ebony w/ pink ivory

[Cross]

hey guys, im planning to have a cuemaker make me a custom cue. I am thinking of an ebony forearm with pink ivory points. I havent really tried a cue with a pink ivory inlay before and if anyone here has tried, I would appreciate a heads up on what to expect ( balance wise, hit etc). Btw, my alternatives for the forearm are Gaboon Ebony, Madagascar Ebony or African Blackwood or any other black color. Any idea on how they hit? Thanks

 

[cuesmith]

pink ivory

hey guys, im planning to have a cuemaker make me a custom cue. I am thinking of an ebony forearm with pink ivory points. I havent really tried a cue with a pink ivory inlay before and if anyone here has tried, I would appreciate a heads up on what to expect ( balance wise, hit etc). Btw, my alternatives for the forearm are Gaboon Ebony, Madagascar Ebony or African Blackwood or any other black color. Any idea on how they hit? Thanks

I've meade several cues with pink ivory inlays, even some with pink ivory forearms. It machines and works very much like ebony and is a great inlay marerial. I'm on my way out now but if I think of it I'll post some pics later. If you have a new bluebook, you can see one of my Pink ivory cues in the picture section.

just more hot air!

Sherm

 

[carlton31698]

I've meade several cues with pink ivory inlays, even some with pink ivory forearms. It machines and works very much like ebony and is a great inlay marerial. I'm on my way out now but if I think of it I'll post some pics later. If you have a new bluebook, you can see one of my Pink ivory cues in the picture section.

just more hot air!

Sherm

My cue has ebony with white ivory inlays and pink ivory inlays inside of the white ivory look great.

 

[TATE]

Here's a pic of my JossWest cue, ebony, pink ivory,. stack leather wrap by Tiger. I believe the ebony is cored with maple - it's a nicely balanced player.

Chris

 

[thoffen]

Pink Ivory is great but very dense/heavy. All the woods you listed are pretty heavy. I don't know if your cue maker is planning on coring them. I'd find that out. African blackwood will give you the best feel, but you're going to see some grain. If you want the jet-black look, go for the gaboon ebony.

 

[cueaddicts]

Cross,

Here's a few pics of a cue that I designed for Skip Weston to build me a few years back. It should give you an idea about pink ivory points into ebony. Skip also does milled veneers, and in this cue they are milled ebony, maple, then pink ivory.

Pink ivory is one of my very favorite woods, and I think it looks absolutely awesome when the hue/color is right and especially when accented with ebony and ivory. Some of it can tend to look dull and washed out, when it's more sapwood. Try to stay away from that. Sherm's right....it also looks awesome just in inlays. It is possible to overdo pink ivory, so it needs to be included in a cue wisely...or else it will simply take over a cue.

Anyhow, hope this gives you some ideas.

Sean

 

[TATE]

Sean

That's a very tastefully design cue. You did good.

Chris

 

[classiccues]

Cross,

Here's a few pics of a cue that I designed for Skip Weston to build me a few years back. It should give you an idea about pink ivory points into ebony. Skip also does milled veneers, and in this cue they are milled ebony, maple, then pink ivory.

Pink ivory is one of my very favorite woods, and I think it looks absolutely awesome when the hue/color is right and especially when accented with ebony and ivory. Some of it can tend to look dull and washed out, when it's more sapwood. Try to stay away from that. Sherm's right....it also looks awesome just in inlays. It is possible to overdo pink ivory, so it needs to be included in a cue wisely...or else it will simply take over a cue.

Anyhow, hope this gives you some ideas.

Sean

Ring theft... ring theft!!!!!!!!!!

BTW also pink ivory / ivory and ebony....

Joe

 

[Worminator]

Ring theft... ring theft!!!!!!!!!!

LOL!

Here is an Ebony and Pink Ivory Kikel...

 

[Cross]

Thanks. I appreciate all your input

 

[Cross]

Pink Ivory is great but very dense/heavy. All the woods you listed are pretty heavy. I don't know if your cue maker is planning on coring them. I'd find that out. African blackwood will give you the best feel, but you're going to see some grain. If you want the jet-black look, go for the gaboon ebony.

Does coring take anything away from the "feel" in the hit of the cue? my cuemaker built a gaboon ebony / ivory cue (6 points high and low) for a friend of mine and as much as possible, he stayed away from coring. He was able to get the weight down to a minimum of 19.6 oz ( which was not an easy thing to do without coring) which , incidentally, is just the right weight for me.

 

[cueaddicts]

Does coring take anything away from the "feel" in the hit of the cue? my cuemaker built a gaboon ebony / ivory cue (6 points high and low) for a friend of mine and as much as possible, he stayed away from coring. He was able to get the weight down to a minimum of 19.6 oz ( which was not an easy thing to do without coring) which , incidentally, is just the right weight for me.

