What Cues shaped History?

its 430 am, just reread this thread and Chris has it broken down in a time line, a GREAT approach the answer of the OP. Chris is more knowledgeable on older cues than I am by a big margin, I like his format.

Tomaro i'm going to elaborate on what I know, nothing Chris Tate said i disagree with. Im going to talk about certain cue makers(and their equipment) that got cues to where they are today-interms of playability and artistry.And sporting goods cues<---no knock i wish they sold 5,000,000 of them a year, cues in peoples hands is a great thing/

all in all this should be a great thread, thats my agenda here now is to make quality informative posts or make a funny do people can laugh out loud and splash what every they are drinking on their computer.

since cue making aint all that funny in nd of it self there are funny cue makers. i'll save that for another time.

yil tomaro, good night

Eric
 
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Mr. Bond said:
While we're at it....
. Brunswick 36 early 1900's - brought the fancy billiard cue to the pool world.

^'fancy cues' per say already existed by then. unless you meant something more specific?


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I had to give the 36/360 some credit for being a really fancy cue marketed toward pocket billiards. (although I admit there seems to be almost no distinction between a pocket billiard cue and a carom cue at the time).

I am amazed jointed cues go back that far. That dates back to our civil war period.
 
Jointed cues do go back farther than is popularly known these days. And the fancy cues came long before the 360. There are remarkably intricate marquetry cues that pre-date the 360 by a long shot.

But Brunswick brought such things to the masses, which is what I think makes something like the 360 a real landmark.




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Somebody was the first person to do a "short splice" points or milled groove forearm. I don't know who did it but it sure made the cue making game a lot easier. They all seem to have popped up at the same time in the early 1970's. It may have been Bob Meucci in the late 1960's or it may have been Bill Stroud and Dan Janes. Spain forearms were full splice in the 1960's.
 
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TSW said:
Captain Mingaud putting a leather tip on a cue.

Rambow cutting 'em in half and customizing them.

Predator starting the low deflection movement.
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Best post in the thread, in my opinion.
Mingaud turned billiards into an amazing game with a leather tip and chalk.
Before that, the game was no more interesting than croquet.

My first thought was Rambow, of whom it was said, made a two piece cue
that a champion could play his game with.

And Predator for sure belongs on this list.

But the game should honor Mingaud first.
 
Poor old Harvey Martin , he is consistently maligned and forgotten in these discussion all to frequently. I look at custom cuemaking in a few different eras

You had Martin and Rambow

Then you have Paradise, Balabushka, Ginacue, and Tad

Next Gus Szamboti

And into the modern era which leaves too many to list but I'm partial to Searing
 
David and Jerry

Tommy-D said:
I can't believe no one has mentioned Cognoscenti.

Joe Gold was using the G-10 pin in the early 90's,way before anyone else could even GET G-10 I believe.

Supposedly,it was only available thru NASA for several years.

David Kersenbrock was also an innovator. Compound tapers,the flat-bottom pin,and the table saw/lathe combo I've always referred to as the Kersenbrock machine.

I have to agree that Cuetec also play a role in the history of cues.

Before them,you couldn't buy a truly decent cue in their price range. Tommy D.
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Don't know the entire story, but here's an important timeline in the custom cue era.

In the early part of the eighties, David Paul Kersenbrock gets Jerry Franklin(good mechanic)to work on his car and in exchange David will show Jerry how to build pool cues. Long story short, South West Cues were born in 1982.

No doubt there are a lot of great cue makers in this thread and some great ones yet to be mentioned, but I'm glad that David and Jerry got together and as a result my favorite cues were born. South West
 
Speaking of history and cues...

Its a generally accepted fact that Americans didnt start using actual cues until the early part of the 1800s. About 1820 seems to be when they became popular enough for most men to stop using the mace. (although women and children still used maces for many more decades)

It's a lesser well known fact that as soon as cues became popular in America - the 'fancy', personalized and customized cues also became popular. In other words, "ornate" and collectable cues are not a 20th century invention or innovation - to the contrary, they have been around literally as long as the cues themselves. As a matter of fact, prior to the popularity of the cue, some men even had custom made or personalized maces built for themselves. After all, why wouldnt they?

This of course flies in the face of some of the cue collectors out there who seem to think that life began with Herman James Rambow, but I can assure you that it didnt. Herman, as an example, spent nearly 40 years learning his trade from the masters who came before him. And as you might imagine, the masters before him learned it from the masters before them.

Beautifully hand-crafted (and expensive) cues actually played a significant role in American billiard history, being that they were frequently awarded to players for winning major tournaments (along with cash), all the way back to the first major tournaments in this country....

