That could make a slight difference too!
I'm not privy to any inside information here. I just wanted to point out that Bill's eight week claim wasn't true for him or anyone else when building something unusual or even something pretty common that they happen to not have on hand at the moment. Several cue builders have quit lately or largely quit after decades of being in business. I'd like to get my hands on their rivers of wood!
Hu
To be honest, the point of the DYD cue was supposedly, to come up with new, never done and completely original designs for cues.
Now I'm not going to comment on whether or not I think the winners design was any of those things BUT.... In no way did I think the potential winner of that contest was to be considered a 'typical' 8 week production cue. I thought it was 'assumed' the it would take special and unique methods to do something that has never been done. I would have guess it to take 2 or 3 times that of a standard 'custom' cue.
Now I agree about the behind the scenes prep to build a cue however, as being one that works with a number of very high end and reputable cue makers I think we both also know that the majority of the time of construction is done before the orders come in much of the time.
Any decent and reputable cue makers has likely a few hundred shafts hanging within a turn or 2 of completion. Forearms, butts sleeves and handles roughly sized ready to go. Some even cored already. The only reason IMO that ANY standard cue should take more than a week or 2 at most is that no cue builder is going to start and finish one cue at a time. He's going to get a number of butts assembled and ready for inlay, inlay them and get them all ready for finish. Then get them all wrapped. Then he's mostly likey going to pair, ring and finish all the shafts and all of those are going to get finished (sprayed) together as well. Maybe even back with the butts. So you might end up with a cue taking 2/3 months to finish but at the end of those 3 months he might put out anywhere from half a dozen to a dozen or more cues all ready at once.
So back the DYD cue and my real problem with it ....
Now you have a builder who at the time of the contest was SUPPOSEDLY complaining about the state of the cue building world, the processes and designs of 'today' and was SUPPOSEDLY trying to shock it back to life. In pretty plain terms slammed everyone in the business for taking too long to biuld a cue, putting out tired old done to death designs and charging too much (iirc). It seemed pretty clear trying make some kind of statement to everyone else in the business and blow smoke up his own butt.
Lets not also forget that the DYD thread followed other threads in which he had done much the same, lambasting the industry, other biulders and simply talking a boat load of $hit. Finally capping it all off with the Contest.
And then he quits.
Sells (or intends to, not all as of yet I understand) off all his equiptment, closes up shop and hits the road to get back into competitive pool. Of which it IS clear he has done.
To me its not so much about the cue as much as it is IMO, someone who got to be where he is and got everything he has from this business coming out and openly trashing it and others still in it and then utterly and completely shooting himself in the foot with like a 12 gauge shot gun and giving himself a black eye in the process all in the face of those who look up to him the most. Its like catching Santa robbing your house or the Easter bunny $hitting in your cocoa puffs. It almost makes my stomach turn.
Anyway.....
All I'd like to see is for him apologize for the things he said and the people he hurt saying it. He ought to apologize to the cue winner for making promises he obviously never intended to keep. Then I'd like to see this whole thing go away. It's bad for everyone involved and we have enough bad to overcome in the sport already. We need to get some good going....please.
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