Chinese Cues-my observations

Here is another thought. I was told by some folks that do business in China regularly that there are some differences as to which area of China you are involved with. It's a BIG place!! The story I got was that Taiwan was the safest and most reliable to do business in followed by Hong Kong and lastly by mainland China. I am currently waiting on two cues from the Kao Fa company in Taiwan, they have been in business since 1970. Eric Yow has some experience with their cues and I thought it was worth a look.. For better or worse our world becomes smaller all the time, so I decided it was time to look at something different and make up my own mind.
Dan
 
Fatboy said:
i didnt know McD had cues in that low price range, if you like thats all that matters- liked mine for years and still do.


as far buy american goes, its a bit later for that China won that race along time ago :(
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Mcdermott, also has a new series of cues that are produced overseas and inspected by them at their factory before distribution to retailers. The cues are called Star cues sold by McDermott, some of these cues are under $100, and even though they are made outside the US they still have McDermotts Life Time warranty. Now if McDermott can do this why are the other manufactures that have their cue produced off shore not willing to back-up their products in this manner.

The biggest problem, they that I have over all with these products is the shaft wood, which in many cases is not good. Now McDermott, even warrants their shafts against warp-age, for life, when the Asian Manufactures do this I will also sing their praises.
 
catscradle said:
Then there are some of us who don't give a damn if the foreign cues are as good or even better. We'd rather spend a few hundred more and keep an American resident working.
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A very nice idea, but there is a flaw in your reasoning. Fury, Blaze and Sterling cues (all Chinese) are imported and distributed by Sterling Gaming. Sterling Gaming is located in Matthews, NC USA and employs about 20 people. Your average custom cue maker usually works by himself. So by your reasoning, you are keeping 20 times more Americans employed if you buy a Fury than if you buy a US made custom cue.

Steve
 
JoeW said:
Has anyone played with a cue from Que Perfect, Ronnie ? http://www.queperfect.biz/index.html The site says that Effren Reyes uses his cue. It also says that his cue is made with maple that was submerged in Lake Michigan for a hundred plus years. Supposedly an independent lab says that his cue and a couple of others have less deflection than a Predator. From what I read his cues cost about $5,000. A tad more than a McD but as you were all on the subject I thought someone might know more.

I think this fellow is ex-pat military who discount to vets and is located in the Philippines and that is close to China. Nothing like muddy water on buy USA :o
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i shoot with a queperfect cue.there's a couple other members here that do as well. shoot me a pm if you have any questions

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=43544&highlight=queperfect+review
 
A very nice idea, but there is a flaw in your reasoning. Fury, Blaze and Sterling cues (all Chinese) are imported and distributed by Sterling Gaming. Sterling Gaming is located in Matthews, NC USA and employs about 20 people. Your average custom cue maker usually works by himself. So by your reasoning, you are keeping 20 times more Americans employed if you buy a Fury than if you buy a US made custom cue.

Steve

Hmmmmmm... now that does throw a loop in the "Buy American " argument...
 
smokeandapancak said:
A very nice idea, but there is a flaw in your reasoning. Fury, Blaze and Sterling cues (all Chinese) are imported and distributed by Sterling Gaming. Sterling Gaming is located in Matthews, NC USA and employs about 20 people. Your average custom cue maker usually works by himself. So by your reasoning, you are keeping 20 times more Americans employed if you buy a Fury than if you buy a US made custom cue.

Steve

Hmmmmmm... now that does throw a loop in the "Buy American " argument...
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I think it's just pointing out that we live with a global economy. Toyota has plants in the US building cars. Some Chevy parts come from Mexico. Like them or not, Wal-Mart employes thousands in this country, but not everything you buy at WM is made here. Are you supporting an American company by buying at WM, or an overseas manufacturer?

Lets look at one pool cue. Manufactured in a plant in China, a very small percentage of the selling price actually gets to China. How did the cue get to the US? Maybe a shipping company, maybe UPS or Fedex...they get their cut. The distributor gets their piece of the action. Do you buy it from an online store or perhaps the pro shop at your local pool room, or the retail store down the street? Some of your price went to the retailer. So while it may say "Made in China", there are a lot of Americans making a living from the sale of that cue. There are very few products that only feed the American economy from start to finish.
Steve
 
smokeandapancak said:
dont mean to step in John's way here..but isnt McD the only company, American or not, that has a life time warranty????
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Viking has also added a similar warranty.
 
