WICO pointed Burton Spain

[ratcues]

I worked on several of the Viking cues with WICO points. Sometimes, the glue started to break down and the points separated. I've taken apart and reassembled, I'd say, 3 or 4 over the years but most have held up.

 

[cueman]

I will take more pics when I get it back. I am working on putting together the whole WICO story (or to the best of everyones knowledge). There is an excerpt in Spain's book. What I have gathered so far is that he invented the concept first through trial and error with epoxy. The problem with the epoxy was that it would bubble. He only made approximately 4 of these blanks and wasn't satisfied. He then went to the extruded plastic and made "several this way" How many I don't know. I am working on finding out. As I said if anyone has another it would be nice to see. Apparently he had various troubles with the veneers and decided to abandon the concept. He also like the glimmer of wood more. That is when he passed it on to Bob Meucci and Gordon Hart which used it extensively over the years. I have asked 3 knowledgeable cue people. Two of them said they have seen only one other and the third said he has seen several. I am still waiting to see pictures of others however. I can't begin to tell you how cool the veneers look for how old the cue is.

Chris

That is not quite how Bod Meucci tells it. Bob said Burton came to his shop and showed him the epoxy points that had bubbles in them and Bob told him he thought he could make them seemless without the bubbles. Burton told him it was impossible. So Bob like myself likes a challenge and went and got a plastic extrusion company to make him some colored extrusions. Then he said it took him a lot of trial and error to find the right glue that would glue it correctly. He said once he worked the bugs out that he had Burton come by and see what he had come up with. He said he hogged out point grooves in one pass while Burton watched and then showed him the flawless seemless veneers. He said Burton just shook his head and walked out. Bob then told me he sold the blanks as a side business when he worked for Wico and then gave the process to Gordon Hart when he got tired of making them. He decided to go with mitered wood veneers on his own cues. So that is pretty much how Bob tells it and he was an eye witness. I don't think you should put anything in print about these blanks that Bob made that goes contrary to that without talking directly to Bob. My guess is that Spain cue is not made from a Wico blank, but rather Bob let his friend Burton have some of the plastic veneers to use in his own blanks. The reason I say that is because it appears to be full spliced and Bob's blanks were not full spliced. I think Burton just used some of Bob veneers.

 

[sebas]

That is not quite how Bod Meucci tells it. Bob said Burton came to his shop and showed him the epoxy points that had bubbles in them and Bob told him he thought he could make them seemless without the bubbles. Burton told him it was impossible. So Bob like myself likes a challenge and went and got a plastic extrusion company to make him some colored extrusions. Then he said it took him a lot of trial and error to find the right glue that would glue it correctly. He said once he worked the bugs out that he had Burton come by and see what he had come up with. He said he hogged out point grooves in one pass while Burton watched and then showed him the flawless seemless veneers. He said Burton just shook his head and walked out. Bob then told me he sold the blanks as a side business when he worked for Wico and then gave the process to Gordon Hart when he got tired of making them. He decided to go with mitered wood veneers on his own cues. So that is pretty much how Bob tells it and he was an eye witness. I don't think you should put anything in print about these blanks that Bob made that goes contrary to that without talking directly to Bob. My guess is that Spain cue is not made from a Wico blank, but rather Bob let his friend Burton have some of the plastic veneers to use in his own blanks. The reason I say that is because it appears to be full spliced and Bob's blanks were not full spliced. I think Burton just used some of Bob veneers.

1. You are correct these aren't Wico points I merely used "WICO" as a recognizable word to describe vinyl veneers, similar to the way people use "Band-aid" to refer to adhesive bandages you can google this product if you are unfamiliar with it.
2. The vinyl in the Spain was the a predecessor to Wico.
3. I am not merely printing some far fetched idea. Get yourself a copy of "Making Blanks" by hmmmm Burton Spain and read what he wrote as the history. I have also had conversations with more than one person who knew him and spoke too him about this particular subject.
4. It is nice to know you would tell me what to print and what not to print when you make speculation in you own printed words and I quote AGAIN "I think Burton just used some of Bob veneers" as I THINK this is wrong.

Have a nice day.


Chris