House cue conversion question

[Lazerrus]

OK so I have a few house cues that I am not sure if they can ever be reused. They look ok but rattle inside the butt. So I sacrificed one to see. I cut the butt about 2 inches up from the bottom off and low and behold a weight fell out about 4 inches long solid rusty steel. So now I am wondering even though I cut the butt that far up can this cue still be used for conversion etc. The points are still nice and everything. No this was not a brunswick

 

[sliprock]

If the conversion is gonna have a wrap then I don't think that you'll have any problems because a piece can be spliced into the butt under the wrap to lengthen the cue back out. If you want wrapless, you might be stretching things a little depending on the butts diameter at different spots along the butts length.

OK so I have a few house cues that I am not sure if they can ever be reused. They look ok but rattle inside the butt. So I sacrificed one to see. I cut the butt about 2 inches up from the bottom off and low and behold a weight fell out about 4 inches long solid rusty steel. So now I am wondering even though I cut the butt that far up can this cue still be used for conversion etc. The points are still nice and everything. No this was not a brunswick

 

[Varney Cues]

If the cue is still fat enough 29" up from where you cut it then you did no harm. If its not then still no worries as a nice piece of say birdseye or curly can be added to the butt & that piece can be made as long as needed to get your joint to the needed diameter. Truth be told though...all the house cues I've seen with that type weight installed are very poor quality & poor wood as well, hence the large amount of weight needed. Conversions are much better using nice old Dufferins as their wood quality is pretty much the best of the house cues. Let me ask you...is the hole the weight fell out of even centered? I'd wager not.:wink:

 

[Lazerrus]

It looks pretty darn centered. Good to know. I would like to recycle them into something rather than just tossem out.

 

[JoeyInCali]

It looks pretty darn centered. Good to know. I would like to recycle them into something rather than just tossem out.

It might make for a nice handle after it's seasoned here for years ( most likely an import and off-grain turned ).

 

[Sheldon]

You can get some extra length at the back by boring it out, and adding a buttsleeve. Bore a 3/4" hole about 6" deep, then take a piece of curly maple or something similar and cut a tenon that long in it. Glue that up wth a few inches on the end, and you give yourself that much more to work with. A nice piece of curly maple looks pretty good on the end of a sneaky. Or install a dowel, and bore your maple if you want to save the better stuff.

 

[Jim Baxter]

Hi Here is one old butterfly, trying to save as much orriginal wood as possible I added a buttsleave, keeping the full splice. Jim

African Blackwood

Trying to same as much orriginal on this old 4 butterfly I am going to have a leather wrao, only 8" long, Kinda different but looks good.

Butterfly moved to Middle.

 

[Lazerrus]

LOL so funny story. I for the hell of it start sanding on one of these right. My thought is well I'll just sand the clear coat off and bring out some of the nicks. Next thing I know I look down and the friggin points are gone!!! hahahahahaha damn stained on points. fooled me.:speechless: Thus begins my 1st step into cue making.

 

[Cue Guru]

LOL so funny story. I for the hell of it start sanding on one of these right. Next thing I know I look down and the friggin points are gone!!! hahahahahaha damn stained on points. fooled me.:speechless:

THAT is funny!

BUT if it's an old piece of maple, salvage a shaft blank from it.

I sacrificed a pair of Brunswick Tru-Balance cues for this reason, and that shaft wood is just spectacular... 18-22 grain lines per inch, and still straight after ~60 years. I don't think you can do much better.

So, even though there is no splice there, it could be a good source for shaft wood.