Cue Design - Who Was First?

[nick serdula]

Break Jump

Rick Howard. I rember when he made the first one. He was sitting and thought there are break cues and jump cues. Then he said to himself it would be cool to have one cue that did both. Then he built one.
Everyone and their brother has made them since.
Nick

 

[cueman]

Great topic guys.

Can we capture all of these "firsts" in one list?

Great job by all....

1.) Is Joey Gold the first with the G10 pin?
2.) Big "Southwest" pin, Kersenbrock? Tad? Martin?
3.) First full sized jump break cue? Rick Howard? Gilbert?

The above are guesses, any thoughts?

Ken

#1) I think Joey was the first on #1 or at least the one to make it popular.
#2) Martin was the first to use the Flat minor diameter pin in the butt side as far as I know.
#3) If by full size you mean the standard jump break cue. I have been thinking on this one and Huebler is the name that keeps coming to me. Rick was one of the first, but I am not sure if he beat Huebler to it or not. Rick was definetly the the most poplular builder of them among the smaller shop cuemakers for years.

 

[Chopdoc]

I think I read Bill Stroud saying he was the first.

I remember reading something like that as well. Maybe it was in this forum or maybe it was somewhere else. I saved a lot of that kind of stuff on my computer and went back to look for it. That's when I found out how disorganized it all is.

Anyway, I seem to remember him saying he was the first to use it effectively or the first to perfect it, or something like that. There was a qualifier in the statement I think, but I could be wrong.

Great thread, fascinating reading.

 

[JB Cases]

#1) I think Joey was the first on #1 or at least the one to make it popular.
#2) Martin was the first to use the Flat minor diameter pin in the butt side as far as I know.
#3) If by full size you mean the standard jump break cue. I have been thinking on this one and Huebler is the name that keeps coming to me. Rick was one of the first, but I am not sure if he beat Huebler to it or not. Rick was definetly the the most poplular builder of them among the smaller shop cuemakers for years.

I was thinking huebler as well. also I provided Rick Howard with the first piece of steel he ever used for a steel joint in his cues. I had a jump handle fasshioned from a solid piece of steel. I traded him this piece for a wrap job and a few days later he did his first steel jointed cue with it.

curiously the full cue jump shot as we know it today is fully explained in The Noble Game of Billiards by Thurston in 1831. you can find it for free on google books.

 

[Chopdoc]

I had a jump handle fasshioned from a solid piece of steel.

Ok, now that caught my attention.

JB, that's a sledgehammer, not jump cue....:wink:

 

[Worminator]

The Huebler was the first Jump Break I ever saw.

 

[Lexicologist71]

Correction: First cuemaker to advertise that he was using black paper "veneers" might be Ron Haley; I've been using it since the early 90's to create razor-thin black lines between inlay elements, and also shared it with Jerry McWorter a long time ago. Jerry has since used it even more than me, and has made GREAT use of the technique.

TW

I don't know if it counts in this context, but Samsara used black paper to make their insignia back in their New Hampshire basement days.

 

[Thomas Wayne]

Stacked leather wrap - Joe Porper, cue unknown, year unknown

[the original version Joe "invented" used punched leather disks that were laminated onto a handle core pieces, then finish turned and sanded with the cue. Tiger punched the rings for Joe and, as they seem to do, freely took the idea for their own. Because of the impracticality of selling leather donuts to cuemakers they changed it to be a wide thong that gets wrapped around the cue instead]

 

[WildWing]

Little knob on the butt end of the cue for easy gripping the long reach shots - Could that have been Sailor cues? That of course ignores some of the older antique cues that may have had that design.

 

[ibuycues]

Flared buttcap........ Weston? Omega? Others?

I think P. Weston approx 1984, well before Omega started in 1989.

WP

 

[Joshua70]

As long as nobody knows a different maker, the notched diamonds in the buttcap had been executed first by Paul F. Drexler in end of 2010 or early 2011.

I asked earlier about this and nobody could tell something different.

BTW: Happy Birthday John- nachträglich!

 

[cyrex]

veneers

Richard Chudy was the first to do single sided veneers on points.

 

[pescadoman]

Internal butt cap - Jerry Mcworter, cue unknown, date unknown

What is an internal butt cap?

 

[Thomas Wayne]

[...]

What is an internal butt cap?

The purpose of a standard butt cap is to keep sideways expansion of the rubber bumper from splitting the wooden butt sleeve at that end of the cue. For that purpose, most of a typical butt cap is less functional and more decorative.

The "internal butt cap" (I think I was the one who coined that phrase) reduces the exposed portion of a butt cap - while retaining the part that encompasses the stem and inlet portion of the bumper - giving the outward appearance of a butt sleeve that runs all the way to the end of the cue.

See attached photo:

 

[jayman]

Inlayed ferule

So who decorated a ferule first?

 

[Thomas Wayne]

So who decorated a ferule first?
View attachment 210273

"Decorated" (as opposed to "inlaid")? If a straight line can be considered a decoration, then it goes back at least 25 years. In the early 80's there was an aiming system that used a black line scribed the length of the the ferrule. I can't remember who the author/creator was, but it wasn't Barioni (who "re-invented" the idea a couple of decades later).

The line was used to establish "english" on the cue ball, and may have been a part of Ted Brown's "Wagon Wheel system" (though I don't think so.) Apart from that, I have known a number of players - dating back into the 70's - who used a small mark on the ferrule to enable holding the cue in a consistent orientation while shooting.

TW

 

[JoeyInCali]

Double ring around the leather wrap ?
Ernie G ?

 

[pescadoman]

The purpose of a standard butt cap is to keep sideways expansion of the rubber bumper from splitting the wooden butt sleeve at that end of the cue. For that purpose, most of a typical butt cap is less functional and more decorative.

The "internal butt cap" (I think I was the one who coined that phrase) reduces the exposed portion of a butt cap - while retaining the part that encompasses the stem and inlet portion of the bumper - giving the outward appearance of a butt sleeve that runs all the way to the end of the cue.

See attached photo:

Thank you for explaining that to me.

 

[BradenK]

See attached photo:

[/SIZE][/QUOTE]



Man, I love that cue.


What is the point, or function, of having those double indented wrings in a leather wrap. Or, any wrap for that matter?

Braden

 

[jayman]

"Decorated" (as opposed to "inlaid")? If a straight line can be considered a decoration, then it goes back at least 25 years. In the early 80's there was an aiming system that used a black line scribed the length of the the ferrule. I can't remember who the author/creator was, but it wasn't Barioni (who "re-invented" the idea a couple of decades later).

The line was used to establish "english" on the cue ball, and may have been a part of Ted Brown's "Wagon Wheel system" (though I don't think so.) Apart from that, I have known a number of players - dating back into the 70's - who used a small mark on the ferrule to enable holding the cue in a consistent orientation while shooting.

TW

I was thinking more for decorative purposes (as are most inlays). As opposed to sighting line which would be more of a utility but not very decorative.