Old school Blanks vs new blanks ?
- Thread starter Fish
- Start date
I'd rather have a 1963 Corvette made with 2008 technology.
Do both.
This is why I take old school full spliced Brunswick blanks used in their Hoppe's or model 26 1/2's with straight grain maple forearms and ebony or another rare wood in the lower full splice and butt, and ask Jerry Rauenzahn to convert it using today's technology. Let me tell you, I am extremely happy with the results. The cues have the rare looks of the 63 split window vette, but they are rock solid which allows the playability to be current to the 2008 vette technology.
There are a loy of variables. When the cue is done it's a one of a kind like a 32 ford coupe chopped and rebuilt from the ground up, fun to play around and show off.
John
This is why I take old school full spliced Brunswick blanks used in their Hoppe's or model 26 1/2's with straight grain maple forearms and ebony or another rare wood in the lower full splice and butt, and ask Jerry Rauenzahn to convert it using today's technology. Let me tell you, I am extremely happy with the results. The cues have the rare looks of the 63 split window vette, but they are rock solid which allows the playability to be current to the 2008 vette technology.
There are a loy of variables. When the cue is done it's a one of a kind like a 32 ford coupe chopped and rebuilt from the ground up, fun to play around and show off.
John
As far as construction goes, most are glued up differently. But that is not always the case as I have two different types of Spain blanks I bought from him. If he needed to get rid of some weight he spliced them his own special way. If he was using lighter woods he spliced them pretty much like the old Titlist, and modern blanks are made that I sell. Davis does his own unique splicing method to cut down on weight. It is different than Spain or anyone else has done that I have seen, just as Spain's was different from everyone elses also. Which is best? Not sure as all three splicing methods look good and strong. I actually had to build a full splice cue from scratch before Spain's splicing method made sense to me. I had his blanks for years before I understood how he did what he did. It just looked like an impossible puzzle to put together. But the simplicity of it was genious and I could not figure it out.Fish said:
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Fish said:
Spain's blanks covered the entire spectrum. He developed his own way of doing a full splice. He developed his own way of doing the half-splice. He tried using black palm, plastic veneers, and even cast plastic veneers in a transfer molding setup. So, even amongst his own blanks, there was quite a difference in evolution.
The only difference really would be the technical execution and the glues used. I'm sure in the hands of a buffoon today, a horrible blank could be made easily.
Something that Burton did with the half-splice was to go through the painstaking steps to join/bevel the veneers at the A joint so that they actually touched (giving the illusion of a full splice). Not many cuemakers do that today.
Fred
dave sutton
Banned
WalkerInTN said:I'd rather have a 1963 Corvette made with 2008 technology.
like wise
i think 2008 technology is more accurate but i love old school
dave sutton said:
I think it's not only more accurate - with the help of modern media like Internet, DVDs and Video there are lots of possibilities to exchange the better techniques than ever before.
I live in Germany. Back in the days, a rookie carpenter, after finishing his training, went on a tour of up to three years outside of his hometown. He was not allowed to get closer than 50km (appx. 30mls) of his hometown. They went through this trip to get to know the techniques which their first instructor could not teach them. With the introduction of modern technology, exchanging ideas and techniques over the whole world has become so easy that it amazes me from time to time.
Just think about the frequent questions like the best glue for a specific application or the setup for spraying modern finishes. In the old days, you had to work out most of these problems yourself and chances were high that the best ideas did not even come to mind.
Of course, modern technology does not guarantee great results. But the information about the better ways to build cues has never been more available.
Regards,
Detlev