Well now for the review of my new Brazalian Rosewood and Olive wood Wrapless player ... Thanks for allowing me to post the pictures and practice taking them and putting them in here on my new digital camera .. As I said this is my first time doing it all on my own... Plus I got to show off my Sly's while doing so ...
The Review ...
Woods : Brazalian Rosewood and Olivewood...
Butt Cap... Black Phenolic...
Ferrell ... Micarta ...
Shafts ... Some of the Smoothest and Whitest Maple ...
Shaft Diameters ... 12.75
Joints ... Black Phenolic ...
Ring Work ... Black Phenolic and Ivory ...
Tips ... Everest ...
Pin ... 3/8 10 brass pin ...
Wieght ... 19.5 OZ...
Length... 58 inches...
Logo... LS
Cue Builder ... Leon Sly ...
It is no secret that I am a big fan of the cues Sly makes to me they are some of the best I have played with and my personal choice of cues to play with... I have used several Schons , Joss's , Rempe's , McDermots ... And had several cue makers of which I will not name in this review build me cues ... Of all the cues I have had and shot with that I owned there is only one that I did not like and that was a production cue ... And I will not name the maker of that here either... I have been fortunate in choosing my cue makers as all that have built me a cue have done a good job with them... I have even owned two cues from cue makers that have caught the devil on here and it seems I was lucky enough to get perhaps one of the best cues they made... One was a Sneaky I got that unknown to me at the time the cue maker was new at the time and he asked Leon Sly to do the butt for him and insert the pin... I love the cue and did not find out till later that Leon had built the butt for the cue ... I did not even know Leon at the time when I bought the cue from the other cue maker... I showed Leon the Sneaky and he confirmed he did the work on the butt and it had one of his old pins in it ... The other cue I got in trade it was made by another cue person that caught heck here on the forum and it was a J.B. and it did it's job and looked nice but I later raffled it off...
As for this cue of Brazalian Rosewood ... The cue is fabulous... It hits awesome ... The finish on it is as nice and shiny as it gets ... I see no visible mistakes in it ... The cue is sound and well made... Leon makes some of the smoothest shafts that you will find and is very under rated. His shafts feel and look like glass they slide through your fingers smoother then silk... The wood is highly figured and beautifull Leon has some personal friends that can locate him some of the finest woods and does alot of searching for some of the nicest woods and friends in the wood industry ... I love the hit of the big pin he puts in his cues ... He uses the 3/8 10 pin all his cues unless someone asks for something else in thier cue ...
Leon put a one inch Micarta ferrell on this cues shafts some stock he got from Mason via another cue builder. It may sound crazy but I swear it seems as if this micarta material puts more action on the cue ball... I know some say there is no way a ferrell can do that but it does seem to get more action ... Combined with the Everest tip the cue gets remarkable play and action... The cue is perfectly staight and has the perfect taper for me... Leon's finish is top notch ... He has switched to a different finish as he is always looking to improve on his product and this stuff shines. You will not find anything cheap in Leon's cues he puts out the money to get the best products he can to build the best possible cue for his customers... After all as he says it only takes on bad cue to make a bad name for a cue maker and before you know it the lynch mob is out after you ... And he strives for perfection in every cue he builds...
Needless to say Leon Sly is my Cue Maker of choice and I love playing with his cues. Of course I will try out other cue makers from time to time to see what they build and how good they are ... In fact I have a Doug Patrick Cue here I just got I plan to do a review on here in the next week or two ... But for me there will always be a Sly in my case... Leon delivered this cue to me in person in Macon Georgia ...Where my son and I spent a week with Leon and his wife ... They are some of the nicest people you could meet ... Heck I even left my son with them and will return this weekend to pick him up and help Leon finish the job he is working on so he can return home and start back to building more cues.
One other thing I have to say about Sly ... Is he is more then a cue maker he is also a very good pool player... So not only does he build cues but he gets to put different combinations together and try them out to see how well they play. Leon knows his stuff from both a cue builders perspective and a players perspective and what a person is looking for from both angles... He is great to talk to over the phone and is a good sounding board with great recomendations that he can give you when discussing what type of cue you want to build and what you want in it ... Also he is still flying under the radar so to speak and his cues are still very affordable... Leon is one of the up and coming cue builders that you may want to get a line on before his cues go up in price ... He has already seen his work orders start to see a tremendous jump and this once unkown secret is stating to get out ...
PLAY WITH A SLY OR GO HUNGRY ...
Thanks Leon for building me another great hitting cue ...
