My story on playing cues. I'll try to be brief but probably wont be.
When I started playing pool around 1990 I played with every cue imaginable including many Southwest and several Cognoscenti cues trying to find THE one magic cue. Didn't help. But along the way of buying dozens of different cues, I hit a million balls out of excitement for the search for said magic cue. There's something to be said for the "new equipment syndrome" golf instructors talk about that excites you about the game. As i got better, I gave up the "pretty" cue search and settled on a simple, stiff hitting Cog. Several years later a simple, stiff hitting Bender and then a stiff hitting custom Viking and then finally the same stiff hitting Barnhart for the last 7 years. So it appeared I had found a type. Always 18.5 ish, 12.75mm shaft with something like a medium moori tip. Done. Set in my ways for life cue wise.
So about 3 months ago, at pool leagues I hear someone is selling a decent, old Joss cue pretty cheap. A friend had said he was looking for a new cue so I took a look and thought he would love it as he played with an old Falcon with the same pin and could maybe use his old shafts as spares. So I buy it for $125 with 2 shafts. Seemed like a very good buy for the money. I gave it to my friend the next night and he hit a few balls and said it made a funny noise and he wasn't sure about it. I said gimme that thing. I heard and felt the rattle on the first shot. Easy call on a loose weight bolt. I kept hitting balls for about 2 hours and played fantastic. Never pocketed balls so easily. Took it home, tightened the weight bolt about 6 full spins, and now my Barnhart is my favorite break cue ever. :smile: I would have never thought a worn in leather wrapped, 20.5 ounce, full 13mm, metal jointed, somewhat whippy old Joss production cue with something called a "Kamui-black-clear" tip would be my "magic" cue. But lo and behold, seems it is.
When I started playing pool around 1990 I played with every cue imaginable including many Southwest and several Cognoscenti cues trying to find THE one magic cue. Didn't help. But along the way of buying dozens of different cues, I hit a million balls out of excitement for the search for said magic cue. There's something to be said for the "new equipment syndrome" golf instructors talk about that excites you about the game. As i got better, I gave up the "pretty" cue search and settled on a simple, stiff hitting Cog. Several years later a simple, stiff hitting Bender and then a stiff hitting custom Viking and then finally the same stiff hitting Barnhart for the last 7 years. So it appeared I had found a type. Always 18.5 ish, 12.75mm shaft with something like a medium moori tip. Done. Set in my ways for life cue wise.
So about 3 months ago, at pool leagues I hear someone is selling a decent, old Joss cue pretty cheap. A friend had said he was looking for a new cue so I took a look and thought he would love it as he played with an old Falcon with the same pin and could maybe use his old shafts as spares. So I buy it for $125 with 2 shafts. Seemed like a very good buy for the money. I gave it to my friend the next night and he hit a few balls and said it made a funny noise and he wasn't sure about it. I said gimme that thing. I heard and felt the rattle on the first shot. Easy call on a loose weight bolt. I kept hitting balls for about 2 hours and played fantastic. Never pocketed balls so easily. Took it home, tightened the weight bolt about 6 full spins, and now my Barnhart is my favorite break cue ever. :smile: I would have never thought a worn in leather wrapped, 20.5 ounce, full 13mm, metal jointed, somewhat whippy old Joss production cue with something called a "Kamui-black-clear" tip would be my "magic" cue. But lo and behold, seems it is.
