I love a good Dufferin house cue. I have thought about doing this myself.
House cue/one piece cue anyone?
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I love a good Dufferin house cue. I have thought about doing this myself.
I was in Britain once....grabbed a house cue just to hit a few balls....
...it was ash, had a small brass-ferruled tip, and a chamfered butt...
...everything I hate about a snooker cue....:angry:
...and it did everything my high-priced Rothwell did...
I had a snooker session on a 5x10 Marion Ohio....found a fairly small tipped cheap cue
made of ramin wood, we were playing for a decent sum....I never bothered
to go get my Rothwell....the cue played well.
But I never bought either cue...they weren’t dead straight.
So most of the cues I have that I won’t part with are made by good cue makers....
....they stand the test of time.
I've never tried a two piece cue that had the same, direct energy transfer into your hand that a good 1 piece has. No matter how good the joint is, it kills some of the feeling. Even my Mezz, which I thought was pretty fantastic at one time, pales in comparison with a really good 1 piece cue. The problem with most housecues is that they're made to survive idiots banging them around, and thus have thick ferrules, too strong of a taper etc.etc.
When you try a really good, custom built 1 piece snooker cue, you understand what is lost with the joint. Of course the ability to fine tune the balance is lost to an extent, but with quality cues, this can be overcome as well which is proven by the custom ones. Suffice it to say, it's worth the extra cost and the hassle to lug it around. Speed control is just phenomenal. The hit gives a satisfying, clean sound. It has to be experienced to be believed.
In pool, even the best production cues and many customs have not got good balances. Sure, they're solid and have the balance point at good places, but a heavy metal joint here, weight bolt there...It just makes the balance funny. A lot of customers apparantly ask for forward weighted cues, and this presents challenges to cuemakers, which they solve through various means. Very often the cue ends up unevenly balanced, for lack of a better word. My friend had his cue customized with new joint and joint pin, very minutely tuning the balance, and the result was fantastic and better than any cue I've ever seen as far as balance is concerned. The cue just floats in the hand. Even with a great joint and balance and all that, the hit is still dull compared to a 1 piece.
I always wished I could make my own cue, to use my own ideas of how a taper should be, but it's just not cost effective, even with hand tools. But I have some ideas on how to fix the balance and taper of the house cue and to change the ferrule. One day, the dream will come true.
When you try a really good, custom built 1 piece snooker cue, you understand what is lost with the joint. Of course the ability to fine tune the balance is lost to an extent, but with quality cues, this can be overcome as well which is proven by the custom ones. Suffice it to say, it's worth the extra cost and the hassle to lug it around. Speed control is just phenomenal. The hit gives a satisfying, clean sound. It has to be experienced to be believed.
In pool, even the best production cues and many customs have not got good balances. Sure, they're solid and have the balance point at good places, but a heavy metal joint here, weight bolt there...It just makes the balance funny. A lot of customers apparantly ask for forward weighted cues, and this presents challenges to cuemakers, which they solve through various means. Very often the cue ends up unevenly balanced, for lack of a better word. My friend had his cue customized with new joint and joint pin, very minutely tuning the balance, and the result was fantastic and better than any cue I've ever seen as far as balance is concerned. The cue just floats in the hand. Even with a great joint and balance and all that, the hit is still dull compared to a 1 piece.
I always wished I could make my own cue, to use my own ideas of how a taper should be, but it's just not cost effective, even with hand tools. But I have some ideas on how to fix the balance and taper of the house cue and to change the ferrule. One day, the dream will come true.
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Cues
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For me I don't give a rats butt what anyone plays with ,,,I am there just to play pool and enjoy it , not to enter the drama gossip session .
Or care if a player throws a cube on chalk on the floor and chalks his cue like native American Indians started camp fires .
If you like the cue your playing with great ,, if you don't like the cue your using buy another cue that you think you will like..
Why judge any cue good or bad ?
Most people will not believe you anyway....not counting the ones that flat don't care .what cue you play with and why ..
