What got you into cuemaking?

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A lot of us love the game of pool, been smitten by the game and our cues. Others have spent half their life playing the game, for the love of it and for competition.

But there are a select few who branch out into cuemaking... why is this so?
All cuemakers and anyone involved in cues feel free to tell us your story
 
cues

((VH)) said:
A lot of us love the game of pool, been smitten by the game and our cues. Others have spent half their life playing the game, for the love of it and for competition.

But there are a select few who branch out into cuemaking... why is this so?
All cuemakers and anyone involved in cues feel free to tell us your story
Click to expand...

BUDDY HALL says it all!

Buddy Hall. It's all his fault. Buddy came to me to build him a cue. He said my repair work was world class, so why not build cues? I didn't want to at first, Janice and I were having to much fun on the road. Didn't want to give up the road.

He drove to Houston, parked in my driveway, and would not leave until I built him a cue. Buddy took the cue and came in second place the first week and then had two first place finishes the 2 and 3rd weeks. I built buddy his own line of cues. He won more tournaments with my cues than ever before.

The story's a lot longer than this, and the rest is history. This story and many more will be in my book someday.
Many thanks Buddy.
blud.
 
blud said:
BUDDY HALL says it all!
Click to expand...

I was at Bill Schicks shop back in the mid 80's and he told me that Buddy was responsible for him getting into the cue business also. I guess Buddy's got an eye for talent
 
thanks

sliprock said:
I was at Bill Schicks shop back in the mid 80's and he told me that Buddy was responsible for him getting into the cue business also. I guess Buddy's got an eye for talent
Click to expand...

Hey Slip, many thanks for the complement, sir. Bill Schick is a very good friend, and has much talent. He's also a member of my club, CUEMASTERS, MASTER CUE MAKERS........

blud
 
Like Blud I was doing repairs and making decent money at it and had no desire to build cues. I was also selling several brands of cues and had my mobile pro-shop to set up at tournaments. Well anyway one day a local cuemaker came up to me and said that he heard I was going around saying I was going into cue building to compete with him. That was not true and I told him so. Then he popped off with the following comment: He said to me, "I don't think you have what it takes to put a cue together."
Well the rest is history. I didn't ask if he meant equipment or talent. I just went home ordered some wood and built a cue on my crude repair equipment. Who knows maybe I would have started building cues later anyway, but he definitely got me started right away.
I think many want to pick up some change repairing cues and then it leads on to building cues. Many of us know that the quality repairmen with a lot of experience in repairs often build cues that hold up better than many others do. That is because they have seen what gives trouble and eliminate those problems in their cues.
By the way all us repairmen turned cuemakers owe Blud a word of gratitude because he paved the way for repairmen with his mobile pro-shop and wood lathes converted into cue repair lathes back in the 1980's. I started with one I picked up used and so did many others. I got my feet wet in repairs with it and then advanced on to something that would do a little more.
Some have credited me with first making cue repair lathes readily available to the public. I wish it were true but it is not. I was second. Blud was ahead of me a few years on that one. So the next time you set up to work on cues at tournaments and get prices for your repair work you could never dream of getting at home, tip your hat to Blud because he paved the way for us.
Chris
www.internationalcuemakers.com
 
thanks

cueman said:
Like Blud I was doing repairs and making decent money at it and had no desire to build cues. I was also selling several brands of cues and had my mobile pro-shop to set up at tournaments. Well anyway one day a local cuemaker came up to me and said that he heard I was going around saying I was going into cue building to compete with him. That was not true and I told him so. Then he popped off with the following comment: He said to me, "I don't think you have what it takes to put a cue together."
Well the rest is history. I didn't ask if he meant equipment or talent. I just went home ordered some wood and built a cue on my crude repair equipment. Who knows maybe I would have started building cues later anyway, but he definitely got me started right away.
I think many want to pick up some change repairing cues and then it leads on to building cues. Many of us know that the quality repairmen with a lot of experience in repairs often build cues that hold up better than many others do. That is because they have seen what gives trouble and eliminate those problems in their cues.
By the way all us repairmen turned cuemakers owe Blud a word of gratitude because he paved the way for repairmen with his mobile pro-shop and wood lathes converted into cue repair lathes back in the 1980's. I started with one I picked up used and so did many others. I got my feet wet in repairs with it and then advanced on to something that would do a little more.
Some have credited me with first making cue repair lathes readily available to the public. I wish it were true but it is not. I was second. Blud was ahead of me a few years on that one. So the next time you set up to work on cues at tournaments and get prices for your repair work you could never dream of getting at home, tip your hat to Blud because he paved the way for us.
Chris
www.internationalcuemakers.com
Click to expand...


