Is there anyone that can authenticate a Joss West these days?
- Thread starter kingwang
- Start date
in Colorado Springs, where its located, Bill stopped marking his cues for a couple of years.
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Here is a post by Bill on onepocket.org
bstroud
Verified Member
Apr 18, 2015 #6
I started in 1968 with a 5/16-18 thread pin. This is a standard American thread and was what I could buy locally. I didn't know much then about how threaded products worked. The very early Joss Cues all had that pin.Dan and I had Ed Kellys' Ginacue in the shop one day and it had a big pin and a flat faced joint. I put a ruler on the pin and decided it was 10 threads to the inch.
It really was 12 threads to the inch. Another standard.
Dan and I had some 3/8-10 thread pins made so we could make flat faced cues with Ivory joints. McDermott and Viking liked the pins so much that they copied them.
When I moved to CO I wanted to make the JW different so I decided to use a 5/16-14 thread like Balabushka in my piloted joint cues. I had to have them made because they were not standard. Brunswick used them and that is where George got the idea.
The problem with all the threads I had tried up to that point was that there was too much play in all the designs. That led me to do some research and I found that a 5/16-14 ACME was a tighter fitting design. It also was a standard thread and because the thread was flat on top, polished up very well. I changed to the ACME for all the piloted joint cues.
I was still dissatisfied with the big pin flat face cue design. One day in Austin I was looking at one of my CNC machines and the ball screws that control the linear motion and had an idea. The ball screw worked without any play whatsoever. I took that idea and invented the Radial pin. I also gave it that name. It is probably the most copied design ever.
Later that same year I was working on a plan for Eurowest in Germany. I wanted a new design that reflected Germanys' reputation for quality and innovation. Working with PDC machine I came up with the Uniloc quick release pin. I also gave it the name Uniloc because it was only one turn.
I am sure if I were still making cues I would have yet another design that involved 3D printing or some other new technology.
I often wonder where are the innovators in the cue making world today? Seems like they are all making the same old thing.
Bill S.
tribute and kudos to Bill Stroud aka JOSSWEST
will prout a VERY WELL KNOWN COLLECTOR OF CUES goes by IBUYCUES posted these cues of bills (on azb) that he has in his collection THEY ARE STUNNING i thought in view of some of the threads about cues lately here on 1p.org id post this bill i own 2 of your cues but they cant compare to...
They had a bunch of cues in the late 70s with 18 pins
That makes sense, as there was some variation. As I recall the diamond series started in 1981, and didn't last long. By 1984 they'd gone to another series, slightly rounded points, no more delrin buttplate, and a few other differences.
Exactly, he had the pantograph template for it straight from Bill himself.
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Joss all day
The early steel jointed Joss cues were done with the 18 thread pin. About the best player I knew who played with it was Billy Stephen, from Richmond. More of them were done with 14 thread afterwards.
This has been an interesting thread for me because I've only ever owned a cuetec r360 and a plain pechauer two-piece maple cue. I knew that the custom cue world was vast, but I did not know that identifying cues was a thing.
There is a larger and more knowledgeable following of the cue maker, than the players. imo