Farm a great hitting old house cue for a shaft?

codeoncoffee

codeoncoffee

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I need a sanity check everyone.

I've got a 35yo Dufferin that hits spectacularly. Came free with several others when I purchased my table last year. Much less deflection than most of my shafts. Taper is exactly what I like, just inside of constant ending around 12.5mm tip. Nice firm hit.

I'd have it converted if the butt-end looked worth a damn. It's an old style with no points and has the maple on a full 3/4 of the cue, almost snooker looking. So my question is, am I out of my mind to consider having it chopped up and turned into a shaft?

Slap some sense in me and tell me to buy an OB or something!
 
Nick B

Nick B

This is gonna hurt
Silver Member
I'm always looking to "Harvest" and old looking house cue. Particularly the Ash ones (Snooker Player).

Nick
 
A

AtLarge

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
codeoncoffee said:
... I've got a 35yo Dufferin that hits spectacularly. ...

Slap some sense in me ...
Click to expand...

If you like the hit that much, I'd say you should leave it alone. Any change, such as conversion to a 2-piece cue or harvesting it for a shaft, will possibly result in something without the same hit.

Sure, if you play tournaments or leagues, it's a little difficult to travel to them with the cue as is, but it can be done. Why jeopardize "hits spectacularly."
 
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rayjay

rayjay

some of the kids
Silver Member
Making one good shaft out of it sounds good to me. Nothing plays like old, well seasoned, tight grained solid maple.
:p
 
JB Cases

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
codeoncoffee said:
I need a sanity check everyone.

I've got a 35yo Dufferin that hits spectacularly. Came free with several others when I purchased my table last year. Much less deflection than most of my shafts. Taper is exactly what I like, just inside of constant ending around 12.5mm tip. Nice firm hit.

I'd have it converted if the butt-end looked worth a damn. It's an old style with no points and has the maple on a full 3/4 of the cue, almost snooker looking. So my question is, am I out of my mind to consider having it chopped up and turned into a shaft?

Slap some sense in me and tell me to buy an OB or something!
Click to expand...

It's a great idea. Seasoned wood that is straight is the most desirable you can get.

If I lived in the USA I'd probably be harvesting house cues for wood constantly.
 
A

AtLarge

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I agree with rayjay and JB Cases that "harvesting" it is likely to produce a good shaft. But that doesn't mean you'll like the hit of whatever shaft/butt combination you then use as much as you like the hit of the Dufferin currently. (Then again, you might like it even more; you can't know without doing it, and then, of course, there is no going back.)
 
codeoncoffee

codeoncoffee

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It's highly seasoned wood for sure! I don't think I could get comparable without finding some of that Great Lakes stuff.

Alright. I'm gonna go for it :)
 
F

flash5153

none
Silver Member
I say do it!!! And let me know how it works,,cuz I have one just like it sitting in my pool room.


(One off the wall is not always a bad thing!!!) shhhhhhhhh!!
 
G

Gmanpoke

Banned
I'm no cue maker, but somehow building shafts seems like it would be a little bit more than cutting the shaft off a house cue and milling some threads in it.

A couple of years ago, I had Chad McCleanan (CAM cues) convert a Willie Hoppe Professional cue. The shaft was in good shape and we were thinking about reusing it, but in the end, Chad said we couldn't reuse it and it had the same threads 5/16 - 14. I think we would have had to change the pilot out to match his.

The only other thing I would say is "old school" house cues to me have four points and really "old school" house cues had four points with four veneers.

Steven
 
codeoncoffee

codeoncoffee

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Gmanpoke said:
The only other thing I would say is "old school" house cues to me have four points and really "old school" house cues had four points with four veneers.
Click to expand...

Yea you got me there, 4-points absolutely. Heck, I've had a couple Hoppe single-piece cues much older. I've just never seen Dufferin's like these. I image they were the bottom of the line cue from the early 70's.
 
pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
codeoncoffee said:
Yea you got me there, 4-points absolutely. Heck, I've had a couple Hoppe single-piece cues much older. I've just never seen Dufferin's like these. I image they were the bottom of the line cue from the early 70's.
Click to expand...

They were the bottom line..same cue in two peice were called Zodiacs.
But you can get really lucky with the maple in an old Dufferin.

The founder of Dufferin was a cpa for a lumber company.When Dufferin
became successful he bought the lumber company...and a forest came with
it.Alot of good maple ended up in those house cues.
 
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