My Addiction, Vintage Production Cues

Cuebuddy

Cuebuddy

Mini cues
Silver Member
This started with me about 30 years ago. While at work, I noticed several pool cues sticking out of a trash can waiting to get thrown away. Being an avid player with a table at home and where I work, I pulled over and grabbed them. Only one was special, a vintage Brunswick Tru Balance.

From that point I started my collection. A few a year, I would check Ebay and secondhand stores where ever I traveled.
Little by little a few more would get snapped up, antique stores were also checked whenever possible.
I also kept my eyes open for vintage cue racks and built a few myself to display the collection.

I recently picked up a very old 12 cue rack locally. The price was so good I could not pass it up. This cue rack was made by Bott Brothers Billiards out of Columbus Ohio. It was nice to hang it and get another 12 old cues out of the corner of my shop and in a spot where they could be seen better.

My plan is to fill this rack up with Brunswick Professional cues from the 40's through the 60's. There are several different labels used as the years went by and I have about half of them. My hopes are to get the other Blue labels that I don't have currently and replace the Master Strokes in this rack. Although I love the Master Strokes too.
 

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Cuebuddy said:
This started with me about 30 years ago. While at work, I noticed several pool cues sticking out of a trash can waiting to get thrown away. Being an avid player with a table at home and where I work, I pulled over and grabbed them. Only one was special, a vintage Brunswick Tru Balance.

From that point I started my collection. A few a year, I would check Ebay and secondhand stores where ever I traveled.
Little by little a few more would get snapped up, antique stores were also checked whenever possible.
I also kept my eyes open for vintage cue racks and built a few myself to display the collection.

I recently picked up a very old 12 cue rack locally. The price was so good I could not pass it up. This cue rack was made by Bott Brothers Billiards out of Columbus Ohio. It was nice to hang it and get another 12 old cues out of the corner of my shop and in a spot where they could be seen better.

My plan is to fill this rack up with Brunswick Professional cues from the 40's through the 60's. There are several different labels used as the years went by and I have about half of them. My hopes are to get the other Blue labels that I don't have currently and replace the Master Strokes in this rack. Although I love the Master Strokes too.
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Gimme, gimme, gimme!😍
 
I have a few more in other racks, some are a little rough but still worth displaying.
Quite a few are just ordinary playing cues, a few I have converted and of course my collection of miniature cues.
 

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Cuebuddy said:
This started with me about 30 years ago. While at work, I noticed several pool cues sticking out of a trash can waiting to get thrown away. Being an avid player with a table at home and where I work, I pulled over and grabbed them. Only one was special, a vintage Brunswick Tru Balance.

From that point I started my collection. A few a year, I would check Ebay and secondhand stores where ever I traveled.
Little by little a few more would get snapped up, antique stores were also checked whenever possible.
I also kept my eyes open for vintage cue racks and built a few myself to display the collection.

I recently picked up a very old 12 cue rack locally. The price was so good I could not pass it up. This cue rack was made by Bott Brothers Billiards out of Columbus Ohio. It was nice to hang it and get another 12 old cues out of the corner of my shop and in a spot where they could be seen better.

My plan is to fill this rack up with Brunswick Professional cues from the 40's through the 60's. There are several different labels used as the years went by and I have about half of them. My hopes are to get the other Blue labels that I don't have currently and replace the Master Strokes in this rack. Although I love the Master Strokes too.
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Thanks for sharing your collection. I like the color of your Diamond table, too!
 
Guy Manges said:
Good for you and you're grand hobby, then will you in time sell them...
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It is not likely That these cues will re-enter the market. I have a few years to go and my children will no doubt get to divide these up. Three of my four kids all play and have tables at home.

Cue Alchemist said:
Wow what a collection!! I bet thay still play great. Very envious looking at those. Hope you keep them as thay are.
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As long as the cue has a tip it will get played. The only time I would cut a cue is if there is something wrong on the upper end. Like a cracked or badly warped shaft, even then I have to turn my head away when making the cut.:oops:
 
Over the years I have found a few anomalies in the Brunswick line.
Most collectors and historians are aware that the Brunswick Challenger was the entry level house cue that Brunswick offered. I don't believe the Challenger out sold the Tru Balance.

The Challenger was a one piece Maple cue that had been stained from the bumper through the points. In other words it had fake points. I don't know how the factories did this. I imagine that they had a sleeve device that must have slid over the shaft down the cue and would snug up tight on the handle area. Then the cue would be sprayed with a paint/stain.

I recently found a Oak into Maple Challenger. I figure that somehow a Tru Ballance cue must have found its way into the Challenger bin and had the wrong label placed on it.
Here is a pic of both cues next to each other.
 

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If the challenger are the basic level cues for that time. I can see why thay would paint them. I have seen similar ones.very beat up. The ones you you have are in great condition.
 
I have a Tru Balance cue that is probably the oddest in my collection.
It appears to have been made from two pieces of wood and joined together before it was spliced into Maple and turned.

With all the wood that the factories had at their disposal I have to wonder why someone would have glued two pieces of the same wood together and then go through the process of making a cue.

Whatever the reason they did such a good job that on one side the splice is barely visible, but more apparent on the other.
 

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