I was also at the BCA trade working undercover as a Porper employee. I was showing my Model B for Joe. I had to laugh every time someone came up to ask "how many cues can it make in a day?"

If you count your cues "per day" I would not shoot with it if you gave it to me for free.
 
smokeandapancak said:
I have said it many many times before....... The construction of the shaft is the most..actually the only important part of the cue as it pretains to preformance..that is of course assuming that there isnt a defect in the assembly of the butt..if the shaft sits on the pin correctly, and its a good shaft/tip/ferrule combination then it is a good cue..everything else is just show....an ivory inlaid,silver ringed,8 point monster custom isnt gonna out preform a basic cue....
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I don't think this is true at all. Of course, various inlays and multiple points don't add to the performance of the cue, but the construction of the butt of the cue is very important when it comes performance. The A-joint [where the forearm connects to the handle] is just as important as the shaft joint.

I think it is a little excessive to imply that all cues play the same given equivalent shafts.

There is a reason why people pay $2000 for a South West cue, and I don't think it has to do with the visual component of the cue. No, if anything, SW's are considered very plain for $2000+. It's by performance alone that people are willing to shell the big bucks for the wood. It goes for a lot of other cues out there as well.

-Shane
 
I'm an Australian in China, way up north. When I go into the pool selling shop very few cues are straight. Unbelievable they could sell. I've bought four over the last two years. One snapped at the ferrule, two warped and a fourth I play with all the time. Its good. Suits me. Has an extension handle for my long arms. They cost me twenty bucks american each and the same price for a case. I would rather have an american cue. Maybe one day. I also bought my friend a cue and its a straight as and nice wood. Nowhere in this city of four hundred thousand where there are umpteen pool halls does anyone pay more than twenty bucks for a cue. Often they pay ten to fifteen bucks. So :cool: But then a three hour session in a pool hall only costs two bucks (american)and thats the best venue so I think you guys there are richer but it pans out pretty good here for a pool player.
 
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Would you

quedup said:
Here is another thought. I was told by some folks that do business in China regularly that there are some differences as to which area of China you are involved with. It's a BIG place!! The story I got was that Taiwan was the safest and most reliable to do business in followed by Hong Kong and lastly by mainland China. I am currently waiting on two cues from the Kao Fa company in Taiwan, they have been in business since 1970. Eric Yow has some experience with their cues and I thought it was worth a look.. For better or worse our world becomes smaller all the time, so I decided it was time to look at something different and make up my own mind.
Dan
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You give a review of the Kao Fa cues after you receive them and play with them some? I intensely looked at their cues on the website, deciding on which ones I liked or not, and also their break cues. I am just curiious as to their quality and playability.

I am glad this thread expanded into other cues than just Scorpion cues, as I was under the impression it would cover different cuemakers in China, and not just 'American named' Chinese made cues.
 
pooltchr said:
A very nice idea, but there is a flaw in your reasoning. Fury, Blaze and Sterling cues (all Chinese) are imported and distributed by Sterling Gaming. Sterling Gaming is located in Matthews, NC USA and employs about 20 people. Your average custom cue maker usually works by himself. So by your reasoning, you are keeping 20 times more Americans employed if you buy a Fury than if you buy a US made custom cue.

Steve
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Not really, those 20 people would still be employed if the cues were made in America plus a whole stream of other people would be employed in the other facets of manafacturing and distribution.
 
pooltchr said:
I think it's just pointing out that we live with a global economy. Toyota has plants in the US building cars. Some Chevy parts come from Mexico. Like them or not, Wal-Mart employes thousands in this country, but not everything you buy at WM is made here. Are you supporting an American company by buying at WM, or an overseas manufacturer?

