Another Ebony on Birds Eye

T

Tony Zinzola

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
4 Ebony Points on a Birds Eye Maple Forearm. Veneers of White, Black Paper, Brown, Black Paper, Peacock and Black. Abalone Notched Diamonds in Points. Butt Contains 4 Sets of 4 Abalone Notched Diamonds aligned to create a larger diamond. Barbell Style Ringwork in all positions. Elforyn Joint and Butt Cap. Black Bison Wrap.

All Abalone inlays in this cue have a .004" Ivory border. When I did the first test piece, I thought for a minute that the Ivory was too thin. Once I got it in a test pocket, I decided that it really sharpens up the edges. I thought people might not notice the Ivory borders, but the first person who saw the cue picked them out in about three seconds.

This cue is going to Tanner Nickels who finished 3rd in the 14 & under Junior Nationals a few months ago.

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The ivory boarders are sick man!!! I would need better vision or a bigger monitor to FULLY appreciate them I think. Outstanding IMO. This Tanner is a lucky boy :cool:
 
The Ivory Borders turned out to be kind of a pain in the ass.

I had all the inlays in the cue, then looked at it under a microscope. I found 4 inlays that part of the border chipped off. I had to go in and replace the 4 pieces, which is simple enough except two of them were in the large diamond configurations. That meant if I didn't cut the replacement pocket out perfect, I would have to replace the entire section.

The cue sat for months before I finally decided to replace them. I got perfect alignment on all of them, so didn't have to do any extra replacing.
 
looks great.....me me me me i really like the ivory bordereds....maybe i will have you do that on mine.....
 
Very nice Tony!

I like the colors in the veneers and the abalone pieces you selected are top notch!

The Ivory border is not something I would have even attempted, but it's quite nice. You see the basic idea at first and then you get a "WAAAAAAit a minute" moment... Holy crap!

I bet that same technique with ebony into rosewood (maybe Indian) would look absolutely killer!

Thumbs WAY up!:thumbup:
 
I am sure the kid will play with this cue for the rest of his life, very nice work as usual. :)
 
Is Tanner Nickels from Ozark, MO.? If so, I know the boy and he is a fine young man. Really eager to learn the game and improving every time I see him.

Might have to steal this cue from him. :wink: Beautiful!
 
Cue Guru said:
Very nice Tony!

I like the colors in the veneers and the abalone pieces you selected are top notch!

The Ivory border is not something I would have even attempted, but it's quite nice. You see the basic idea at first and then you get a "WAAAAAAit a minute" moment... Holy crap!

I bet that same technique with ebony into rosewood (maybe Indian) would look absolutely killer!

Thumbs WAY up!:thumbup:
Click to expand...

On my old machine, I couldn't put borders that thin around an inlay. When you get that small, if your machine is off by even .0005, it would be noticeable.

Somebody (Rheester) joked in another thread that I'm going to have to try a .001" border on an inlay. After he posted that, I tried to do a .001" silver border on an ivory diamond. I cut the border out perfectly. Under 200x magnification there was no deviation in the size of the border piece. However, it is so thin, I couldn't get the Ivory into it without breaking it. I only tried once. Maybe I'll try again in the future, but I don't know how I'll get the ivory tightly into the silver that thin. I suspect even if I heat up the silver, when it cools, the border will still break.

Oh yeah one more thing for Mickey. F the Rangers. Go Yankees.
 
Great looking cue as usual. The veneers look great with the Abalone.


Deserving young man, I am sure....


Thanks for sharing,
Chris
 
Tony Zinzola said:
On my old machine, I couldn't put borders that thin around an inlay. When you get that small, if your machine is off by even .0005, it would be noticeable.

Somebody (Rheester) joked in another thread that I'm going to have to try a .001" border on an inlay. After he posted that, I tried to do a .001" silver border on an ivory diamond. I cut the border out perfectly. Under 200x magnification there was no deviation in the size of the border piece. However, it is so thin, I couldn't get the Ivory into it without breaking it. I only tried once. Maybe I'll try again in the future, but I don't know how I'll get the ivory tightly into the silver that thin. I suspect even if I heat up the silver, when it cools, the border will still break.
Click to expand...

It would be a bit wasteful, but what if the border was set and it was a bit wide (so it entered the center pocket by a few thousandths) and then once set, you re-cut the center pocket?

Each inlay would take several hours (because it could not be moved as the first inlay adhesive set and then the center is re-cut for the ivory or whatever) but I think that might work... (but what do I know?)

When doing purfling it is generally installed 'proud' and then milled back to perfect. That was the best way I found to do it anyway (of course some pieces still shatter and you have to replace them)

Again, excellent work and I am truly impressed with it (not that that matters at all). Keep up the great work!
 
Tony Zinzola said:
On my old machine, I couldn't put borders that thin around an inlay. When you get that small, if your machine is off by even .0005, it would be noticeable.

Somebody (Rheester) joked in another thread that I'm going to have to try a .001" border on an inlay. After he posted that, I tried to do a .001" silver border on an ivory diamond. I cut the border out perfectly. Under 200x magnification there was no deviation in the size of the border piece. However, it is so thin, I couldn't get the Ivory into it without breaking it. I only tried once.
Click to expand...

i bet if you spray painted the edges and then glued it you'd get that 0.001 border. haha.

scary thing is that i'm sure someone out there has tried it.

as mentioned above, the veneer colors and abalone couldn't have been paired better.
 
Cue Guru said:
It would be a bit wasteful, but what if the border was set and it was a bit wide (so it entered the center pocket by a few thousandths) and then once set, you re-cut the center pocket?
Click to expand...


The trouble is, you need lubricant when cutting silver.

I thought of leaving a few thousandths over, pocketing the silver and then finish cutting the interior of the border. The trouble is, on a .001" border, how certain are you that the part you just put in the pocket will be exactly where you expect it to be? .0001 off on a .001" border is a ton.

My parts go in tight enough to have to tap them in and I would not trust being perfect every time cutting a pocket inside of a part that was taken off the machine and glued into a pocket.
 
Certainly is the same Tanner and this one hell of a nice thing you have done, Tony. I spoke with Tanner's father this evening... he had just got the pics you sent today and was astounded that I already knew about the cue.

Tanner will be elated and I'm sure will be showing off that cue and mentioning your name at every opportunity. I would expect the lad to keep that cue for a very long time.
 
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