let's see some of those "SHI* HAPPENS" cues

[BHQ]

It can happen to any hard wood. The harder the wood the more apt it is to happen. I've had a Olive wood cue laying around for some time now that looks just like that but apparently some one has snagged it as it is gone so I can't get pictures. I've been having a lot of thefts going on lately while I'm in another part of the shop working on someones cue. I got my personal cue, an 8 point 3 veneer cue that I built and have used since 1996 stolen out of my case here in the shop about 6 weeks ago. At least they let me keep my It's George case. I've got 4 surveillance cameras around now continuously running to a 500 gig hard drive. Just can't trust pool players.

Dick

i thought you trained that big snake to watchdog for ya :smile:

 

[macguy]

Here's a more recent one for me.

The rings were cut to different thicknesses. It's a silly aesthetic mistake, but unrepairable without major reconstruction. The B & C checked rings are thicker than the D & E checked rings by .010".

That actually is repairable at least to the extent it can be sold without worry. It just won't look like you originally intended. What you do is cut a straight groove encompassing the rings. Not very deep maybe .050 deep. Then add a clam shell (split ring), piece of say ebony. Ebony is good because you can hide where they come together by tinting the epoxy. I have done it a few times and it is undetectable. Just something to think about.

 

[Zagiflyer]

Here's a more recent one for me.

The rings were cut to different thicknesses. It's a silly aesthetic mistake, but unrepairable without major reconstruction. The B & C checked rings are thicker than the D & E checked rings by .010".

I think that you just have to say that you took artistic license and designed it that way to express your individuality and differentiate your work from similiar cues Seriously, somebody would be happy to own that cue. I'm still fairly new at this and my mistakes are getting less noticable but they are still there even if most people who aren't cue builders would never notice them......I know they are there. I can only imagine that every time I see some awesome, intricate cue that looks perfect the builder is probably aware of some tiny little flaw that nobody would notice. I wonder if anyone has ever built a cue that they think is truly perfect. I think that the pursuit of perfection and the ability to be self critical of our work is what creates "continous improvement" as the Japanese would say.

My cues are very simple but I still feel bad when I need to scrap something that I've been working on, it still happens a lot. I can only imagine how bad you guys must feel when one of those beautiful cues loaded with inlays has an "oops" during production.