This is a must read. This is an update to a previous thread about Bert Schrager.

jimmycue

jimmycue

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
This is the original post about Bert That i asked cuemaker or crook?
Back in 2000 i was thinking about building poolcues and bought a bunch of wood and cue building items. Around that time i was also looking to get on Bert Schrager's list to build a cue. He knew i was starting out in building them and i had alot of shaft wood. So i sent him some shaft wood in trade for him making me a basic cue. After keeping in touch now and then over the last 6 years i find out from Bert that he sold his shop and no longer can he make me a cue. Does anybody know if this is correct? Did he sell his shop? At this point it wouldnt matter if he did cause he told me i will get nothing in trade for the wood i sent him. But i could look at it this way, i guess i got the shaft in the end didnt i ? I have heard that he has done this to other people thru the years. Has anybody on this list got the same treatment from Bert Schrager again i ask cuemaker or crook? PM me about your opinion if you dont want to respond on the forum.
Thanks
Just had to vent somewhere.


I have an update to my earlier post about Bert Schrager.

My post originally was put up in 2006 and in 2009 somebody posted a comment 3 years after the fact, and in doing so a very highly respected cue maker saw the post and contacted me to tell me a bit more about Bert Schrager and why perhaps the outcome wasn't really what I hoped or expected would be. Well after some lengthy conversations with that cue maker I changed my opinion about my one and only dealing with Bert. When I thought about the cue makers comments I realized Bert Schrager has contributed a lot to the cue building world and should be remembered favorably when all is said and done. AND while Bert was unable to honor his end of the trade for a cue this cue maker (who specifically asked not to be named) offered to build me a cue at NO CHARGE. At this point I was so overwhelmed with his generosity I thought he was pulling my leg, well - after talking some more I realized he was on the up and up. He even gave me a choice of cues he had in the works to pick from. In the end, I received a John Davis blank built cue in a Hoppe style which I have always wanted to get. I must say what comes around goes around and I really did get the shaft in the end along with the butt to go with it . . . all is well that ends well.
 

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I feel good for you Jimmycue , but now I feel bad for the guy who made things right,,, He made you an "A1" GREAT cue and got nothing for it ....
Give him a BIG TIP please !!!!!
 
There is a time when we have to show compassion for the elderly and the infirm.

As you know by now, Bert Schrager may have been ill, but he's an honest man. I can tell you, Bert is also a good man. I'm sure if he could have built you a cue or refunded you, he would have. He sold his equipment years ago to Tommy O'Connor. There is no way he could have built a cue for you even if he still had it and it must have been an oversight on his part.

I salute the unknown cue maker! Someone PM me his name and I will keep it private.

This cue was a gift.... to Bert Schrager.

Chris
 
I think that the lesson here is that we should all try to remember that the billiard industry is full of many good people. In my 20 years I have met some many passionate cue makers and just plain good people that it's impossible to list them all. We are a small industry and while there are predators most of the folks are just honest hardworking craftsmen and women trying to make a living.

You know the saying "if I had a dime for every time......" well if I had a dime for every time I have been stiffed in this business I'd have about a dollar but if I had a dime for every time someone did me a favor then I'd have nice stack of vacation money.

Stories like this where one person in the business is willing to step up and take care of another person's problem are common in this business and far too often not even spoken about.

I have said this many times that I am proud to be part of this industry. I wouldn't trade the experience of the last twenty years for any amount of money.

Good for you Jimmy and kudos to the unknown cue maker who stepped up to the plate for Bert.
 
Yes, this industry has many good people. We should continue to support it. Myself and close friends who love this industry have lost lots of $$$, but we are still here. I just wrote it off.

I remember Manwon's post from the previous thread and he said it very well.

Good day everyone. :thumbup:
 
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Mystery cue maker

I have had a few people ask who the mystery cue maker is and out of respect for them to remain anonymous i will decline these requests. So unless the cue maker changes there mind which i wish they would i will leave it at that.
Thanks
 
TATE said:
There is a time when we have to show compassion for the elderly and the infirm.

As you know by now, Bert Schrager may have been ill, but he's an honest man. I can tell you, Bert is also a good man. I'm sure if he could have built you a cue or refunded you, he would have. He sold his equipment years ago to Tommy O'Connor. There is no way he could have built a cue for you even if he still had it and it must have been an oversight on his part.

