> The repairs were pretty simple,but wrapped up in a screwy situation. A little over 2 years ago,a long time friend had moved back to town briefly,and had an Instroke case I wanted,and I bought it for 120 bucks. About an hour later,I also bought the 2 cues he had for another 100,a plain brown stained Joss,and a Players sneaky. I sold the Joss an hour later for 100,and wound up changing the tip. I had been out all night after working,and made a nice little score which financed this whole deal. I noticed that the ferrule was longer than a standard Joss shaft,but thought nothing more about it,as it wasn't my cue any longer.
Today,I was sound asleep when my Dad brought me the phone,on the other end was a local customer needing a tip,and also trying to cheap out by not paying another 5 bucks to have the shaft cleaned to match the sparkling clean ferrule he's about to have. He gets here,and come to find out the Joss has changed hands twice since then to wind up in this guys possession. I recognized the butt,and the shaft as well but the tip that was on the shaft wasn't one I installed. I also noticed 2 cracks,on opposite sides of the shaft,which were the same color as the ferrule/wood joint,obviously done with epoxy. I told the customer flat-out that at some point,someone broke this shaft working on it. I explained that the ferrule was changed at some point,for whatever reason,and the damage more than likely was done during that repair. I showed him with a jeweler's loupe that the coloration of the crack and the ferrule joint was the same color,and that it was more than likely there was an artificial tenon under the ferrule. He asked what that meant,and I told him that I tried to put a 5/16-18 joint screw down inside a shaft years ago looking for a way to improve break performance. I broke the shaft by running a tap up inside the wood,without a solid collet to hold the shaft together,and that it split the same way,one crack on both sides,like it was split with a wedge. I discarded my idea,and a few weeks later I read where Jim Buss had tried that,causing unusable squirt.
I told the customer that with me not doing the repair work,I can't be held responsible if the shaft comes apart. I only had it an hour,and the shaft was intact to the best of my knowledge,other than the longer-than-normal ferrule. I only worked on it long enough to re-tip it and clean the shaft.
He starts talking about how he's going to try and get a refund on it,and asks me to re-tip it. I do so and charge him 10 bucks.
I get a call not even an hour later,from a local I'm a little better friends with. Customer #1 has sold the cue,and wanted to know if I knew how it got broke or if I was somehow responsible for the damage. I told him to bring it by here,and I'd show him exactly what I showed #1,and explain what I think happened. He brings it by,and #2 tells me he noticed it on his own,asked #1 about it,and he claimed it was just the wood grain,and that nothing is wrong. I tell #2 different,and that my Dad was standing right behind #1 when I told him the deal. So,#2 is pissed,and wants me to go hit some balls with it and determine that the ferrule is mounted on a metal tenon. I told him if indeed the ferrule was screwed down to a metal bolt,it would sound or feel funny if the repair was weak,and maybe affect the playability. So,that's what we did.
The ferrule sounded funny,and when measured against a Joss shaft I had laying around,and it was 2" shorter than it should have been,on top of this hack-job repair. I offered to sell him another shaft,while customer #2 argues with #1 over this junk shaft. We go back to my house and I clean up and re-tip the new one,and go back to see if there was any difference. The cue still made noise,and I had just made the statement that sometimes they'll make this same noise because of a loose weight bolt. This other guy said that it didn't make that same noise saturday afternoon,but that it was before they got to messing with the weight bolt. This cue was around 20.5oz before I sold it,and noticed it was lighter. Come to find out,they took the weight bolt"S" out,there were 2 1/2-13 slugs in there for weight,instead of just one full length bolt. These 2 slugs were about 2" in length. We screwed one of them in,and I'll be damned if that didn't stop the noise,even with the messed-up shaft. The screwy one even played ok,just felt weird.
The deal between customers 1 and 2 went down like this. Customer 1 bought the cue with the messed up shaft for 150 from a lawyer,who bought it from the guy I sold it to originally for 125,a rather big,tough dude. Customer #1 has no recourse against the lawyer for the screwed shaft (how do you sue a lawyer?),has better sense than to seek compensation from the guy I sold it to,and now has customer #2 seeking a rebate since the shaft was screwed,due to no fault of mine. Customer #2 told #1 that he can either refund him 100 bucks for the screwed shaft,without consulting me or asking what I wanted for the good shaft,or buy the shaft from me and just give it to him. Customer #1 complied,and gave him back 100 bucks.
The shaft was just laying around in my back bedroom,and was just going to give it to #2,and charge him 20 for the tip and super-cleaning. Instead I make 20 there,10 for the tip on the junker,and 50 for a shaft I was going to give away. Customer #2 got a plain Joss with 2 shafts and a case,for 100 bucks,#1 got caught trying to scam someone again and came out 100 in the hole with no cue to show for his efforts,and I not only cleared my name as being the one that screwed the shaft up,but figured out what was the problem all along and made 80 bucks,very strange indeed. Tommy D.
