Interesting Orchid cue...never been played. Two shafts. Friar's Club and JMM on the butt. Curious about the year of manufacture. Anyone help?
I have done a lot of research on Orchid cues, and I believe that this particular "Orchid USA" cue was made by Adam, in Japan.
Several aspects of these particular Orchid cues remind me of the style of Adam cues.
Similar ringwork, very similar piloted joint, and the points and inlays appear to be very similar to many Adam cues that I have seen in the past.
I also know that Adam has made cues for many other companies, and put their logo on their cues in the past.
I am just a big fan of Adam cues, and have a lot of respect for them.
I think they were very well made cues.
I do not know, but maybe whoever originally ordered that cue had it customized.
I have seen that cue before, and I know that it is an "Orchid USA" model.
My best guess is that these cues were probably made in the 90's.
I had this same cue. Taiwan built cue, supposedly by Ernie Chen of Falcon/KPS. Decent quality and played ok. Mine wasn't built as nice as what ADAM would have made. You could feel inlays and points slightly.
I worked a trade show in the mid 90s and set up the Adam's booth and was paid in cues at the time. Adam's had a new line "Orchid cues" at the booth. I ended up with a decent pre production cue that I think I I still have somewhere. The quality was decent on some of the ones they had in the booth but you could tell some were rushed to get them there for the show.
Here is another pic of an Orchid cue that I believe was made by Adam, in Japan.
See the pilot on the shaft of the Orchid cue? That pilot looks identical to the pilot that I have seen on many Helmstetter cues. The ringwork on these cues also looks very similar to Adam cues.
It is very obvious to me that these 2 cues were not made by the same cue maker.
One thing that is strange though, is that this cues logo says "Orchid U.S.A" on it, but the OP's Orchid cue has a logo that is a little different, that says "Orchid USA", without the dots between the USA. So, I do not know what this could mean.
I do not think that all Orchid cues were made by the same cue maker though.
This is the exact model i had. Not an ADAM.Here is another Orchid cue that I found pics of. The logo on this one looks just a little different, with no dots between the USA in the logo.
I see that the pilots are identical though. Same Adam style pilot on both cues.