Its pretty simple really...occasionally I get a customer wanting the performance of my cues but doesn't have the money to spare. So to help someone out, I offer to make them a "blem" cue or blemish cue. These are cues that have 100% of the performance but have cosmetic blemishes. The blemishes can be uneven points, larger sugar/worm/mineral marks on the shaft or butt. Often you'll get some wood that will have some cosmetic flaws and I'm not comfortable using them on my premium cues. While the blems often don't bother some players, many feel the are an eyesore. I hate to waste any wood, especially when it will perform fine and I saw this as a good option to tossing it in the trash. I generally sell these for less than half what I charge for a new sneaky. I guess its time to end this practice as its not the first time its come back to haunt me. I don't tell my customer "not to sell it" since they own it & can do as they please. What I do ask is that they don't sell it as a new Varney & to represent the cue fairly as a "blem". I hate for someone to contact me that he just paid full retail for new/second hand Varney yet wants to know why it has a 2" long dark mineral streak on the shaft. Its happened before. I even used to mark them with "BLEM" so there was no doubt, yet I'd see them later with that sanded off & sold for full pop. Thank you for the good description of the cue, with your mention of the black streak on the forearm, I know exactly for whom I made that cue. I guess from now on instead of trying to help out someone low on funds...I'll just do like the other cuemakers and say no.