Today,I was sound asleep when my Dad brought me the phone,on the other end was a local customer needing a tip,and also trying to cheap out by not paying another 5 bucks to have the shaft cleaned to match the sparkling clean ferrule he's about to have. He gets here,and come to find out the Joss has changed hands twice since then to wind up in this guys possession. I recognized the butt,and the shaft as well but the tip that was on the shaft wasn't one I installed. I also noticed 2 cracks,on opposite sides of the shaft,which were the same color as the ferrule/wood joint,obviously done with epoxy. I told the customer flat-out that at some point,someone broke this shaft working on it. I explained that the ferrule was changed at some point,for whatever reason,and the damage more than likely was done during that repair. I showed him with a jeweler's loupe that the coloration of the crack and the ferrule joint was the same color,and that it was more than likely there was an artificial tenon under the ferrule. He asked what that meant,and I told him that I tried to put a 5/16-18 joint screw down inside a shaft years ago looking for a way to improve break performance. I broke the shaft by running a tap up inside the wood,without a solid collet to hold the shaft together,and that it split the same way,one crack on both sides,like it was split with a wedge. I discarded my idea,and a few weeks later I read where Jim Buss had tried that,causing unusable squirt.
I told the customer that with me not doing the repair work,I can't be held responsible if the shaft comes apart. I only had it an hour,and the shaft was intact to the best of my knowledge,other than the longer-than-normal ferrule. I only worked on it long enough to re-tip it and clean the shaft.
He starts talking about how he's going to try and get a refund on it,and asks me to re-tip it. I do so and charge him 10 bucks.
I get a call not even an hour later,from a local I'm a little better friends with. Customer #1 has sold the cue,and wanted to know if I knew how it got broke or if I was somehow responsible for the damage. I told him to bring it by here,and I'd show him exactly what I showed #1,and explain what I think happened. He brings it by,and #2 tells me he noticed it on his own,asked #1 about it,and he claimed it was just the wood grain,and that nothing is wrong. I tell #2 different,and that my Dad was standing right behind #1 when I told him the deal. So,#2 is pissed,and wants me to go hit some balls with it and determine that the ferrule is mounted on a metal tenon. I told him if indeed the ferrule was screwed down to a metal bolt,it would sound or feel funny if the repair was weak,and maybe affect the playability. So,that's what we did.
The ferrule sounded funny,and when measured against a Joss shaft I had laying around,and it was 2" shorter than it should have been,on top of this hack-job repair. I offered to sell him another shaft,while customer #2 argues with #1 over this junk shaft. We go back to my house and I clean up and re-tip the new one,and go back to see if there was any difference. The cue still made noise,and I had just made the statement that sometimes they'll make this same noise because of a loose weight bolt. This other guy said that it didn't make that same noise saturday afternoon,but that it was before they got to messing with the weight bolt. This cue was around 20.5oz before I sold it,and noticed it was lighter. Come to find out,they took the weight bolt"S" out,there were 2 1/2-13 slugs in there for weight,instead of just one full length bolt. These 2 slugs were about 2" in length. We screwed one of them in,and I'll be damned if that didn't stop the noise,even with the messed-up shaft. The screwy one even played ok,just felt weird.
The deal between customers 1 and 2 went down like this. Customer 1 bought the cue with the messed up shaft for 150 from a lawyer,who bought it from the guy I sold it to originally for 125,a rather big,tough dude. Customer #1 has no recourse against the lawyer for the screwed shaft (how do you sue a lawyer?),has better sense than to seek compensation from the guy I sold it to,and now has customer #2 seeking a rebate since the shaft was screwed,due to no fault of mine. Customer #2 told #1 that he can either refund him 100 bucks for the screwed shaft,without consulting me or asking what I wanted for the good shaft,or buy the shaft from me and just give it to him. Customer #1 complied,and gave him back 100 bucks.
The shaft was just laying around in my back bedroom,and was just going to give it to #2,and charge him 20 for the tip and super-cleaning. Instead I make 20 there,10 for the tip on the junker,and 50 for a shaft I was going to give away. Customer #2 got a plain Joss with 2 shafts and a case,for 100 bucks,#1 got caught trying to scam someone again and came out 100 in the hole with no cue to show for his efforts,and I not only cleared my name as being the one that screwed the shaft up,but figured out what was the problem all along and made 80 bucks,very strange indeed. Tommy D.
! ) that had a small split on either side of the shaft close to the ferrule. All of these cases were caused by the customer smashing his cue down on the table. I think it is more likely that the customer smashed his cue down and split the shaft than the repair man. The follow up repair man probably had to cut the cue a bit shorter to salvage whatever he could, yet maybe he couldn't cut out the crack completely because it would have been VERY short.