Wrapless pool cues

filerunner said:
How many people use wrapless cues versus linen or leather? I’m wondering what the advantages are for wrapless.
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I bought a DPK back in the 80s at a pool tournament in Atlantic city, 250 with a case. Had irish linen. Ended up spraying the wrap it with a can of spray lacquer. Never bought another cue with a wrap. Wish I didn't sell the DPK though.
 
Moe Szyslak said:
How sweaty are you guys' hands? Good Lord. If my hands get a little sweaty they get stickier, if anything. I can't imagine my hands sweating so much the cue would slip. Do me a favor if we ever meet - don't shake my hand.

Strength when wet: Not a problem if you don't have anything to begin with.

"reducing hand fatigue over extended play" Eye roll on this one. Got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale cheap if you believe this one.
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Id definitely want something that was easily/ frequently cleaned if I used it with pool hands.
 
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I've recently gone wrapless with my playing cue after playing with a leather or linen wrap for a very long time.

I have always used the end of the wrap as an indicator for my back hand position so losing that took some adjustment. But I've also always had a wrapless break cue so not totally unfamiliar either.

I made the switch kinda by chance, had a nice Jacoby cue with a lizard wrap and really just ended up not liking the lizard wrap and how it felt when my hands got sweaty. So I ended up selling that and replacing it with my current wrapless Jacoby Heritage L1 because I wanted to stick with Jacoby and it was cheap and I liked the look. I thought it may end up being a temporary thing until I found a wrapped cue I liked but it just ended up being a great cue with a great feel to it and after playing with it for a while I haven't wanted to switch back.

But...I haven't gone through a whole summer with it yet either and I am a little concerned how that'll go when things get hot and humid as I do have sweaty hands. We'll see. But now, outside of issues with sweat management, I'm actually preferring the wrapless feel and look these days.
 
Here's a cringe-worthy 'wrap tale': back in the mid80's the TulsaBillardPalace was THE best action spot in theMidwest. A road player from Maryland named Gary Flannery and his partner Danny(Wolford??) came to town. Gary is in a match and the linen on his Scruggs is buggin him. I run down to the hardware store and snag a roll of elect. tape. Yep, Garry covered up the entire wrap on that sweet TS cue. It must have worked 'cause he caught a gear and bbq'd the dude he was playing. I got a good lil 'tape jelly' for my troubles. ;)
 
garczar said:
Here's a cringe-worthy 'wrap tale': back in the mid80's the TulsaBillardPalace was THE best action spot in theMidwest. A road player from Maryland named Gary Flannery and his partner Danny(Wolford??) came to town. Gary is in a match and the linen on his Scruggs is buggin him. I run down to the hardware store and snag a roll of elect. tape. Yep, Garry covered up the entire wrap on that sweet TS cue. It must have worked 'cause he caught a gear and bbq'd the dude he was playing. I got a good lil 'tape jelly' for my troubles. ;)
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Both those guys were super solid players around the mid Atlantic a few decades ago.

I beat one of em 30+ games ahead in about 12 hrs. It was a bit of a battle. At the end he told me he hadn't hit a pool ball for 3yr 👀and was getting ready to hit the road.
 
Black-Balled said:
Both those guys were super solid players around the mid Atlantic a few decades ago.

I beat one of em 30+ games ahead in about 12 hrs. It was a bit of a battle. At the end he told me he hadn't hit a pool ball for 3yr 👀and was getting ready to hit the road.
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last i heard GF was in Florida somewhere. while they were here we had a epic snow(for here anyway) and we were all stuck. finally a guy with a jeep showed up and we got some groceries. Danny played a tough local guy for about 3days(warfare for sure). Good times.
 
I break with a 58" wrapless Ebony nosed BEM full splice and play with a 59.5" EE wrapped cue.

I can't break with a wrapped cue and I can't play with a wrapless.
 
Advantages for wrapless, the surface is always the same under your hand. I could argue if it is slick or grabby but there are a million and one or two wood finishes so I would think you could always get a surface to suit.

Wraps do require some pretty careful selection. A well applied linen wrap is my favorite under my hand. Both "well applied" and linen are becoming hard to come by and I despise a crappy wrapped cue.

For me personally, my wrapless cue is too grabby for a slip stroke, my wrapped cue is a crap wrap that annoys me. Another issue with wrapped cues, my grip hand moves around a lot. I hate the feel of two different surfaces under my grip hand. It always distracts me.

I would like a butt wrapped from about six inches over the joint to the buttcap. Heavy sizing applied(sizing is like a heavy starch) and the linen burnished in with a couple pieces of oak. Never got around to making a few sticks I wanted and I just parted company with my lathe equipment.

Wrapped and wrapless do offer some advantages and disadvantages but how firm and where a person grips a cue comes into play as well as the equipment being played on. As others have said, the big advantage of a wrap was to soak up moisture in the old days. I have had sweat running off of house cues and dripping on the table and floor back in bygone days. It worked but I never liked the idea of the moisture going into my wrap.

In the old days a wrapped cue looked more expensive so if you wanted to show off a bit you needed a wrapped cue.

I'm thinking I might play around with finishes and wax on my wrapless stick. Might work. Nothing says it has to be one finish end to end.

Hu
 
Wrapless. The only benefit from a building aspect I can see for wrap is that you can use cheaper/non exotic woods under the wrap. But honestly it's not like you would save that much by going with maple and wrap material rather than an pricier wood. In the end I think it's just preference. Myself I would rather not deal with wrap and also see nice wood instead.
 
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