Lets look at one pool cue. Manufactured in a plant in China, a very small percentage of the selling price actually gets to China. How did the cue get to the US? Maybe a shipping company, maybe UPS or Fedex...they get their cut. The distributor gets their piece of the action. Do you buy it from an online store or perhaps the pro shop at your local pool room, or the retail store down the street? Some of your price went to the retailer. So while it may say "Made in China", there are a lot of Americans making a living from the sale of that cue. There are very few products that only feed the American economy from start to finish.
Steve
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Let's not confuse distribution jobs at Walmart with manafacturing jobs. Long term this country will pay a heavy price for loss of manafacturing. We haven't really felt it real bad yet, because we've still plenty of money sitting around this country from our hayday of manafacturing, but we will feel it. The rich will still be rich whether they make their money of foreign manafacturing or off American manafacturing, but the regular people will be hurting. It may be only fair to the rest of the world; but I'm glad I won't be looking for a good job 20 or 30 years from now.
Manafacturing is what the ballgame is about, not distribution or consumption; we're real good consumers.
 
dealing with china

China has a fun law that these folks dealing with chinese companies may discover to their harm. When you have a chinese manufacturer make a product for you, if you stop doing business with them for any reason they are entitled to continue making that product and market it using the same brand name it was marketed as when under contract. Use a chinese company and they are legally entitled to counterfeit your product if you quit doing business with them.

Time will tell the story about cues but I have been inside chinese machinery. Even the higher end names and the machines that have good fit and finish on the outside are very low quality on the inside. No comparison whatsoever to the truly made in the USA machinery. Pool cues may prove the exception but china bases it's exports on huge volumes of near junk created with low quality components and unskilled or low skilled labor. Hard to believe that their cues are going to be fantastic quality. More likely, the twenty dollar cues mentioned in another post sold at fantastic prices.

Hu
 
ShaneS said:
.

I think it is a little excessive to imply that all cues play the same given equivalent shafts.


-Shane
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I wasnt saying that at all.... my point was "assuming there isnt a defect in the construction of the butt" then there really shouldnt be that big a difference....

I wish there was a way to "blind" test cues, I honestly doubt that 99% of folks could tell a difference between between a quality China butt with ___X__ type of shaft and a high dollar custom butt with the same ___X__shaft.
 
We imported pet food and it..........:eek:

Imported tires and.......:eek:

Are they rushing to market (profit driven) W/o due diligence?
 
A cheaply built cue can play great and a quality cue can shoot badly, the difference is, the quality cue will last while the cheaply built cue won't. Foreign made cues can be built as good or as cheaply as the buyer dictates. The importer decides the quality in a cue line that he wants to import by the price he is willing to pay per item. I've worked on thousands upon thousands of cues and for the most part, foreign cues are junk for a male pool player. They generally hold up better for woman players as women are usually more gentle with their equipment than men.

The foreign cues quality has increased over the last few years but are still a far cry from a quality made American cue such as Joss, McDermott, Viking, Pechauer, Schon and Jacoby. On foreign cues expect the tip to be extremely hard but that doesn't matter as it usually falls off after just a short bit of play anyway. The ferrules are usually larger than the shaft. The shafts and butts usually warp quite easily and quickly. The deco-rings protrude through the finish before you even buy the cue and I re-wrap foreign cues at a rate of at least 25 to 1 over American cues.

My experience tells me that, can foreign cues be quality built? Absolutely. Are they quality built? Give me a break.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
A cheaply built cue can play great and a quality cue can shoot badly, the difference is, the quality cue will last while the cheaply built cue won't. Foreign made cues can be built as good or as cheaply as the buyer dictates. The importer decides the quality in a cue line that he wants to import by the price he is willing to pay per item. I've worked on thousands upon thousands of cues and for the most part, foreign cues are junk for a male pool player. They generally hold up better for woman players as women are usually more gentle with their equipment than men.

The foreign cues quality has increased over the last few years but are still a far cry from a quality made American cue such as Joss, McDermott, Viking, Pechauer, Schon and Jacoby. On foreign cues expect the tip to be extremely hard but that doesn't matter as it usually falls off after just a short bit of play anyway. The ferrules are usually larger than the shaft. The shafts and butts usually warp quite easily and quickly. The deco-rings protrude through the finish before you even buy the cue and I re-wrap foreign cues at a rate of at least 25 to 1 over American cues.

My experience tells me that, can foreign cues be quality built? Absolutely. Are they quality built? Give me a break.

Dick
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I have a few 30 year old ADAM cues that might disagree with the above.
 
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