I think you'll find that most Titlist conversions are done in this manner. There's a good reason! The old housecues had a sharper rate of taper. They were bigger in the butt, but smaller at the mid point of the cue. If you measure a Titlist, you'll find that it's only about .800 at 29 inches from the bottom. Also If you were to wrap it, in the normal place, you'd have very short points coming from under the wrap. Most cuemakers cut the butt just below the points and join a maple handle with the tennon either going up into the points or from the prong down into the handle. George was a pioneer at using a phenolic "buzz ring" at the splice, under the wrap. This is because it's difficult to glue endgrain to endgrain. Using a phenlic ring in between gives both endgrains something it can adhere to better. This process of moving the points up closer to the joint when the handle is added serves other purposes as well. Due to the taper, it makes the prong area slightly oversized. This gives you the opportunity to "bump the centers" as necessary and even up any differences in the point length. Surely you don't think all of those Titlists came with even points "out of the box". Also if the veneer tips are deteriorating, they can be turned out, good as new. I'll attach a couple of pics of one I'm working on now. This one is going to receive some actual "Bushka" parts in the bottom. I have most of a broken Balabushka Titlist which was like the one that Cicero Murphy played with for many years. It had a clear bottom with some knurled aluminum "gear like" rings inside. I had a twin (or would that be triplicate LOL) to this cue years ago and have planned this tribute cue for years.
just more hot air!
Sherm
