question for veteran cuemakers on az.

[mrkdenton]

i have a question to veteran cue makers, how you got your name out there and how to get your guys cues sold i just completed 25 cues this month the name of my cues are " blackhawk cues "
7 are duffern and bar conversions and 17 are full splice blanks 4 veneer 4 pointers and im slowly trying to put them on here and facebook and im looking for advice please cause i have 25 original cues coming out next month and each month thereafter with points and veneers and inlays done by me and some merry widows also any help wpould be greatly appreciated thanks

 

[JC]

Make cues that play well. Give them away at first if you have to (so to speak). Eventually what you create will speak for itself one way or another.

Pay close attention to the 95th through 100th percent of the details. This is the area that separates cue makers from one another.

Decide what you want your cues to be. Who you want to own them. What do you enjoy building. Then build those cues..

Find a dealer to market your cues for you. You can build a couple of extra cues in the time of exchanging e mails and phone calls with one fussy buyer. With the volume you are building marketing them yourself will wear you out.

Accept that all your creations won't be a hit. Some you will barely be able to give away. That's what friends and relatives are for.

Check your ego at the door. Everyone won't like your cues and some will let you know. And when they do ask yourself do they have valid points. These will not be Blackhawk Cue owners. There are millions of pool players in the world.

Never stop thinking of ways to do the little things better. Maybe it's all been done already and maybe not. Try new things even if you're satisfied with your cues already. If your pins have .002 runout try to make them have .001.

Don't be afraid to cut up a cue into small pieces and honestly evaluate what you see inside. This can teach you a lot.

These are some of my observations from my relatively short time in this game.

Would love to see some of your cues. Do you have a website? If not, get one.

 

[HawaiianEye]

Accept that all your creations won't be a hit. Some you will barely be able to give away. That's what friends and relatives are for.

I want to be your friend.

We already share the same initials and birthday.

I will take all your creations that aren’t considered ”hits”.

 

[mrkdenton]

hawaiineye lol ok sounds like a plan buddy

 

[mrkdenton]

Make cues that play well. Give them away at first if you have to (so to speak). Eventually what you create will speak for itself one way or another.

Pay close attention to the 95th through 100th percent of the details. This is the area that separates cue makers from one another.

Decide what you want your cues to be. Who you want to own them. What do you enjoy building. Then build those cues..

Find a dealer to market your cues for you. You can build a couple of extra cues in the time of exchanging e mails and phone calls with one fussy buyer. With the volume you are building marketing them yourself will wear you out.

Accept that all your creations won't be a hit. Some you will barely be able to give away. That's what friends and relatives are for.

Check your ego at the door. Everyone won't like your cues and some will let you know. And when they do ask yourself do they have valid points. These will not be Blackhawk Cue owners. There are millions of pool players in the world.

Never stop thinking of ways to do the little things better. Maybe it's all been done already and maybe not. Try new things even if you're satisfied with your cues already. If your pins have .002 runout try to make them have .001.

Don't be afraid to cut up a cue into small pieces and honestly evaluate what you see inside. This can teach you a lot.

These are some of my observations from my relatively short time in this game.

Would love to see some of your cues. Do you have a website? If not, get one.

jc thanks for taking the time to generously give me your vast insite. im sure you had better things you could of been doing
and to take the time on christmas to resond to my post speaks volumes to you sir and your character
and i really appreciate you you really make some great points im sure alot of us on here can use to help us all
i dont have a website at this time im gonna try to get one soon i can try to post pics on here
this first was all conversions from bar cues and fullspice blanks another cue maker built like 20 plus years ago and had stored in a box
i am starting the next batch of 25 all from scratch
so cues will be different with doing all work from scratch so i will be taking pics of the progress of them and post
thanks again jc

 

[Kim Bye]

Are you pumping out 25 cues each month? If so do you have a team of cue makers working for you? If your making 25/month yourself, your definitely rushing it. Building a name and customer base takes time. Your best selling point is quality over quantity.

 

[mrkdenton]

Are you pumping out 25 cues each month? If so do you have a team of cue makers working for you? If your making 25/month yourself, your definitely rushing it. Building a name and customer base takes time. Your best selling point is quality over quantity.

