This is a very old 'Made in France' Brunswick. 'Before' measurements were 25.5" shaft, 28" butt. Ferrule was a standard ivory playing cue width.
The cue was trashed: joint cracked in half, ivory butt-cap almost disintegrated, points all popped with veneer bits missing, bad staining (like black ink) and white paint on the forearm. The butt-plate veneers and ebony-side veneers were also damaged as shown. The wood was amazingly dry.
I only restored the wood: scrubbied the forearm with magic eraser, careful to preserve the 'Brunswick' and 'made in France' stampings. I could not remove all of the ink stains, nor get rid of all the old yellow-orange finish remains around the stamps and points. I then glued and clamped the points and repaired the point veneers. The forearm maple was a beautiful white when done; however, I chose to use Danish oil to seal in order to blend the remaining stains better - as a result the forearm is darker. You can still see minor ink and paint stains, but they do not detract much. After French-polishing the cue, I removed the original wood pin from the shaft - bad cracks in the shaft had been repaired with tiny nails.
The next part of the job was the most difficult. I sent the cue to a master cue-maker who created a shaft from the original pin, a new joint, new butt-cap, new wedge, new butt-plate veneers and wedge veneer repair. I will leave out details of his work, as I plan to call him and invite him to respond to this thread if he feels so inclined. I am certain I will never again in my life get a chance to collaborate (somewhat) with a real cuemaker, especially one of his skill level, so this is naturally the prized cue of my collection, and will be passed down to future generations.
Playability (all cues are meant to be played!). I took this cue to a local bar with an 7' table and discovered that it is the best small-table cue I have ever played with. I don't believe I lost a game all night. So I guess the last game it lost might have been in the 1910's or 1920's.
When the light is right I will take a full-length photo.
The cue was trashed: joint cracked in half, ivory butt-cap almost disintegrated, points all popped with veneer bits missing, bad staining (like black ink) and white paint on the forearm. The butt-plate veneers and ebony-side veneers were also damaged as shown. The wood was amazingly dry.
I only restored the wood: scrubbied the forearm with magic eraser, careful to preserve the 'Brunswick' and 'made in France' stampings. I could not remove all of the ink stains, nor get rid of all the old yellow-orange finish remains around the stamps and points. I then glued and clamped the points and repaired the point veneers. The forearm maple was a beautiful white when done; however, I chose to use Danish oil to seal in order to blend the remaining stains better - as a result the forearm is darker. You can still see minor ink and paint stains, but they do not detract much. After French-polishing the cue, I removed the original wood pin from the shaft - bad cracks in the shaft had been repaired with tiny nails.
The next part of the job was the most difficult. I sent the cue to a master cue-maker who created a shaft from the original pin, a new joint, new butt-cap, new wedge, new butt-plate veneers and wedge veneer repair. I will leave out details of his work, as I plan to call him and invite him to respond to this thread if he feels so inclined. I am certain I will never again in my life get a chance to collaborate (somewhat) with a real cuemaker, especially one of his skill level, so this is naturally the prized cue of my collection, and will be passed down to future generations.
Playability (all cues are meant to be played!). I took this cue to a local bar with an 7' table and discovered that it is the best small-table cue I have ever played with. I don't believe I lost a game all night. So I guess the last game it lost might have been in the 1910's or 1920's.
When the light is right I will take a full-length photo.
