Recent content by qbilder

And smelling like strippers:love:

Unlike many plastics we use in cue making that are borrowed from other industries & given a new name, I believe Juma is uniquely its own. Only one manufacturer and they only call it Juma.

Yes. It won't be as strong as a proper fit but will be stronger than you think, likely plenty strong to use.....so long as it's for your own use and not a customer.

Ha! I should have known it was a desk. For some reason it didn't even cross my mind, even though it's obvious now that you mention it. I was thinking it was a strange shaped box for jewelry or something. Will be sharp when completed. Good luck healing!

That is a beautiful box. Nicely done.

That's 100% true. Regardless of how the log is milled, it'll still have the same growth ring run-off, mineral spots, sugar lines, and knots. The wood is static. What makes the difference is milling it for stability vs. milling it for speed efficiency. If every board is removed parallel to bark...

Looks like big leaf maple burl.

Therein lies the rub. Who's cutting specifically for cues? Who takes the time to mill the lumber parallel to bark in order to ensure the long grain fiber runs straight with no offset? Flat/plain sawing creates inherently offset grain fibers. Quarter sawing when the pith is centered will halve...

It bothers me very little. What matters to me is what I put on my cues, not what you put on yours. If someone puts junk shafts on a cue & gets good money for it, then good luck to them for sustaining a reputation that allows them to continue getting good money for their cues. They'll pay the...

FWIW I have not seen any significant relationship between lumber grading and shaft grading. Totally different approaches & criteria. The closest lumber grade to what we prefer for shafts is veneer, and even then it is barely in the ballpark. Tangential grain is almost never considered in lumber...

Like Chris said, nothing you can do about the cocobolo. As for finish, it's very much an individual thing. It sounds like you have a solid basis to start from but almost certainly you'll develop your own methods. Finish is one of the toughest & most frustrating aspects to learn, so don't be...

On the rarity that I do get a specific balance request, it pretty much always falls into range, anyway. We're talking less than a 1" long stretch of cue where it can teeter between rear & forward balance. Anything beyond the borders of that inch increasingly become unwieldy. When somebody asks...

Balance is a soapbox topic for me. It's so critical to how a player perceives the cue. Too front heavy & it feels like you're pushing it. Too back heavy & you're pulling it. It's very much akin to wheel caster. Negative caster, like rear balance cues, makes steering very difficult to control and...

That's the way all of mine are. They stand on end in a bucket with a rubber band holding matched pairs together. No hanging, no sealing, no special treatment of any kind, just raw wood at finish size. When I choose a set for a cue I do the joint work, rings, finish, then ferrule/tip & sand/polish.

That's how I do it, pretty much exactly. It's a good time to choose the shafts, too. IMO shafts shouldn't be an afterthought, something you add when the cue is done. But that's a topic for another day. That is a tricky feat for sure. I wouldn't be worried about getting everything center and...