half splice vs. full spice
- Thread starter jrt30004
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jrt30004 said:
Full splice construction is basically two pieces of wood that have been spliced together to create the entire butt of a cue.
Here is a full splice without veneers:
Here is a full splice with veneers:
Short splice construction is basically three pieces of wood (the forearm, handle, and butt) that are joined together to create the entire cue.
Here is the forearm of a short splice cue:
Here is the butt of the same short splice cue:
The area under the leather wrap in the above example would be where the handle section is located.
I hope this clarifies the difference between a full splice and short spliced cue, with regards to the basic construction techniques.
Please note that there are full splice cues that do in fact have wraps on them, which can make it more difficult to identify as such, often not until the wrap is removed...unless you have obtained the cue directly from the maker, in which case he should be indicating the construction technique used.
Additionally, Burton Spain pioneered a separate technique for crafting full splices, which is most commonly seen these days in John Davis' blanks. I would reference you to the Cue Gallery and/or the Ask the Cue Maker sections for examples of Mr Davis' FS blanks.
Lisa
Unfortunately, Lisa's explanation needs some refining and clarification.jrt30004 said:
Full splicing and half-splicing has very little to do with how many pieces a cue's butt is made. When Balabushka was using maple into ebony shorties, these were full spliced ~17" forearms. They were called "shortys," but they were still full-splice. Full splice is the V-finger splicing technique forming the classic V-shaped points. So, many of Balbushka's maple/ebony cues had a full-spliced forearm connected to a handle, connected to a butt sleeve. His maple/roswood cues would often be a full-length full-spliced cue.
Here are some photos of a two-piece full splice
Murray Tucker Full Splice Before Assembly
Murray Tucker Full Splice After Assembly
The Half-splice is the technique of inlaying individual squares of wood for each of the points to have the look of a V-finger splice, but without actually splicing two woods together. They call it "half splice" because it's not fully splicing. In fact, I wouldn't call it splicing at all, technically speaking.
Here's a page with photos of half-splicing the V points.
Bob Dzuricky's page on Half-Splice V Points
The term "short splice" in my opinion is a bastardization and misunderstanding of the two terms. But, enough cuemakers call the half-splice technique as "short splice" that it's become truth. The great Burton Spain called it half splice.
Fred
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Cornerman said:
Thanks Fred for not only the clarifications, but the links as well!! I was trying to keep the explanation 'simple', so as to not confuse. But you did a great job of explaining those other splicing techniques...much better than I could have! :thumbup:
Lisa
Cornerman said:
thanks for the links:thumbup: i was pretty good with the simple explananation. i have seen some pics before of points being made and figured that was what lisa meant by short splice. i, on the other hand had never heard the term full splice. that was where most of my problem was and again, thanks for the links those are cool pictures, and obviously show the difference. i can't fathom the kind of pain in the a*s it is to do that.
Besides what Fred said,
fullsplice cues come with snake oil.
fullsplice cues come with snake oil.