Knowing how big of a cue-fan I was, Joe Van of classiccues.com invited me on a tour of Skip Weston's shop yesterday. For those of you who have never seen Skip's cues, here's the link to his webpage: http://www.skipwestoncues.net (classiccues.com for more examples).
Skip was a gracious host, and it was obvious that he's very passionate about making cues. I saw his vast stash of exotic woods, from ebony/cocobolo to pink ivory and snakewood. Some of the most purplish purple heart I've ever seen, and some intricately-grained olivewood as well.
I held a dozen almost-finished forearms in my hand, and a dozen more that were cut to receive points. All I can say is, no one cuts a deeper point than Skip. The cross-section of wood at the base of the forearms are amazingly, dangerously thin. See for yourself (in the pics) how close his points are, and compare his 4 or 8 pointers to ANY other cuemaker out there, and you'll see what I mean. I wish I had the money to order all of those half-finished cues right then and there. It'll probably buy me a house in a few more years =)
The most striking aspect of Skip's work are his hardwood veneers, which he uses in place of traditional dyed sycamore. With Skip's cues, there's never any color running into each other, even near the point. I'm not quite sure exactly how his hardwood veneers are glued on (he had to keep some secrets!), but they are assembled onto the main point and glued into the short-splice grooves as one unit.
The overall effect looks similar to re-milled points, but even tighter. Skip's technique is absolutely unique---no one is doing what he's doing in terms of pointwork, and I would venture to say that no one can. He's making virtually perfect points, points that you can take a magnifying lense to.
Skip was nice enough to trim a tip for me, and it was pretty cool to watch him in action. He took the pain to calibrate his adjustable chuck so that my shaft (which has a slight warp) spins true.
In any case, the trip was an amazing experience for me. I kept saying "wow," and "awesome," the whole time I was there. I thank Joe Van for introducing me to Skip, and Skip for letting me into his shop.
-Roger
Skip was a gracious host, and it was obvious that he's very passionate about making cues. I saw his vast stash of exotic woods, from ebony/cocobolo to pink ivory and snakewood. Some of the most purplish purple heart I've ever seen, and some intricately-grained olivewood as well.
I held a dozen almost-finished forearms in my hand, and a dozen more that were cut to receive points. All I can say is, no one cuts a deeper point than Skip. The cross-section of wood at the base of the forearms are amazingly, dangerously thin. See for yourself (in the pics) how close his points are, and compare his 4 or 8 pointers to ANY other cuemaker out there, and you'll see what I mean. I wish I had the money to order all of those half-finished cues right then and there. It'll probably buy me a house in a few more years =)
The most striking aspect of Skip's work are his hardwood veneers, which he uses in place of traditional dyed sycamore. With Skip's cues, there's never any color running into each other, even near the point. I'm not quite sure exactly how his hardwood veneers are glued on (he had to keep some secrets!), but they are assembled onto the main point and glued into the short-splice grooves as one unit.
The overall effect looks similar to re-milled points, but even tighter. Skip's technique is absolutely unique---no one is doing what he's doing in terms of pointwork, and I would venture to say that no one can. He's making virtually perfect points, points that you can take a magnifying lense to.
Skip was nice enough to trim a tip for me, and it was pretty cool to watch him in action. He took the pain to calibrate his adjustable chuck so that my shaft (which has a slight warp) spins true.
In any case, the trip was an amazing experience for me. I kept saying "wow," and "awesome," the whole time I was there. I thank Joe Van for introducing me to Skip, and Skip for letting me into his shop.
-Roger
