Stones.....you show limited knowledge of pool history and so maybe you're unaware that there was never a Joss East Cue Company.
Joss East was a nickname pool players gave to Joss Cues back in the early 70's because Bill Stroud had left Joss Cues where he worked side by side with Dan Janes from '68-'72. Bill & Dan started Joss Cues and picked the named Joss fom an oriental word that translates into "luck'.
Bill left in '72 after Dan bought out his part of Joss Cues. Bill moved to Aspen, Colorado and started making cues under his own name. Dan continued to own & operate Joss Cues. Ann interesting sidebar to that is Tim Scruggs came to work at Joss Cues (actually twice....once for three months and then for a couple of years) after Bill Stroud left and that's where Tim learned to build cues. Tim was a machinist by trade and had been managing a pool hall in the same town. Of course, Tim went on to become a highly heralded, legendary cue-maker as did Bill Stroud and both guys really learned cue-making from Dan Janes.
After leaving Joss, Dan did an incredibly gracious thing. Bill asked Dan if he had any objections to Bill calling his company "Joss West" and Dan told Bill that would be fine. So that's how Joss West came into existence and it just became very popular slang to refer to Joss Cues as "Joss East" to differentiate between the two cue-makers. Bill was in Colorado closer to the west coast and Dan was in Maryland on the east coast. Folks just started called pool cues by either cue-maker either Joss East or Joss West but there was never a Joss East Cue Company. It has always been just Joss Cues. Joss East was just a coined reference that seemed to offset very nicely with Joss West which did exist. After awhile, Bill Stroud changed the name from "Joss West" to one word "Josswest". His early version cues he made had his JW initials....the first one was with a sideways W and then it became JW and then Joss West and then JossWest and then Bill retired.
So when you ask others, who are more knowledgeable than you, to start referring to Joss Cues as Joss East when that company has never existed, it kind of asking where did George Balabushka ever find the time to sign all those cues with his signature. I trust you know those are all just imitation signatures allowed under a agreement with his estate. George didn't sign his cues and only made 1100-1200 cues in his entire lifetime and you won't find any signatures on them unless the cue was made for someone special like Willie Mosconi, or Jackie Gleason and such.
Anyway, I hope you don't view my post as a poke in the eye post....if anything, it's more akin to maybe a little tap in the back of the head like in grammar school as the teacher walks by and says to you "Pay Attention.". Yeah, there's no such thing as Joss East and that term is seldom used by anyone nowadays, except for maybe some old timers.
Joss East was a nickname pool players gave to Joss Cues back in the early 70's because Bill Stroud had left Joss Cues where he worked side by side with Dan Janes from '68-'72. Bill & Dan started Joss Cues and picked the named Joss fom an oriental word that translates into "luck'.
Bill left in '72 after Dan bought out his part of Joss Cues. Bill moved to Aspen, Colorado and started making cues under his own name. Dan continued to own & operate Joss Cues. Ann interesting sidebar to that is Tim Scruggs came to work at Joss Cues (actually twice....once for three months and then for a couple of years) after Bill Stroud left and that's where Tim learned to build cues. Tim was a machinist by trade and had been managing a pool hall in the same town. Of course, Tim went on to become a highly heralded, legendary cue-maker as did Bill Stroud and both guys really learned cue-making from Dan Janes.
After leaving Joss, Dan did an incredibly gracious thing. Bill asked Dan if he had any objections to Bill calling his company "Joss West" and Dan told Bill that would be fine. So that's how Joss West came into existence and it just became very popular slang to refer to Joss Cues as "Joss East" to differentiate between the two cue-makers. Bill was in Colorado closer to the west coast and Dan was in Maryland on the east coast. Folks just started called pool cues by either cue-maker either Joss East or Joss West but there was never a Joss East Cue Company. It has always been just Joss Cues. Joss East was just a coined reference that seemed to offset very nicely with Joss West which did exist. After awhile, Bill Stroud changed the name from "Joss West" to one word "Josswest". His early version cues he made had his JW initials....the first one was with a sideways W and then it became JW and then Joss West and then JossWest and then Bill retired.
So when you ask others, who are more knowledgeable than you, to start referring to Joss Cues as Joss East when that company has never existed, it kind of asking where did George Balabushka ever find the time to sign all those cues with his signature. I trust you know those are all just imitation signatures allowed under a agreement with his estate. George didn't sign his cues and only made 1100-1200 cues in his entire lifetime and you won't find any signatures on them unless the cue was made for someone special like Willie Mosconi, or Jackie Gleason and such.
Anyway, I hope you don't view my post as a poke in the eye post....if anything, it's more akin to maybe a little tap in the back of the head like in grammar school as the teacher walks by and says to you "Pay Attention.". Yeah, there's no such thing as Joss East and that term is seldom used by anyone nowadays, except for maybe some old timers.
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