Many thanks Chris. Not many know that part my of history, being the first guy to do repairs on the road. Lou Buteria, [ machine gun Lou],told me, kid, you'll never make it. Look at us now, Lou.........

We really had good times back then.I started in the early 70's. Made many a mile around these united states. Been in all the lower 48 except, for Oregan, and Washington state.
Janice and i averaged about 90,0000 plus miles a year. Wore out a bunch of trucks and cars.[gasoline was only about 69.9 cents or so.I think]? To far back to remember....
blud
 
I worked in a Textile machine shop. Started repairs in 1991. Met Blud in 1994. He was the one that talked me into building cues.
 
As you may or may not know, I'm in the US Air Force. During Oct99-Oct02 I was stationed in Germany. I started playing pool pretty seriously during that time. I was playing with the local German and a handfull of Americans about 4-5 nights a week. I noticed that many of the locals were using cheaper made cues, comparable to Action, Players, Wal-Mart brand, Mizeraks. I asked them where they bought their cues from or got the tips replaced at. They said they bought them from the US and shipped them over. Import taxes were so high, they couldn't afford to buy a mid-range cue and when the tip fell off they grabbed some super glue and a tip, glued it on and used a razor blade to cut the extra off. They said they replace tips monthly!! I decided to start selling cues and I sold tons during my time in Germany and did the same thing while in Korea from Dec02-Dec03. While in Korea I came across AZBilliards and was hooked! I met cue makers, cue repairman, promotors, entraprenauers, and die-hard pool fanatics! I decided that when I returned to the States I would find a cue lathe before Christmas 2004. Well, here it is June 2004 and I have a Mid-Size Cue Smith lathe from Chris Hightower and have started doing cue repairs. While in High School I used a wood lathe daily for about 4 months in wood shop, but this lathe blows the wood lathe out of the water for doing work on cues.
Like many others...I'M HOOKED!

Zim
 
Thanks for the response... keep it coming guys!:D
Maybe someday AZBilliards would come up with each cuemaker having their own section here :D But this forum's fun anyways!
 
I, as most cuemakers, started out doing repair work. I hooked up with Gary Spaeth in the early 80's. He was the best player in the area and we got to be good friends. I started taking care of his cue and he was impressed with my work. He started recommending me to local people to get tips and such done. It soon became apparent that I needed some more equipment to do the work most efficiently so I started lurking wherever I could find information. At that time there were no ready made cue lathes. Blud was about the only traveling cue repair person. I watched Blud work at the old Clyde Childress tournaments and got a few tips from him. I started hitting the auctions in my area and began accumulating machinery. Adapting it as I had the time and money, to do cue work. I bought a pool room in Cincinnati in 84 from Rick Garrison and Joe Burns. Gary and his dad (a great player in his own right) Joey Spaeth came to work for me at the pool room. I set up a shop in the back room there doing repairs and making simple cues. As time went on, my shop grew and so did the demand for my cues. I spent a lot of time on the road with Gary, going to tournaments and gambling. Made good friends with a lot of players and tried to find out what they really wanted in a cue. Besides Gary Spaeth, some of the known players to use my cues are John Brumback, Rick Garrison, Chris MacDonald, Steve Cook, Cornbread Red, Frank Ruby, Lee Van Corteza, Kevin Tomlin, Terri Kelly, Dawn Fox, Whitey Stevenson, "Barbox Charlie" Hans and more. I sold my pool room in 1995 to devote more time to cuemaking. It was at this time I purchased my CNC machine, but it was at least a year before the first cue was built using it. The learning curve on CNC technology was a lot tougher than I'd anticipated, hampered by the fact that I was going through a tough divorce at the same time and concentration was difficult! I've been fortunate that through my association with a bunch of pro players and spending years around the pro pool scene, certain doors have been open to me. I've been able to get info and advise from some of the great cuemakers during the early years, Dave Kersenbrock, Bill Stroud,and Gus Szamboti to name a few. I love my work, I love being involved in the sport of billiards, I enjoy most aspects ot the pro billiards scene, with the exception of the politics and the UPA. I'm about to marry the cutest, sweetest little Filipina girl and don't know how I could be any happier! I had the pleasure of meeting Ed Reyes and Linds, in Manila on my last trip to the Philippines. Ed gave me the "nickel tour" of his shop, to which I was most grateful. He even gave me a couple of pieces of the most gorgeous Amboyna Burl, I've ever seen. With his premission I'm planning a cue using Ed's "shadow" concept which I felt was one of the most original and artistic ideas I've seen introduced in a cue recently! Thanks Ed! I hope I never stop learning because if I do I'll be 6 feet under!
well I've been rambling on long enough! lol
Sherm
 
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