post your information.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

Jay -

I wouldn't have posted the picture of the cue I was referring to, but my friend Josh did post a link of the cue I was referring to with my statements.

The problem was with the blank, not the cuemaker completing the cue. It was of poor quality.

Frankly, I would have refused the blank, prior to sending it to a cuemaker to complete it. I also blame the cuemaker that finished the cue, if the customer had the blank shipped directly to the finishing cuemaker and he didn't get a chance to review it before he started.

Secondly, the cuemaker that did finish it, should have told the customer that this blank is poor quality and advised him to return it to John Davis.

These are my opinions, and your mileage may vary.

Ken
 
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