Question about an old (but sentimental) dufferin

[jokrswylde]

Long post; don't care to read cliffs notes: dufferin, early 90"s vintage, worth a refurbish or not?

Ok, little back story... growing up, we got our first pool table in 1990 because my paw paw got a divorce at age 75 because his second wife refused to get cable, and therefore he couldn't watch his favorite show, NWA 'rasslin (paw paw was a huge Dusty Rhodes fan). Anyway, being a new bachelor, paw paw wanted a place to shoot pool, and the local senior citizen's center removed their tables in order to create a jazzercise/aerobics area (i can't make this stuff up!)

So dad and i got an old gold crown and fixed up the basement into a pool room for paw paw. To this day i can see him coming in the front door with his John Deere hat askew, navy blue dickie coveralls, and pulling an oxygen tank on a little dolly behind him.

"C'mon, ladies, let's play some cut throat " he would say to me and my dad without fail. I remember the day he came in with his new dufferin he had gotten at Sears, i believe (we knew nothing about"quality" cues and had been playing with the house set we got with the table.)

Anyway, so many great memories of learning pool from paw paw. A few years later, as his health declined, he gave me his cue when i moved off to college. He passed when i was in grad school. I used the dufferin throughout school, but after graduating it got shipped back home with tons of other stuff and I forgot about it for twenty years.

I have since rediscovered the cue, and although i have moved on to much better cues, i still get paw paws cue out and knock some balls around, reminisce, and tell whatever friends i have around about my paw paw.

Anyway, the cue is showing its age, and i am curious about having it refurbished. Now, i don't play with the cue competitively, it is more for nostalgia, but i was hoping to get some advice on how much i am looking at to turn it into a player. Looking for a ballpark, not to pin someone down, but i know it needs a new ferrule, tip, joint, and possibly refinished due to the lacquer? Chipping. Could it be reasonably fixed, or should i just wall mount it in my home room?

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[Mase]

We are not supposed to quote prices but if I give you a range I might not get into to much trouble.

Just about anything can be repaired. The tip and ferrule could be done by any cue repair person. Cost would be anywhere from $30 to $60 depending on the tip you want.

I have always found the aluminum joint on the Dufferins difficult to work with. If I have a collar that has split (many do as they were plastic) and the joint is otherwise ok I just repair the collar. What I do is take the old collar off and tint some epoxy black and fill the void. It takes a few coats and then I cut it down to original size. It is surprising how good it looks when finished. Hard to tell from the original. This would cost you $20 to $40.

Where you get into the big money is having the whole thing refinished. You are probably looking at $100 to $200 for it.

I tried to determine what model you had. It looks similar to the Jubilee but not quite the same. It may have been a special run for the chain.

 

[PoppaSaun]

I'd say that you should replace the tip and ferrule and leave everything else alone. Gramps didn't give it to you so you could hang it on a wall, he wanted you to play with it.

Every nick and blemish has a story. You may not know all of them, but open books are boring...everything should have secrets, even from those who love them most. That cue shows evidence of having had a life. Retire it if you must, but don't kill it by making it something it never intended to be.