I salute the unknown cue maker! Someone PM me his name and I will keep it private.

This cue was a gift.... to Bert Schrager.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, but I remember one other thing about Bert that always bothered me. He had a vice like hand shake, that he gave to all the pool players who entered his shop. I mean it was like he was trying to crush your hand in his. I didn't like it and told him so once. He just smiled at me. Thought he was being funny.

A pool player does not like his hand getting crushed! Would you? I'm sorry but this practice of his was totally uncool!
 
jay helfert said:
Thanks Chris, but I remember one other thing about Bert that always bothered me. He had a vice like hand shake, that he gave to all the pool players who entered his shop. I mean it was like he was trying to crush your hand in his. I didn't like it and told him so once. He just smiled at me. Thought he was being funny.

A pool player does not like his hand getting crushed! Would you? I'm sorry but this practice of his was totally uncool!
Click to expand...

lol, all the workout players get is 18-21oz lol. Got to get a heavier cue jay :) I feel ya about the hands tho, I could seriously injure my hands with what I do on the job and take every precaution I can to protect them, same as with my eyes....you can never be too careful.

I did a job offshore a while back and knew everyone including the consultant since i was a small boy. The consultant was complaining that he needed to pump up his workouts (he was a built guy) I told him "brother you don't need to work out more you just need to get a heavier pencil for all that paper you push out here" He just gave me that look and we both laughed.
 
jay helfert said:
Thanks Chris, but I remember one other thing about Bert that always bothered me. He had a vice like hand shake, that he gave to all the pool players who entered his shop. I mean it was like he was trying to crush your hand in his. I didn't like it and told him so once. He just smiled at me. Thought he was being funny.

A pool player does not like his hand getting crushed! Would you? I'm sorry but this practice of his was totally uncool!
Click to expand...

I didn't know that.

When Bert first started making cues, he came into our poolroom and I tried one of his cues. I hit a few balls, and the shaft went "boing" and vibrated like a tuning fork after each shot. I said "Bert, you hear that? he grabbed the shaft and said "maybe it's a bad one" and stomped out.

Between the boingy shafts and his penchant for cork wraps, I didn't think he would last two months in the cuemaking business, much less 40 years!

My buddy's dad had a machine shop in Burbank and did Bert's early inlays -so that's how I knew him.


Chris
 
Wow, that "tree" pretty much sums up the bulk of cuemaking as we know it. Dang!

The mystery cuemaker is an uniquely generous person to do that for you. Beautiful cue too.
 
Bud Winger said:
I feel good for you Jimmycue , but now I feel bad for the guy who made things right,,, He made you an "A1" GREAT cue and got nothing for it ....
Give him a BIG TIP please !!!!!
Click to expand...

Im not sure he got nothing from it. He righted a wrong doing that was brought on to myself because i tried to help out a fellow cue maker that he felt very passionate about due to there previous history. I will agree this cue maker went way above and beyond anything i could have ever imagined would have come from my dealings with Bert S. I would like to tell everyone who it is but as you can see just the act of building me this cue was all the justification they needed and for me to put the word out there that circumstances dictated what happened with Bert and myself and not the man himself. Bert i hope i have affected somebodies life in the way you have in your lifetime.
 
Kudos to unknown cue maker and AZ.

JB Cases said:
I think that the lesson here is that we should all try to remember that the billiard industry is full of many good people. In my 20 years I have met some many passionate cue makers and just plain good people that it's impossible to list them all. We are a small industry and while there are predators most of the folks are just honest hardworking craftsmen and women trying to make a living.

You know the saying "if I had a dime for every time......" well if I had a dime for every time I have been stiffed in this business I'd have about a dollar but if I had a dime for every time someone did me a favor then I'd have nice stack of vacation money.

Stories like this where one person in the business is willing to step up and take care of another person's problem are common in this business and far too often not even spoken about.

I have said this many times that I am proud to be part of this industry. I wouldn't trade the experience of the last twenty years for any amount of money.

Good for you Jimmy and kudos to the unknown cue maker who stepped up to the plate for Bert.
Click to expand...

Kudos to the unknown cue maker is right. But i must also say hats off to AZ for hosting this forum and letting all us pool fanatics talk about all things pool being it play or equipment or letting somebody vent about something.
Thanks everybody for there input.
 
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