Short Splice???

[Cornerman]

Can you cuemakers tell me at what point cuemakers started using the term "short splice" and why?

Burton Spain called his FULL SPLICED 18" ebony into maple blanks "shorty blanks." But these shorty blanks again were full-spliced.

I think Burton pioneered the V-groove square inlay method of making points and called them "half spliced." There's a little disconnect in the booklet as to what point he started using this method.

Did someone else invent this technique? Why do many/most cuemakers call the V-groove inlay a "short splice"? To me, I can't make any sense of the term. Personally, I would have called it a "semi splice." So, "half splice" is understandable to me.

I've assumed for a while that someone got confused in the terminology, and that this got passed on like wildfire. And it continues.

Fred

 

[RSB-Refugee]

Can you cuemakers tell me at what point cuemakers started using the term "short splice" and why?

Burton Spain called his FULL SPLICED 18" ebony into maple blanks "shorty blanks." But these shorty blanks again were full-spliced.

I think Burton pioneered the V-groove square inlay method of making points and called them "half spliced." There's a little disconnect in the booklet as to what point he started using this method.

Did someone else invent this technique? Why do many/most cuemakers call the V-groove inlay a "short splice"? To me, I can't make any sense of the term. Personally, I would have called it a "semi splice." So, "half splice" is understandable to me.

I've assumed for a while that someone got confused in the terminology, and that this got passed on like wildfire. And it continues.

Fred

I think Burt's terminology makes discerning the three different types easy. I also think it would be good if everyone used them. I don't think it will happen though.

The half splice changed everything. Cuemakers became independent. How many cuemakers alive can remember having to order blanks? I'm guessing the terminology has had over thirty years to ingrain itself. I don't think it will ever change.

Tracy

 

[pdcue]

Semantics, semantics, semantics...

Can you cuemakers tell me at what point cuemakers started using the term "short splice" and why?

Burton Spain called his FULL SPLICED 18" ebony into maple blanks "shorty blanks." But these shorty blanks again were full-spliced.

I think Burton pioneered the V-groove square inlay method of making points and called them "half spliced." There's a little disconnect in the booklet as to what point he started using this method.

Did someone else invent this technique? Why do many/most cuemakers call the V-groove inlay a "short splice"? To me, I can't make any sense of the term. Personally, I would have called it a "semi splice." So, "half splice" is understandable to me.

I've assumed for a while that someone got confused in the terminology, and that this got passed on like wildfire. And it continues.

Fred

...and roses by any other name

FWIW precisely speaking, the 'half-splice' is not a splice at all,
but rather a tapered lamination.

but, if you take a full-splice<which is a true splice>and cut it in half,
right at the back end of the points,
the resulting front section is exactly the same as a half-splice.

Perhaps that is why...

all the other cumakers I talk with seem to use the terms
shortsplice and halfsplice interchangeably(sp?) to refer to this
beast that never was spliced

usually, full-splice is used to designate a blank that is actually spliced,
whatever the length.

HTH
Dale Pierce

 

[runscott]

I've had this same question for a while, and still confused. We know what a full-splice is, and we know the current popular splice of gluing four pieces of wood into a four-prong forearm. But Spain did something called a short-splice, prior to coming up with his on full-splice method. My Spain is a short-splice and obviously is different from the shortcut most cue-makers take today. What exactly is it? (see pics in sig below)

Edited to add: I haven't seen a copy of Spain's booklet, and can't seem to find one.

 

[pdcue]

Once more with feeling

I've had this same question for a while, and still confused. We know what a full-splice is, and we know the current popular splice of gluing four pieces of wood into a four-prong forearm. But Spain did something called a short-splice, prior to coming up with his on full-splice method. My Spain is a short-splice and obviously is different from the shortcut most cue-makers take today. What exactly is it? (see pics in sig below)

Edited to add: I haven't seen a copy of Spain's booklet, and can't seem to find one.

It is risky to try to reconstruct history from less than full information,
you've heard the one about assume, and you, and me, but one can
make some educated guesses based on established facts and
reasonable conjecture.

In simpler times, cues were either spliced, or not.

What is now called a 'Plain Jane' was called a 'Merry Widow'
Cues with "points"<house cues, Hoppes, etc>were spliced.
The 'half-splice' did not yet exist - tho people were whacking
spliced cues in half and putting joints and wraps on them

Burt started making spliced blanks because the quality of the Titlest,
and by extension, the Hoppe, was degrading.

One of his earliest customers was George Balabushka.
Burt made two kinds of blanks for George

Rosewood, basically a clone of a Hoppe blank with Rosewood in the butt, and Ebony, which was aprox 18 inches in length. Due to the weight and cost of Ebony, a shorter butt was used with a maple handle section beneath the wrap. He did, however, develop the
full length, Hoppe-clone version first.

He also sold blanks to Palmer and Paradise
I don't know which version they bought, Palmer made some of their
own blanks, I don't think Frank ever did
Perhaps the confusion comes from the common terminology,
which can be mis-leading to those who are not as familiar with
the various actual components as someone who works with cues and blanks

Fullsplice - is a "true" spliced butt, constructed by cutting a sort of tapered finger joint into the butt wood, some are full length,
others are shorter

halfsplice - is not spliced at all, rather pieces are glued into the
same style front<nose> as in a spliced butt

If we used "truesplice" instead of 'fullsplice' there might be less
confusion, but I wouldn't expect it to change anytime soon

HTH
Dale Pierce

 

[shakes]

Rosewood, basically a clone of a Hoppe blank with Rosewood in the butt, and Ebony, which was aprox 18 inches in length.

Fullsplice - is a "true" spliced butt, constructed by cutting a sort of tapered finger joint into the butt wood, some are full length,
others are shorter

halfsplice - is not spliced at all, rather pieces are glued into the
same style front<nose> as in a spliced butt

The first section I quoted is what I have always considered a "Half-splice" and I believe that is what was first called a half splice. It's spliced but it's only about half of the length of a complete butt.

The second section is of course what everyone considers a full splice

The last section is what I have always called a short splice. As you have mentioned, it isn't actually a splice, however, it's seems to be in the public conscious.