Original pool cues- the mace
- Thread starter MichaelR
- Start date
When they finally brought the game indoors they played it on a table during winter months.
To keep the balls on the table they put "banks" up to keep them from falling off that is why we "bank" balls today.
And of course they put green cloth on it to resemble grass.
Maces were still used by women even after the proper pool cue was invented because with a mace a women could stand upright,it was considered a no no for women to bend over a table back then,but we all enjoy it today.
Somebody used to have a picture of a mace head as their avatar, hopefully somebody else remembers who! It had dark wood with a light laminated strip in the middle for an aim line best I recall. I think it would be fun to drag a mace out of the case when you are all jammed up on a shot. I would have built a short one already if not for the minimum length rules. I think the mace mostly dates from when pool was played on the ground. Ladies being forced to play upright is an interesting tidbit, I don't recall ever giving that any thought.
Hu
Hu
It could have been both. Lots of things are done because of several good reasons, not just one.
timothysklugh
New member
I always enjoyed pool when I was younger, but when I learned that there were different billiard games played around the world, I became very interested in knowing more. And then I learned that billiards had a very old and colorful history, and I became ecstatic about learning everything I could. I was fascinated by all the different games, and I marveled at the progression of billiards from the lawn game to the table games. I wanted to play any billiard game that was around at any point in history, but finding a billiard mace or any other antique implement would be rare and too costly to acquire. So, I tried instead for making reproductions of these implements, based on the old illustrations and what photo images were available on the Internet. These implements may not be perfect reproductions, but I do believe they are just as usable.
BILLIARD MACES
Here are the billiard mace reproductions:
PORT AND KING
One of the games of antiquity that I wanted to play in particular was the game called Port and King. Here are my reproductions of the port, billiard mace, and king implements of that game. I felt a carom ball would be the closest matching size to the ball shown in the historic illustrations of the game.
LAWN BILLIARDS
Being that Port and King was the title of the table version of the game, I wanted to play the lawn billiard game that Port and King had come from, a game from the 14th Century called Trucco, Trucks, Troco or Lawn Billiards. I made the mallets (or tacks) and the pin (or sprigg or king) based on the old illustrations of the game. A difference is that my pin reproduction is a bit fancier than the one shown in the illustrations, but I thought the height and width was comparable. I have not made a proper ring (or argolis or port) at this time. I used antique croquet balls for the balls of the game because the ball of the old game was described as large and heavy. I could not accurately determine the angle that the head of the mallet had from the shaft, so on each mallet, I chose different angles that seemed close to what I saw in the illustration.
Just thought I would share these pictures since the thread was about the billiard mace.
BILLIARD MACES
Here are the billiard mace reproductions:
PORT AND KING
One of the games of antiquity that I wanted to play in particular was the game called Port and King. Here are my reproductions of the port, billiard mace, and king implements of that game. I felt a carom ball would be the closest matching size to the ball shown in the historic illustrations of the game.
LAWN BILLIARDS
Being that Port and King was the title of the table version of the game, I wanted to play the lawn billiard game that Port and King had come from, a game from the 14th Century called Trucco, Trucks, Troco or Lawn Billiards. I made the mallets (or tacks) and the pin (or sprigg or king) based on the old illustrations of the game. A difference is that my pin reproduction is a bit fancier than the one shown in the illustrations, but I thought the height and width was comparable. I have not made a proper ring (or argolis or port) at this time. I used antique croquet balls for the balls of the game because the ball of the old game was described as large and heavy. I could not accurately determine the angle that the head of the mallet had from the shaft, so on each mallet, I chose different angles that seemed close to what I saw in the illustration.
Just thought I would share these pictures since the thread was about the billiard mace.
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i can hardly wait untill JustNumbNuts comments on this thread.
Didn’t you buy a brand new mace?
J/K
Your friend
Fatboy
I only bust balls of people I really like and respect
baalpeteor
Member
I'd love to purchase an original and use it to hustle people out of their hard-earned paychecks at the bar, while they use whatever they have.
Is anyone here into woodworking and has made any? If not I plan to reach out to a local University woodshop class.
Is anyone here into woodworking and has made any? If not I plan to reach out to a local University woodshop class.
The guy in post #9 shows a bunch he has made. He hasn't logged in in a few months though.