1863 - Kavanagh wins Championship cue
1864 - June - Kavanagh wins Championship cue and $1000
1865 - Sept - Kavanagh wins Championship cue and $1000
1865 - Jan - Kavanagh wins Championship cue and $1000
1865 - Sept - Deery wins Championship cue and $1000
1866 - Mar - Deery wins Championship cue and $1000
1866 - May - Dion wins Championship cue and $1000
1866 - Sept - Dion wins Championship cue
1866 - Oct - Dion wins Championship cue and $1000
1867 - Jun - Dion wins Championship cue and $1000
1867 - Dec - McDevitt wins Championship cue and $1000
1868 - Apr - McDevitt wins Championship cue and $1000
1868 - Sept - McDevitt wins Championship cue and $1000
1868 - Dec - McDevitt wins Championship cue and $1000
1869 - Apr - Deery wins Championship cue
1869 - Sept - Deery wins Championship cue and $1000
1870 - Jan - Deery wins Championship cue and $1000
1870 - Mar - Rudolphe wins Championship cue and $1000
1870 - May - Rudolphe wins Championship cue and $1000
1870 - Oct - Rudolphe wins Championship cue and $1000
1871 - Jan - Parker wins Championship cue and $1000
1871 - Jun - Dion wins Championship cue and $800
1873 - Jan - Dion wins Championship cue
1873 - May - Daly wins Championship cue
1873 - Oct - Garnier wins Championship cue
1876 - Apr - Dion wins Diamond cue and $1000
..
...
I could go on but I think you get the point...
 
All the players wanted a fancey Palmer when I started playing in the early 70's. I still have my model J. and I still play.
 
Cue history

Purely my opinion, here is my short list:

1) Brunswick Titlist (one piece)- Beautiful veneer work, full splice trend.
2) George Balabushka- Biggest name in pool. Pool cues became pieces of art.
3) Gus Szamboti - Arguably the best cue maker to ever live. Best playing cue and art, a collector's dream.
4) McDermott and Meucci - Production cues trend, wood to wood joint. Table felt improved dramatically, no longer a need for heavy cues.
5) David Paul Kersenbrock/Jerry Franklin - Turned pool cue world upside down and on its head. Six pointed cues, parabolic taper, southwest ringwork. Best hitting cue and most collectible today. Every cue collector should have one.
6) DPK - More to be said on this man. More contributions to cues than any other, genius. Mentored some of the best cue makers.
7) Joe Gold/Cognoscenti - Again turned the pool world upside down. No points, CNC only, but executed perfectly. Only true collectors need apply, the cognoscenti of society, for those who "are in the know".
8) Kerry Zylr, Eric Crisp, Kikel, Barenbrugge, Mike Bender - True innovators. Better wood selection, new construction techniques, better cues than even the classics.
9) Best cue makers today: 1) Pete Tascarella 2) Kenny Murrell 3) Dennis Searing.

I left Predator out, but it deserves special mention. This is the other direction that pool cues went. Low deflection shafts, expensive layered tips, break cues trend. This happened because of the pool league trend. Most of this is marketing, not a true friend to the collector. Mass marketing and average but not great quality, movement to China.
 
deanoc said:
Mosconi s cue ,that he ran 526 with,is in the famous Glenn family collection
along with hundreds of other famous cues

balabushkas,szambotis and some gina cues owned by many famous players

I look forward to seeing a museum in Las Vegas to display these
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Me too. I saw just a little of their stuff at the last ICCS show and they have some unreal items.

Kevin
 
PickPocket said:
Who held what, accoplished what with it, and when?!

Where did that cue end up?

Or maybe instead of the cue havening made history due to the "Player", what about a "Cue Makers" defining momments in which the result was a cue known "around-the-world"? and for what?

Anyone have anything interesting to add here?

Just looking to read about some more interesting stories! Please share!
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There are a lot of good ones in this thread, (and made Burton Spain could be added somewhere too)...but for individual cues, (as opposed to cue makers or cue design innovations etc.)...yea, Mosconi's 526 cue...then maybe the Joss "Balabushka" cue(s) in The COM, since before that, how many "cue collectors" were there really, (as opposed to players that wanted a nice playing cue)???

Then maybe some of the cues used long term by famous players to win Championships with, of which there would be a number of these over time from many of the great(est) players...or from another thread...any of the "six figure" $$$ cues, which all would have that value for a reason, I would guess....
 
With out a doubt the Miracle and the Wonder cue from Steamer Cue Sports Ltd. has had a profound effect upon the world of pool. Until the introduction of these two fine cues, players had to solely rely on excuses and out right lies to explain their poor performance at the pool table. :)
 
TATE said:
From the top of my head:

1. Late 1800's - the jointed billiard cue. Adding a joint meant the cues could be carried around easily.

2. Brunswick 36 early 1900's - brought the fancy billiard cue to the pool world.

3. Brunswick No. 20 - early 1900's - became the basis for all four prong house cues to follow.

4. Brunswick 26 1/2 - early 1900's 4 veneer one piece cue the Titlist was based on. Became the basis for the Titlist, the Willie Hoppe Pro and the modern custom cue.

5. The pro taper. Later in the 1930's Brunswick introduced the term "professional taper" which is the taper most modern cues use. Rambow influenced all of these designs.

6. Herman Rambow as an independent custom cue maker, 1940's - the grandfather of all custom cue makers to follow.

7. Paradise 1950's - introduced plastics and lavish ornamentation into the making of custom cues.

8. Palmer 1963 - became the first company to produce custom, highly decorated personalized cues made to spec order quickly in a production format.

9. 1970's Joss - one of the early companies to use pantograph inlay techniques to speed production and accuracy of pointed cues.

10. Meucci - 1970's for mass marketing theme cues designed to be collectible.

11. Jump Cue - I don't know who made the first modern jump cue but it changed the game forever.

12. Predator - 1990's introduced the low squirt shaft and turned the pool world upside down. Nobody even knew what squirt was before that.
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this is the best answer to the OP, period end of story.
 
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