Delrin who was the first?
- Thread starter HIRUN526
- Start date
I have seen Paradise, Balabushka, Palmer, Tad, Szamboti and others, so who knows as it goes back at least that far.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
I was thinking Palmer...but thats a good question, hard to know for sure.
Delrin
Copied this out of the web, not sure it will help, but gives somewhat of a time span when it first became available.
"Delrin was first synthesized by DuPont's research chemists around 1952. The company filed for patent protection of the material in 1956 and completed construction of plant to produce the material at Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1960."
Copied this out of the web, not sure it will help, but gives somewhat of a time span when it first became available.
"Delrin was first synthesized by DuPont's research chemists around 1952. The company filed for patent protection of the material in 1956 and completed construction of plant to produce the material at Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1960."
HIRUN526 said:
don't know if this is true or not but here goes.........
taken from Schuler web site:
Ray Schuler on Design Innovations
The Schuler Joint — "The Schuler joint — over 25 years after its introduction — remains unique in the cuemaking industry. My cues are best known for this unique joint (it is so different from other designs), but one must remember that it takes more than a superior joint to make a superior cue. The joint is just one design element of the Schuler cue. It did, however, lead to several other innovations and benefits, including interchangeable shafts and a choice of standard shaft tapers."
Interchangeable Shafts — "I was the first cuemaker to offer interchangeable shafts on cues. Every Schuler shaft has always fit every
Schuler butt. This allows players to order a new shaft at any time without having to relinquish the butt of the cue. Only in recent years have a few other cuemakers begun to follow my lead on interchangeable shafts, an advantage that I have been offering my customers for over a quarter of a century."
A Choice of Standard Shaft Tapers — "I was also the first cuemaker to offer players a choice of standard shaft tapers. Most cuemakers offer a choice of tip diameters, but very few, if any, offer a variety of standard shaft tapers.
Other Innovations — "I was the first cuemaker, or one of the first, to use unbreakable Delrin® for butt caps. This fits with my philosophy that the cue should have all the integrity you can put into it. It should last for as long as you take care of it.
"There are a number of other innovations that are available in the Schuler cue and nowhere else — such as the way the forewrap is internally joined to the gripping area of the cue — but I consider these trade secrets. Suffice it to say that every modification made to the design of the Schuler cue over the years, and there have been many, was introduced to improve either the performance or the durability of the cue."
Copyright 2000 by Stephen Mayhew/TMC
Schuler was after Martin, Paradise and Balabushka using it. To ask who was the first is like asking who first used PVC. My guess is as soon as the local plastic supplier had something new every cue maker would try it. It looks like just about all the custom cuemakers in the 60's started using it as soon as it came out.
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Chris
www.cuesmith.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com
HIRUN526 said:
There are a few reasons why no one
knows for sure
in the era when Delrin was first used, there were
only a handfull of cuemakers, and they were
extremely close-mouthed.
Also, there just wasn't the level of fascination
with cues and the cuemaking process like there is today.
So very little info was doccumented, or even known by
anyone not involved in the industry.
Back in those days, there was essentially no such thing
as a cue collector, or even a cue enthusiast.
Even in the case of well off, serious players, it was almost
unheard of to have more than one cue at a time.
Dale Pierce
pdcue said:
i was told rocky was the first delrin and ss joint.
harvey was obviously using somthing similar before delrin, possibly frank also.
ernie was using some sort of cue ball type phenolic in the early 60's.
so id put my money on george, frank , or rocky.
either bill s. , ernie , or tad would probably be best to answer this q????
Delrin is a great material for making fixtures, jigs, collets and other like devices.
It is easy to work with, cuts clean, and is soft enough to resist scratching a finish.
Delrin in my humble opinon is a very poor choice of material to use in a cue.
it will not hold a clearcoat finish, almost impossable to properly glue, and being an elastic material it deadens the natural feel of a cue.
You will never see a Delrin joint or butt cap on a Willeecue.
Willee
It is easy to work with, cuts clean, and is soft enough to resist scratching a finish.
Delrin in my humble opinon is a very poor choice of material to use in a cue.
it will not hold a clearcoat finish, almost impossable to properly glue, and being an elastic material it deadens the natural feel of a cue.
You will never see a Delrin joint or butt cap on a Willeecue.
Willee
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cueman said:
Shuler used it about 15 years after Balabushka!
Logic tells me it was Balabushka, followed by Martin. The earliest cues I've seen with Delrin were Balabushka's. They are easy to date because he started off using Titlist's. I would imagine he started using it as soon as it was available in the early 1960's. It's logical George used it first because he was always looking for durability and the other acrylics being used at the time chipped and cracked regularly.
Paradise used an acrylic that was slightly translucent and could be mistaken for Delrin but it wasn't nearly as durable as Delrin which is kind of the "unbreakable comb" of buttcaps. The Palmer's I have from the 1960's don't have Deltrin buttcaps. I've seen a couple of Palmer's with Delrin but I think they were replacement. I've not seen a Paradise with Delrin. He also used the same translucent or solid color acrylic material Palmer used.
The few Martin's I've seen also had Delrin and they were from the 1960's. I believe Tad and Ernie also used it.
Chris
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