I own a Sawdust. I think that I can help you decide. First, Jack Tan, the cue maker is as good as it gets in terms of communication and honesty. Second, the cues are constructed very well, mine is wrap less with veneered points, just a great looking cue! Third, Jack offers traditional maple, Kielwood, low deflection maple, and carbon shafts for his cues. Jack's pre 2022 plain maple shafts did not have enough shaft taper for most players and I had mine cut down to 12.5MM with a 14 inch pro taper and they played so much better- he now offers a pro taper and I have his low deflection plain maple shaft with the new taper from Jack- plays just fine!
Jack usually or can adapt his cues to his own rear bumper extensions- my cue came to me with a rear extension from Jack- the original extension was 7 inches and I bought from Jack a 4 inch add on extension that screwed right into the existing 7 inch extension piece.
I do not prefer leather wraps on cues and Asian leather wraps tend to be rather slick- so I chose a Sawdust wrap less cue- your choice . I never saw an original Sawdust linen wrapped cue- cannot comment on that.
My cue is 3/8 10 pin, phenolic insert in the shafts, Jack makes great cue tips as well, the hit is firm, crisp, very solid but not dead- very good feedback through the handle area - if a Scruggs cue is a 9.5 on firmness of hit- Jack's cue is about an 8 on 10- which is my personal preference - using a medium hardness tip. The cue is not whippy, and it is not a dull thud on the other end of the spectrum- again- expect firmness, expect feedback, expect something solid in your hands.
No complaints on his cue- had it for about a year now, played about 100 hours with it including tournament play. I have 35 + years experience with over 50 true custom cue makers as well as all the past production makers. I like the cue a lot- will stay in my current stable of custom cues- which is fairly small at this point in my life- I have about 7 different makes left in my cases.
Hope that this helps you!
