Built by a National Champion

[Chopdoc]

Harry Sims, sadly no longer with us, was a two time National 3 Cushion Champion. After having communicated with people who were close to him I know he was a lot more than that. He was a great teacher and a real family man. He also was a table mechanic, cue repair man, and cue maker. One can find references to him all over the place including in "Byrne's Advanced Technique in Pool and Billiards", the USBA, newspaper articles, and more. Sadly, I never met him.

How and why did I come to appreciate Mr Sims? Because I am proud to own a cue he made. I bought it several years ago and just got around to sprucing it up to play. The shaft had glue on it. Apparently an amateur had tried to glue on a tip. Looks like they used Gorilla Glue. The shaft and ferrule cleaned up nice and I had a Talisman tip put on it. Not period correct but I intended to play the cue. Like putting better tires on an old muscle car the way I see it.

I do have to apologize to Mr Sims. First because I played pool with his cue, though to be fair he cut the shaft for both pool and billiards. Second because although I ran a rack of 8, I scratched on the 8.

How did it play? Like a champion built it. It is an excellent tool. It is a fine piece of equipment.

This is no show piece. It isn't meant to impress in a gallery. In fact to some it will be an ugly duckling. To me it is a treasure, a pleasure to own and shoot with, and a piece of history.

Thank you Mr Sims. I hope they have Billiard tables where you are.

If you know anything about this cue or who played it, please let me know. I am a bit of a historian. It was bought on Ebay in March of 2013.

 

[3kushn]

Sorry but I don't know who this cue was made for. This is obviously a house cue conversion. Many times and thankfully the cue he made for me the shaft wood came from really old straight house cues. I'll have to believe he thought the butt of this cue was in excellent shape so he used it. The shafts may have come from a different cue or or possibly shaft blanks.

Harry wasn't known for fancy work but his cues hit real good. You're correct that his taper had some relief vs the European Conical Taper. His feeling was the shaft needed a tiny bit of flex. Occasionally I'll pull the cue off the rack and play with it for a bit.

When I decided to get a Dieckman, Dennis asked me to measure the shaft. He wanted to know what this Champion chose for himself. The taper was really close to what he called his universal taper. Good for both games. Before making a decision on what taper I wanted from Dennis, he sent me both tapers to try out for a couple months. I decided on the universal even though for several years prior I was playing with a Longoni and standard European Taper. This taper is sometimes called the Mazin Shooni taper. Tiger Cues through Mazin knows the cut. I tell you all this because Harry knew a lot more than what he was credited for. You could say, a Hall of Fame Cue Builder used the same taper that Harry developed himself. He may have admitted he had some help from Bert Schrager. I don't know much about his shafts, but Harry spent a lot of time in Bert's shop. As did Dieckman.

It appears your cue doesn't have his "weight system" where you could change the weights in the butt end. But you might want to pull out the butt cap and see if there's a screw and brass weights back there. It was a takeoff of Schuler's weights. Harry's 3 Cushion cues were very butt heavy. If you do have this, your cue is unique since he used a different butt cap for his weight system. Yours would be an earlier cue than mine.

I believe he told me he was the only National Champion that won using a cue he made for himself.
That cue was stolen out of his car. Very sad.

 

[Chopdoc]

Thank you so much for contributing.

There is nothing but wood under the bumper. This cue is more forward weighted like a pool cue, though it does have a taper that indicates it was intended for either pool or billiards. Definitely on the stiff side for pool, but not as stiff as a European billiard cue.

I do believe this is likely an earlier cue. The shaft wood is particularly nice by the way. Dense, high ring counts, straight grained. I have not weighed or measured anything on this cue. I usually do so with all of my cues but I decided not to on this one. I didn't want to boil it down to such quantitative technical matters as I thought it would detract from what I see in the cue. It isn't about the numbers.

The original varnish type finish shows it's age with lots of fine cracks, yellowing, and patina but essentially completely intact. Thankfully although it seems an amateur tried to put a tip on they don't seem to have abused it in any other way and there are no appreciable dings or such. Just perfect. Whoever owned it and played with it cared for it. The initials "C B" appear on the butt cap. I won't be touching that finish nor the initials.


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[SmoothStroke]

Nice cue Doc
I saw your post in the Carom section, very cool stuff all the way around.

 

[WildWing]

This cue definitely has the old school look. In fact, there are so very few cues made today with a very short butt plate that this one stands out. Everything looks traditional about this cue, though I think I see a finish over the wrap. Not crazy about that, but up to the individual. If I was ever going to refinish this cue, I would do a wrap with no finish.

The thing I like about this cue is its simplicity, rings on the joint collars and butt plate. A cue doesn't need a ton of inlays to look quietly elegant, which this is.

All the best,
WW

 

[Chopdoc]

Indeed there is a finish over the wrap. That wouldn't be my choice either.

If it needed a refinish I am not entirely sure what I would do. I like the originality.

My attitude is preserve when possible and restore when necessary. It wouldn't be a regular player at this point so I would tend to not want to alter the original design if it came to a refinish.




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[Busboy]

Looks like it's a player nice one

 

[Chopdoc]

Looks like it's a player nice one

Thanks.



Until and unless I find out who "C. B." is, I have decided that since the cue has brown rings and a brown wrap I will call it Charlie Brown. :thumbup:






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