Very clean, very elegant cue. Enjoy!
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I couldn't agree more. Nicely put. Johnnyt
Very clean, very elegant cue. Enjoy!
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That cue is absolutely gorgeous! It's elegantly styled, with exquisite craftsmanship.
But how can you play with it? The thought of bumping it against a table would have me mortified!
I think your cue is beyond words. BB cues are perfect but even better than that. You have two fine people, Tony and Donnie to call on for support. It doesn't get any better. Truly from my heart.
"country"
I'll take my Friend:thumbup:
send it over:wink:
Ralf
The design is indeed very well excecuted and the joint is a 5/16x14 ivory over SS. It is not a very common joint used and i know another cuemaker that uses it (different construction though).
there is a reason for the ivory over SS, its not for looks or to protect the ivory. thats a myth
the real reason its there is to regulate the weight of the cue at the joint. Ivory is much less dense than SS per cubic unit. the core of the cue is threaded the SS is theraded and ivory is threaded as well, so it all screws together, its not a compression fit. Its rock solid. Because the ivory is less dense than the SS; the thicker the ivory wall is the lighter the joint is. The thinner the ivory is the more SS it takes to have the same finished size the heavier it is. I dont recall the diameter, its the same on all the cues. What isnt the same is the thickness of the ivory and SS, he has different sizes he uses so he can add or reduce the weight of the cue in the middle. this allows Tony to dial in the cue the way he wants to. He builds each cue one at a time and regulates the joint weight using this technique so he gets the desired hit. They look the same from the outside but some have more ivory some less, he uses what brings the best out of the cue.
Just putting a weight bolt in the ass end of a cue to change the weight changes the whole hit of the cue and effect's where the nodal points of the cue are and the hit. And a whole bunch of other things Tony explained to me, i'm repeating what I was told and shown, i'm not a engineer. but when Tony showed me what he did it all was logical and made perfect sense. He laid it all out for me and I learned more that day than I had in a long time about cues. It dosent make what other guys are doing wrong. Its not a mater of wright vs. wrong its just a explanation of changing the wight of a cue in the butt only isnt the only place to do it and when you do it the cause/effect it will have on the cues physics. I like to understand things, isnt going to change how I play or make me a better player-its just cool knowlege for myself. For Tony its a passion and business. JCIN went to see Tony before I did and he said "He is a scientist". I was curious so I was in Washington DC for biz and went to see for myself. I agree.
You cant tell by looking at the finished cue which joint he used, but you can be sure he used the one that gives him what he is looking for. Some are heavy some art lite because of the amount of Ivory and SS thats used. Thats the real reason for the combination of materials. And a genius idea IMO. Like I said in that long post Tony has engeneered lots of ideas and the good ones go into the new cues and the bad ideas get chopped up. this is one of the ideas that he started using and will keep using. Having the ability to regulate the weight of a cue in the middle is great. And I like the look of it as well.
There are other ways, use a 3/4 SS joint to take some weight off, or use all ivory(then its real light). so by using both materials and because its all theaded he gets the best of both worlds and all the cues have the same look. Some cue makers who use the big pin like SW add weight behind the pin-they just dont talk much about it, but that works for flat faced joints. Tony uses a compression fit like Balabushka did years ago, and I like that the best.
Its precision work and takes lots of very high quality ivory to thread it when its thin and not have it crack. Once the ivory is threaded on to the SS then its safe. Its the 2nd best part of the cue, I like not having a pin at the A joint the best, I believe that is the reason the cues play so good. The less joints in a cue the better they play, one piece cues play great but are a pain to deal with. So tony has eliminated all the flat faced joints under the wrap, its one piece of wood from the bumper to the pin, its on his website.
I just like to know how things work and I learned lots from Tony. I didnt invent any of this stuff. I just haven't seen it mentioned here so since this beautiful cue popped up, I thought this is a great time to talk more in depth about it than just the inlays. Like I said before whats under the hood is what i like. And old wood. Old wood plays better so in 20 years if you think this cue plays good now, wait and see then how it plays. thats a different topic all together.
best
eric![]()
Great looking cue - how long is the wait for a BB?
The best way to know is to call Tony and ask him. I don't think thers is a waitting list at the moment (I didn't have to join one). I assume the wait for a BB cue is related to the work load at the given period of time. But as i said it's best to call Tony to find out.