just me and my friend who is a great cue maker also. and a guy who helps me in my construction business he cuts parts and runs taper machine sometimes every blue moon
i totally appreciate your advice about quality i build houses for a living also with me doing all phases of construction and my attention to detail comes with the territory lol but you are totally right quality is key
i bought a complete cue shop where each step is set up at different stations i have 9 lathes and a cnc and a bridgeport mill we built the veneer jig and point squaring jig and i have a lathe set up to only cut rings and a wrap only lathe a shaft cutting table saw cutting machine a big clausing 5914 lathe to do all my super accurate thing like boring holes for pin installs and threading my a joint and ferrules and butt caps etc i have a lathe for only cutting tenons on my shafts at ferrule and joint i have 2 full size logan lathes 1 for straight doing rounds from square and for making down to size for making my ring billets and a full size logan lathe to do my butt tapering it all is set up super accurate oh amd i built a 3 head sprasy booth under ground i have like a old coal room at my house with a 18 inch round metal pipe coming out of the ground we installed my exhaus tfan attatched to it and built the 3 cue set up out of mdf and plywood and i have a commercial uv light and its attatched to my spray booth and it rolls across the booth and cures cues in seconds its awesome

 

[mrkdenton]

here are some pics of spray booth friend and i did all concrete wall and its 6 feet underground and outside my foundation in my yard access thru my basement to get into the old coal shute

 

[mrkdenton]

more pics

 

[mrkdenton]

here is only portion of the shop

 

[mrkdenton]

few more pics

 

[mrkdenton]

some more shop pics hope u guys like

 

[cueman]

i have a question to veteran cue makers, how you got your name out there and how to get your guys cues sold i just completed 25 cues this month the name of my cues are " blackhawk cues "
7 are duffern and bar conversions and 17 are full splice blanks 4 veneer 4 pointers and im slowly trying to put them on here and facebook and im looking for advice please cause i have 25 original cues coming out next month and each month thereafter with points and veneers and inlays done by me and some merry widows also any help wpould be greatly appreciated thanks

There is another cuemaker who has been building cues as Blackhawk Custom Cues for many years now. I really like your shop set up. Other than almost giving them away on eBay I have no idea how to sell that many cues a month.

 

[Terry Aeschliman]

I am not a cuemaker but a cue retailer. I have a 14 table pool room in Central Indiana. I currently have a 100 cue inventory (retail). I would be willing to take some of your cues on consignment. Contact me thru email: fishermanoicur12@aol.com

Terry Aeschliman Galveston Indiana 765 434 5131

 

[mrkdenton]

I am not a cuemaker but a cue retailer. I have a 14 table pool room in Central Indiana. I currently have a 100 cue inventory (retail). I would be willing to take some of your cues on consignment. Contact me thru email: fishermanoicur12@aol.com

Terry Aeschliman Galveston Indiana 765 434 5131

thank you i appreciate that i will most lokely contact you this week after holidays

 

[mrkdenton]

There is another cuemaker who has been building cues as Blackhawk Custom Cues for many years now. I really like your shop set up. Other than almost giving them away on eBay I have no idea how to sell that many cues a month

i appreciate u letting me know

 

[Kim Bye]

Looks like an impressive shop, but I still think you will have problems unloading 25 cues/month. 300 cues/year, unless you go for the sub $150 market and make eBay your main platform. If your goal is to be in this for the long haul, smaller batches, more unique cues will probably give you a better margin and more time to get things perfect. There is other problems that come with larger production, like maintaining enough stock and making sure all your woods meets your quality standards. I don't think you'll be able to sell 300 cues on the private market each year without a healthy dose of luck and a big marketing budget. I don't know what numbers some of the respected American brands like Joss, Jacoby and Schon do, but it sounds to me that you should look closer into their way of doing business if you want to do hundreds of cues each year.
My personal ambition is to do 4 batches of 3 - 5 cues a year. I'm a one man shop and if I can manage between 10-20 cues a year + repairs, and shaft orders I'm very happy and can't really see how I'll be able to fit in more work and still maintain the quality level I'm comfortable with.

 

[cueman]

i did a pretty extensive search no cue company named blackhawk cues execpt mine lol you might be thinking of nighthawk cues
thanks for the advice about ebay i appreciate it

Stan Hawkins has been building cues as Black Hawk Cues for many years. I just did a quick search and found an AZ forum thread from 2010 listing him.

 

[mrkdenton]

it appears stan hawkins launched in november 2014 "black hawk creations " cause he specialized in making jewerly and makes a few cues and they were not called black hawk cues either luckily his company is not named black hawk cues either lol thanks for the heads up i really appreciate that cueman

 

[Newsheriffintwn]

Looks like you have been bitten hard by the cue bug..lol

There really is only two ways to go with cue making....retail sales (directly to customers) or wholesale (you have distributors)

All major cue makers that have been mentioned MCDermott, Schon, Etc.....IMO probably do 85 percent of their business through wholesale and a fraction retail.

The biggest hurdle you will have is consistent quality and what sets your cues apart from everyone else's.

Rather than cranking out a high volume I would focus on quality unique designs at start up. Probably wise to come up with a catalogue or a set series of cues to start out with.

Building cues is one thing and actually selling them another. GL with your new venture.