The elusive Balabushka gold glitter wedding band ribbon rings

JoshStodola

My stroke is garbage
Silver Member
Alright folks, we need to get to the bottom of this. We all know this is the unicorn. The holy mystery of ring
work. George Balabushka's infamous gold glitter rings. Wedding band rings. Gold ribbon rings. Foily crap.
Whatever clever name you can come up with next.

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I have spent some time trying to hunt this material down lately, with no luck. Apparently I am not alone. Pete
Tascarella told me he has been looking forty years. We have seen a few imitations, most notably the epoxied ribbon
used in some Adams balabushka (made in Japan) limited edition tributes:

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Note: these imitations are no longer made, for whatever reason. The Adams tributes now have a cheaper looking
acrylic material.

There are a couple stories floating around of its origin. One, George bought the material at a plumbing supply
store. It was used in faucets and/or as a decoration to plumbing fixtures. This seems to be the most plausible
answer, and I even showed pics of the ringwork to my grandfather who was a plumber 40+ years ago, and he said the
material looked familiar and he remembers similar-looking "sticks" with plastic on the inside, he thought the
metal part is probably brass. The other thing I have heard is that it was used as a decoration for certain musical
instruments, such as an accordion.

Somebody has the answer! Pete Tascarella told me the following facts about the rings, and he has probably seen
more of them than anybody else so I think he would be the most qualified for this type of info:

  • Ring is made of three parts
  • The bottom is a slightly flexible canvas backing
  • The middle is the twisted/colored foil material
  • The top is sealed with a clear coating (possibly acrylic)
  • The foily part is prismatic, meaning it changes color as the light hits it at different angles (gold/red/green)


I have seen similar-looking things, from olive oil bottle caps to garden hose couplers. But I have no idea how one
could finagle such a thing into a pool cue.

I hope that in this thread we can collectively figure this out! Thanks :cool:
 

cueaddicts

AzB Gold Member
Silver Member
From what I've heard he was a pretty secretive maker. If guys like Pete T and Bill Schick don't know, it may be just sheer luck uncovering this answer. I know a few cue aficionados who have been searching for a few decades and it's managed to elude them. This is probably the most interesting secret in cue history....lol.
 
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classiccues

Don't hashtag your broke friends
Silver Member
The gold glitter band is different from the red/gold/green.

JV
 

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LGSM3

Jake<built cues for fun
Silver Member
I've also looked everywhere on the planet Without luck. Have found some cool other stuff though
 
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Cut one in half and lets find out :D

Lookings like a brass ring thats been knurled with a straight pattern instead of a diamond.
 

JoshStodola

My stroke is garbage
Silver Member
The gold glitter band is different from the red/gold/green.

Thank you for providing this pic and info!

There are two words I forgot to include in my post. I think they're relevant:

Grosgrain (type of ribbed fabric)
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Corrugated (English adjective: shaped into alternate ridges and grooves)
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sileighty_guru

5A Grade Wood Pecker
Silver Member
Just my .02

As I have not been around the business nearly long enough to know the answer..... however I am pretty good with "jerry rigging" ;)

Could this have been accomplished with a type of die... hard to explain my thoughts but I will try..

Steady the butt in the lathe, have whatever gold foil decoration in flat form (like a ribbon)... put a round die looking similar to the hose adapter in the above post (obviously not as big), with a center bearing so that it rolls with the rotation of the cue. Move the die up to the cue and then continue until it "presses" the foil into the underlying material then rotate the cue by hand until you have gone completely around, remove the extra ribbon and you should be left with die pressed designs? Again you may laugh at me but this is just my .02 ;)
 

cueman

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
That bottom one looks like it was cut out of some kind of Christmas decoration. Another possibility would be the trophy industry may have had something like that at one time.
 

rhinobywilhite

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
wedding ring bands

Josh,Do you know the approximate width of the gold band and also the width of the 3 colored one in one of the photos?
 

JoshStodola

My stroke is garbage
Silver Member
Josh,Do you know the approximate width of the gold band and also the width of the 3 colored one in one of the photos?

The gold bands are about .030 thick overall, per Pete Tascarella
I have no idea about the colored ones, this is the first I've seen them
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The gold bands are about .030 thick overall, per Pete Tascarella
I have no idea about the colored ones, this is the first I've seen them

This must be an error, they look a lot thicker than .030, maybe .30". If you knew how thick the rings were, I would bet you find a knurling tool that would be about the same size.

Also on the rings, what does the surface feel like? Can the ridges be felt, or are they filled with finish? What does it look like under a microscope?

From the pictures on here there is definitely a pattern in the rings.

Aloha
 

JoshStodola

My stroke is garbage
Silver Member
This must be an error, they look a lot thicker than .030, maybe .30". If you knew how thick the rings were, I would bet you find a knurling tool that would be about the same size.

Also on the rings, what does the surface feel like? Can the ridges be felt, or are they filled with finish? What does it look like under a microscope?

From the pictures on here there is definitely a pattern in the rings.

Aloha

Yes I think Pete was referring to the thickness of the black "backing" material.
One gold glitter band in particular was defined in a Tasc COA as 1/4" thick
Sorry for the confusion
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Correct me if I am wrong on this one, but I have some ideas you may not have tried as of yet.

George used only full splice blanks?

If so then the only way to get the ring patten before the wrap would be with the use of a knurling tool.

The lure makers use a lot of different resins, epoxies that can be colored. They have been doing it for years, goes back a long way. If the spot for the ring was cut out/recessed and filled in with one color of epoxy/resin that had the upper color in it and let dry.

Sand down to size, and use a thin, straight knurling tool on the epoxy area. This would leave the top color on the cue with the knurling deeper.

Then just fill the knurling slots with the second color and sand down to size. This would not be that hard and the rings could be made out of any color.

I don't have access to my lathes at this time, if I did I could make a video of what I am trying to discuss here. But I think this would be very easy to do with the right knurling tool.

Let me know what you think.

Aloha
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess the rings could also be made off the cue and split, allowing them to be put on above the wrap. The knurling could also be used to hide the gap/ glue line in the ring.

I have access to all sorts of different resins, colors over here. There are a lot of people that make there own lures.

Would have to run some tests on some house cues to see if this works.

Aloha
 

rhinobywilhite

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
w.b. bands

Josh, I was referring to the width of the band along the cue length.

There is a recurring pattern of 4 diagonal lines that cut across the black vertical lines
 

classiccues

Don't hashtag your broke friends
Silver Member
George used short and full splice blanks. I have yet to see an x-ray of a full splice with an a-joint trim ring. If there is a ring above the wrap, it has always been in a shortie.

JV
 

Albatross Cues

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
From the close up pictures of the red and green ring. It looks like there is a split in the ring on the one picture. There rings could have been made in a billet, then split to install them.

If someone has a peice of pearlescent rod and a knurling tool, they might be able to test the making of these rings pretty quick.

Aloha
 
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