My personal preference would be to have it cored. I don't think that it takes away from the hit, and here's why. First, a maple cored forearm will be much more stable. Also, if you core, then you don't have to be forced in to use an ultra-light weight piece of maple in the handle, have a thinner butt, or have to go with light shafts. Again, it's my personal preference, but I would rather have a cored cue that with equally dense woods throughout it, and with 4.0oz shafts, than the alternatives. And generally speaking, you would get the alternatives just to make the cue weigh down to 19.5.

And I've had some of cues that were not cored that played great. Problem with them is, though, when you introduce an exotic/dense nose like ebony or cocobolo, 19.5 is usually the very lightest it will be. Coring gives the cuemaker the chance to keep cues playable, with the similar feel, and be able to make a suitable cue for someone wanting, say 18.5oz.

Sean

 

[Cross]

Thanks cueaddict , at least thats one less thing to worry about. Btw, whats up with the 4.0 oz shaft? I've been seeing a lot of posts from people raving about 4oz shafts. In another forum they say that lighter shafts will deflect less and therefore, are better. What do you guys think?

 

[cueaddicts]

Thanks cueaddict , at least thats one less thing to worry about. Btw, whats up with the 4.0 oz shaft? I've been seeing a lot of posts from people raving about 4oz shafts. In another forum they say that lighter shafts will deflect less and therefore, are better. What do you guys think?

I don't buy into that light shaft, low deflection = good bunk....never have. Tried a Predator shaft for awhile several years back and hated it. Guess that I just learned to play with and compensate for the natural deflection.....who knows?

Seriously, though....why would anyone want a light weight, loose grained balsa wood feeling shaft, heavy/super dense forearm, and then ditto...a light weight/low density handle under your wrap and back through the butt of the cue? To me it just makes a heck of a lot more sense to want to play with something with more equally dense wood from the shaft back through the entire cue. It seems that as a general rule, the harmonics and vibration would be more consistent....assuming that the cuemaker knows about the properties of woods and knows what he's doing when he's glueing up the components of the cue.

So for me, 4.0oz is generally the minimum shaft weight I want on my playing cue. Could be just personal preference, but it's definitely mine.

Sean

 

[cueaddicts]

Sean

That's a very tastefully design cue. You did good.

Chris

Thanks, Tate, that Skip was one of my favorite 'plainish cues'.....

BTW, got a new Gina coming in with a lot of P.I. Will try to get some pics posted into this thread early next week. It's also P.I. points into ebony.

 

[cueaddicts]

Cross, here are another couple of looks for you. 1) P.I. into an ebony forearm by Ginacue. 2) P.I. used in milled veneers and as accent wood around windows in the butt sleeve by Jim White. Hope this helps...Sean

 

[Cross]

Thanks Sean. Btw, I'm having Viattorre make the cue. You should see the jump cue he made for me its in the cue gallery

 

[cuesmith]

Pink Ivory in cues

I found a couple of good sized boards of the most beautiful Pink Ivory on earth about 10 years ago. I got a little carried away for a while with the stuff and have toned down the use of it, except in inlays and I use it in dashed ringwork on a lot of my cues, but here's a few I made a while back.


just more hot air!

Sherm

 

[buddha162]

I found a couple of good sized boards of the most beautiful Pink Ivory on earth about 10 years ago.

That stuff is curly...wow!

-Roger (any left?)

 

[cuesmith]

Curly Pink Ivory

That stuff is curly...wow!

-Roger (any left?)

Roger, Yes it's a pretty incredible example of Pink Ivory. I've got probably enough to last the rest of my cuemaking career. Don't figure to be building cues more than another 25-30 years. I don't plan to build any more cues with Pink Ivory forearms, unless I'm made an offer I can't refuse. Not that there was anything wrong with using it that way except for the wastefulness. It works a lot like ebony and feels very much like ebony in the way the cue hits also. At one point, I had so much of it that I started making up pink ivory dashed ringwork. I was short on good black ebony at the time so I made the tubes out of Pink Ivory and the dash inlays from ebony. I've since come to my senses and realized that Pink Ivory of this quality was almost non-exhistant, and have gone to making my Pink Ivory dashed ringwork using double black linen phenolic tubes and Pink Ivory dashes inlayed in that. The Double Black linen can always be bought, but Pink Ivory like this could have been a once in a lifetime find!

The funny thing is that when I bought this pink Ivory, it was when rec.sport.billiards was in it's infacy. There were only a few of cuemakers who showed their faces on line at the time. I contacted Thomas Wayne, Bill Stroud, Jim Buss and Jerry Pechauer and let them know about the Pink Ivory I'd found. I thought that if more of us cuemakers would network some and help each other out we'd all be better off, including the cue buying public, but it didn't work out that way! The only one who even responded to my email was Jim Buss and he told me he hadn't used any before and wasn't too interested. At least Jim was appreciative that I was offering the info, but TW got a little rude when I sent him a second email asking if he'd received my prior email and was interested in any. Since then I've had cuemakers offer me BIG money for some, but I'm keeping what I have left for my customers.

just more hot air!

Sherm