Hello all,
First post here. It’s been nearly 10 years since I touched a cue, but the topic came up recently with my brother, and looking back I noticed that (unfortunately) John Davis had passed away back in 2018. Viewing some posts at that time, I noticed that he had only made somewhere near 20 full cues for customers, instead going on to concentrate on delivering full splice blanks for other makers to use. Because of it’s rarity, I thought I’d add my full John Davis to the public record.
I’ll keep the story as short as possible…but I contacted John in early/ mid 2007. I was about to turn 40 that April, and as I was playing a lot of pool at that time. I had the idea of a cue that would incorporate both my Canadian heritage and the Indian (East Indian, not Native American) heritage of my wife. The full splice seemed to me to be the closest coupling possible for wood types in a cue, and my search for a maker led me to John Davis, who was just beginning a “ comeback” of sorts at the time. His long history with significant cue makers like Burton Spain made it a really compelling direction to pursue.
All the email communications at that time went through his wife Barbara. Like me, John wasn’t much for that kind of communication. We spoke only on the phone. I still have the emails through Barbara however. We agreed on a 4 point cue of Canadian maple and Indian Rosewood. Veneers on the points would include the orange, green, and white from the Indian flag, which happened to be quite traditional. I liked the “train tack” inlays, and the cue was going to be a player. I wanted it simple.
The original grip was my preferred green/ white corded linen, but I played a lot at Flat Top Johnny’s in Cambridge, MA (since gone like so many) which used red chalk on its red felted tables. Impossible to keep that original grip clean, I sent the cue back to John who changed the grip to a black linen, and he lacquered over that as well (probably horrified by what the green linen looked like).
I was a user of Predator shafts, and I managed to convince John to make me the cue with a Z2 along with 2 of his own design/ making. I’m not entering the debate of this here. Asking a cue maker to include a shaft of another type is equivalent to asking a Michelin starred chef to cook your steak medium well to well- they will likely decline! Again, this post isn’t the place for that issue. On the subject of shafts, I later had Mike Webb make me one of his ld shafts to match. For most of the cue‘s use however, it was the Predator Z2 that was screwed to the butt. The balance turned significantly rearward (making a shot near the rail with an elevated cue more difficult), but the other shafts all required an adjustment I wasn’t willing to make.
No ivory, by-the-way.
Some pictures and specs, followed by a little conclusion:
Shafts from bottom to to top above are Predator Z2, Mike Webb ld, the 2 John Davis shafts. Cue length is approximately 58” from tip to butt end not including rubber bumper (less 1/8” for the Predator). Weights with Davis shafts are approx. 19.9 oz and 20.26 oz. Weight with Webb shaft is 20.18 oz. weight with Predator is 19.73 oz. Don’t remember tip sizes (sorry).
Sorry if I bored you all!
John and Barbara were great to deal with. I won’t go into all the details. There were set backs along the way, but any issues were dealt with professionally. I’m guessing that John probably said “screw this complete custom build business” and found his groove in providing wonderful full splice blanks to others. While the overall attention to detail in his full cues was not on the level of a Searing for instance, the overall history that John Davis brought to any build was worth the price-of-admission, in my humble opinion. I have no regrets.
The cue you see in the photos is how I last packed it in my case nearly 10 years ago. My brother had a Gold Crown table with blue chalk, as you can see. Sorry I didn’t clean things up, but it shows the cue was used, little dents and all.
AZ Billiards seemed like a good place to add to the record, as I know some members here have one as well.
Thanks,
Allan
First post here. It’s been nearly 10 years since I touched a cue, but the topic came up recently with my brother, and looking back I noticed that (unfortunately) John Davis had passed away back in 2018. Viewing some posts at that time, I noticed that he had only made somewhere near 20 full cues for customers, instead going on to concentrate on delivering full splice blanks for other makers to use. Because of it’s rarity, I thought I’d add my full John Davis to the public record.
I’ll keep the story as short as possible…but I contacted John in early/ mid 2007. I was about to turn 40 that April, and as I was playing a lot of pool at that time. I had the idea of a cue that would incorporate both my Canadian heritage and the Indian (East Indian, not Native American) heritage of my wife. The full splice seemed to me to be the closest coupling possible for wood types in a cue, and my search for a maker led me to John Davis, who was just beginning a “ comeback” of sorts at the time. His long history with significant cue makers like Burton Spain made it a really compelling direction to pursue.
All the email communications at that time went through his wife Barbara. Like me, John wasn’t much for that kind of communication. We spoke only on the phone. I still have the emails through Barbara however. We agreed on a 4 point cue of Canadian maple and Indian Rosewood. Veneers on the points would include the orange, green, and white from the Indian flag, which happened to be quite traditional. I liked the “train tack” inlays, and the cue was going to be a player. I wanted it simple.
The original grip was my preferred green/ white corded linen, but I played a lot at Flat Top Johnny’s in Cambridge, MA (since gone like so many) which used red chalk on its red felted tables. Impossible to keep that original grip clean, I sent the cue back to John who changed the grip to a black linen, and he lacquered over that as well (probably horrified by what the green linen looked like).
I was a user of Predator shafts, and I managed to convince John to make me the cue with a Z2 along with 2 of his own design/ making. I’m not entering the debate of this here. Asking a cue maker to include a shaft of another type is equivalent to asking a Michelin starred chef to cook your steak medium well to well- they will likely decline! Again, this post isn’t the place for that issue. On the subject of shafts, I later had Mike Webb make me one of his ld shafts to match. For most of the cue‘s use however, it was the Predator Z2 that was screwed to the butt. The balance turned significantly rearward (making a shot near the rail with an elevated cue more difficult), but the other shafts all required an adjustment I wasn’t willing to make.
No ivory, by-the-way.
Some pictures and specs, followed by a little conclusion:
Shafts from bottom to to top above are Predator Z2, Mike Webb ld, the 2 John Davis shafts. Cue length is approximately 58” from tip to butt end not including rubber bumper (less 1/8” for the Predator). Weights with Davis shafts are approx. 19.9 oz and 20.26 oz. Weight with Webb shaft is 20.18 oz. weight with Predator is 19.73 oz. Don’t remember tip sizes (sorry).
Sorry if I bored you all!
John and Barbara were great to deal with. I won’t go into all the details. There were set backs along the way, but any issues were dealt with professionally. I’m guessing that John probably said “screw this complete custom build business” and found his groove in providing wonderful full splice blanks to others. While the overall attention to detail in his full cues was not on the level of a Searing for instance, the overall history that John Davis brought to any build was worth the price-of-admission, in my humble opinion. I have no regrets.
The cue you see in the photos is how I last packed it in my case nearly 10 years ago. My brother had a Gold Crown table with blue chalk, as you can see. Sorry I didn’t clean things up, but it shows the cue was used, little dents and all.
AZ Billiards seemed like a good place to add to the record, as I know some members here have one as well.
Thanks,
Allan
