Vintage Cue Tool

Cuaba

Cuaba

Livin Large
Silver Member
I bought this over the weekend from an antiques dealer. It is extremely well made and has a patent date from 1915.

Anyone ever seen one, or know anything about it?

The 360 is for size comparison.

(Also posted in Main Forum)
 

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ahh yes... the ole 'fishin reel' (my terminology)

vat do you vish to find out
 
Generally speaking, antique cue cutting machines are not considerably rare; there are many still around. But this particular style of machine is a little on the rare side, being smaller and "portable", and because the manufacturer didn't make gazillions of them.

Yours appears to be in pretty good working order for being 97 years old. imo - $240 was a fair price.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe your cue machine was designed (and patented) by Martin Bohlig of St. Paul MN.

Martin was a prolific inventor at the time, who designed everything from cooking vessels to hobby horses. He also created a very distinctive series of cue machines, like yours, that generally have the "fishing reel" look to them.

patents
 
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This is the same patent date listed on the side of the machine

patents
 
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Thanks for the info !!!

The patents say "Tip Forming" but it appears to be for doing ferrule work. The blades seem to be for cutting tenons, drilling ferrules, and flattening the tops. None of the blades are for tips, but I can see how it could work.

It is made like a Swiss watch.
 
yup, its a tenoning machine....
i think they probably meant 'the tip of the cue' as opposed to 'cue tips'

its a nice piece - congrats - it may even pay for itself in cue repairs :grin:
 
Very nice. Is the tool plated? The metal looks very shiny. What are you going to do with it? It would be fun to take it all apart, and clean up all the parts. Maybe you can sharpen all of the blades on an oilstone. Put it back together, and see how it cuts.
 
It appears to be totally functional. Some of the end pieces are plated, and I like the fire blue on the one small part.

I suspect it would do a pretty good job.

I'm just going to display it with some of my other billiard memorabillia
 
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