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For me I don't give a rats butt what anyone plays with ,,,I am there just to play pool and enjoy it , not to enter the drama gossip session .
Or care if a player throws a cube on chalk on the floor and chalks his cue like native American Indians started camp fires .
If you like the cue your playing with great ,, if you don't like the cue your using buy another cue that you think you will like..
Why judge any cue good or bad ?
Most people will not believe you anyway....not counting the ones that flat don't care .what cue you play with and why ..
I was in Britain once....grabbed a house cue just to hit a few balls....
...it was ash, had a small brass-ferruled tip, and a chamfered butt...
...everything I hate about a snooker cue....:angry:
...and it did everything my high-priced Rothwell did...
I had a snooker session on a 5x10 Marion Ohio....found a fairly small tipped cheap cue
made of ramin wood, we were playing for a decent sum....I never bothered
to go get my Rothwell....the cue played well.
But I never bought either cue...they weren’t dead straight.
So most of the cues I have that I won’t part with are made by good cue makers....
....they stand the test of time.
View attachment 499842
I have owned some very nice cues ,,Nothing less then functioning pieces of art.
i bought a brand new Dufferin 18 OZ 20-25 years ago. I had plenty of customs at the time but planned on using the Dufferin full time but alas, I played regularly at 4 different pool rooms minimum at the time and it just became too much of a burden to drag around so it has sat in the corner of my bedroom for the last 20 years or more. Still not a nick in it.
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I bought a bunch of four point ebony Dufferins about 30 years ago and put them away.
....about 25% stayed straight....good maple and good ebony.
The 3/4 snooker cue that Alex is playing with is one of them....
...12.5 tip taken down to snooker size
I have a 2010 Pechauer Pro-H "sneaky". The butt is truly 1 solid piece of curly maple. It does have a thin ebony inlay separating the stains. The cues hit and feel is incredible!
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Great post! Love your avatar too.......
Interesting thread. I think I said the same thing several years ago on this forum when talking about Chuck Starkey's cues with the giant joint pin. They are the closest to a one piece hit as any cue I've ever played with. The main reason (as also stated here) is that we all use two piece cues is for convenience in transporting them.
There have been pool players (and many snooker players) who carried one piece cues. Some of the ones I remember using them were Weenie Beenie, Cornbread Red and Greg Stevens. Of course, back in the day (60's and 70's) most pool players would not carry a two piece cue into a poolroom. It was a dead giveaway. We played "off the wall" unless we ran into a really tough game, where we needed to get our two piece cue.
I will only add this tidbit that I've shared on here before. When your game gets stale and you lose the feel for your cue, put it down and play with a house cue for 45 minutes to an hour. The go back to your regular cue and see how good it feels. This is the best way i know to quickly get out of a slump, but don't tell anyone I told you. It's a secret! :wink:
There have been pool players (and many snooker players) who carried one piece cues. Some of the ones I remember using them were Weenie Beenie, Cornbread Red and Greg Stevens. Of course, back in the day (60's and 70's) most pool players would not carry a two piece cue into a poolroom. It was a dead giveaway. We played "off the wall" unless we ran into a really tough game, where we needed to get our two piece cue.
I will only add this tidbit that I've shared on here before. When your game gets stale and you lose the feel for your cue, put it down and play with a house cue for 45 minutes to an hour. The go back to your regular cue and see how good it feels. This is the best way i know to quickly get out of a slump, but don't tell anyone I told you. It's a secret! :wink:
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Now that's a very good bit of information for pool players.
It parallels what some of my boyhood baseball heroes (Maury Wills, Ted Williams, and Cobb) said about getting out of a slump with hitting.
"When you're taking batting practice, just use a fungo bat instead of your own bat and watch how quick you break out of the slump"
Switching to that house cue works the same way.
I can see you've been around the track a few times...otherwise you couldn't know this. I'd wager most modern day players aren't aware of it.
:thumbup2: