Original Outlook was 14.....Completed in 12 Due to CA Ivory Ban
You ask a darn good question.
I ordered the cue last May 2015 and the outlook was 14 months to tackle this design. Then in December, Governor Jerry Brown signed the CA Ivory Ban into law effective July 1, 2016.
Well, that conflicted with the completion because any cues sold and arriving after 6/30/16 are illegal. Now I know some might say how would they catch you and the legal staff of my local Assemblyman Jim Patterson explained how your cue can get detected by busting someone else. Ivory is already being strictly regulated nationwide and as such, you can get caught even years afterwards through what's referred to as an audit discovery. A seller(s) of of legal pre-1978 ivory get audited and in turn cue-makers can get audited and in turn sales records get reviewed. That's how they can catch you besides just someone opening & inspecting your shipping carton.
Personally, it wasn't worth the risk because the fines are enormous for the cue buyer and for the cue-maker much larger fines plus confinement time can be levied at the buyer & cue-maker. So I had two cues underway from last year and I had to ask both cue-makers to move up their completion timetables. One cue arrived 10 days ago and this cue arrives next week. However, the amount of ivory in this one is much more than any other cue I own. Everything white on this cue or joint protectors is ivory and the other inlay is Pau Lau Abalone. Thank goodness it's not also on some banned list. The wrap is deluxe elephant from Jazznpool and he was the only supplier I cold locate that had this quality and color.
Bob had to change his scheduling to accelerate completing this cue since it was going to originally arrive after enactment of the ivory ban. There's so much ivory in this pool cue, I didn't even have to ask Bob if he could accommodate getting this done. Once the specific actual deadline was established, which wasn't until end of 2015 when the law was passed, Bob basically said "It looks like I need to get my rear in gear since there is still a lot to get done before the ban starts." I never again questioned Bob about the deadline and he kept me apprised of his progress regularly as you can see from the photos in my other thread, "The Emergence of a Custom Cue". I know he worked very hard to get it done in time......that's a lot of ivory stitches and the Pau Lau was just as demanding. Jim Baxter observed how well the protectors turned out and he sure should know and that's also ivory & Pau Lau in the protectors.
So all in all, this design was a little tougher to tackle than most average cue designs and like I wrote earlier, I have zero complaints how it turned out. Bob said visitors to his shop inquired if they could buy my cue asking is this one available? He'd smile and say "Nope, it's going to a crazy SOB in CA." Okay, Bob really didn't say that but I could easily understand if he felt that way after tackling the ring design. The original outlook was 14 months from start to finish but he was able to finish in 12 months because of the ivory ban deadline being just around the corner.
