I wish you had used the term Cuemaker instead of Cueman, since I was the one who started using that term first.
You might also have said Southeast or Middle Southeast.
I also wish this thread had not "gone south" with the derogatory remarks about the southern people.
Who is the best???????
I don't think that question can be answered. I could attribute certain cuemakers with having excelled at certain aspects of cuemaking above most others. But they do not excell above all others in every aspect, so others would be better than them at other parts of cuemaking.
You might could ask who does the best butterfly points and get a few good choices.
Or who does the best full splice work,
The best v-groove points,
The best silver and gold work,
The best scrimshaw,
The hardest hitting cue,
The softest hitting cue,
The best finish,
The best leather wraps,
The best exotic wraps like snake and such.
The list could go on and on.
You might even ask who are the best all around cuemakers, but then you would need a list of items to judge off of.
Bill Schick would be one that has done most of the above list himself, so he would have to make the short list on all-arounds. There are only a handful that have done the scrimshaw themselves and he is one of them. But even Bill has been surpassed in other areas of cuemaking like butterly work and full splice with veneers. Go on over to Texas and you would have Richard Black who has beat just about everyone in his silver and gold work in cues, but like Bill he was not the tops at everything. Come back to Georgia and Danny Tibbits would be hard to beat on V-Groove points with veneers. Also here in Georgia is Keith Josey who does super nice dressed out Sneaky Pete style full spliced cues. Go to Tennessee and you have Donald Bludworth who would be hard to beat on CNC work. In South Carolina you have Mike Gulyassy with his break jump cues. All these cuemakers do other things really good also. But they all have their specialties and it is impossible to say which is the best cuemaker.
:wink:
