Cue Design - Who Was First?

Cuemaking firsts

First, Paul D. Costain (aka PDC Machine owner) & Gary Fumarola (PDC shop foreeman) - are the only 2 names on the US Patent for the UNI-LOC therefore they are the inventor creators - PERIOD.

Second, the first actual RADIAL style pin was created by Paul D. Costain - it was a stainless steel pin (significantly smaller that the current RADIAL pin) that threaded into a beryllium/copper metal insert in the shaft - that pin with inserts made by Paul was sent to Bill Stroud who built a cue for Paul using that pin & inserts. Bill, I was told, immediately recognized the significance of the design and had Paul make the LARGER version that we now know today as "the" RADIAL

I started doing a fully tapered cored forend in 1993 or '94 - the gun drills came from El Dorado - here in Connecticut as did the tapered reamer from Gammon Hoaglund.
 
Thomas Wayne said:
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]
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This has been also a way to make handles for knives and other tools throughout the ages. On the mallets we make for our own use we make stacked wraps that we shape to fit our hands.

Tiger did get started working for Joe but Joe himself freely assimilated the ideas and products of others as well during his prolific career.

I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

Joe did create something cool that didn't really catch on but is still very interesting. I believe I have seen it on canes and other items but Joe is the first to bring a self-contained interlocking joint to pool cues. This is a joint that is never apart. You can make it break down and fold and when ready to play the joint snaps together to form one solid piece.

I wish I had a picture.
 
cueaddicts said:
Was Ernie or Tad the first custom cuemaker to incorporate the wood inlaid strips, common in furniture making, into a cue? I know George did with his railroad track inlays, but I would think one of them might have done this first.
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I doubt it. I had a Brunswick cue from the 20s that had those inlaid strips in them.

Also this brings to mind inlaid leather pieces, this cue also had inlaid leather pieces in the wrap area. Now 90 years later Predator/Poison has brought that back to life.

Thomas Wayne however was the first as far as I know to do a piece of leather wrapped around the cue in spiral fashion as an unbroken inlay. I figured out how to do it using my laser engraver/cutter about a decade after he first did it.
 
Thomas Wayne said:
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]
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That's not the entire story. Tiger was asked by Joe to punch the rings but then Joe refused to pay them so they took the idea and ran with it. Tiger has since grown into one of the better companies in the billiard industry and has been a tremendous asset to it.

To be fair Joe also appropriated lots of ideas throughout the years. All of the Creative Inventions that were sold by Porper were not all his ideas.
 
ibuycues said:
Flared buttcap........ Weston? Omega? Others?

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

WP
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Flared buttcap, Frank Stellman aka Sailor Cues, Racine WI. I bought my first cue in 1982, it was a Sailor and had the flared buttcap.
 
On the Jump/Break debate, Pete Tascarella has said he believes he came up with the first one in 1976.
 
RackRunner said:
Flared buttcap, Frank Stellman aka Sailor Cues, Racine WI. I bought my first cue in 1982, it was a Sailor and had the flared buttcap.
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I can agree with this, Frank was NONE to happy that Perry started to build his cues with the flared butt cap. He told me that himself. Didn't Perry learn from Frank or perhaps work for him??
 
I'm not sure if he learned under Sailor or not. You still see a lot of Sailor cues in this area simply because I'm right next to where they were made.
 
Ken_4fun said:
Great topic guys.


3.) First full sized jump break cue? Rick Howard? Gilbert?

The above are guesses, any thoughts?

Ken
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“I believe I was the first guy making break/jump cues,”continued Pete. “1976, Pat Fleming came to the area with a house cue that was cut to a forty-inch length. And he was jumping over balls like crazy. So, a friend suggested to me to joint a cue at that point to make a break/jump cue.” From there, Pete
started making break/jump cues. A friend wanted Tascarella to patent the idea, but it didn’t make much sense to Pete to do so at the time.

http://www.tascarellacustomcues.com/about.html
 
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