# Billiard cues



## qbilder (Dec 19, 2010)

Hi folks. My name is Eric. I'm new to the site. Figured i'd share a little bit about the type of turning I do. I build high end custom pool cues & use a wide variety of oddity woods and techniques. Hope you enjoy.

This is a cue I built for Joe Rogan. He hosted the TV show "Fear Factor" and most notably is known for his commentary job with the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Nice fellow & wood nut. He knows as much about various woods as a lot of wood workers I know. The pics show the various stages of construction. 

I began with an ebony forearm & cut 4 tulipwood points, and 4 tulipwood butterflies. I then recut ebony back into those so to give a shadowy outline of tulip. This leaves the color scheme mostly black with tulip trim accent. Being a high profile cue, I built two forearms with slightly different angles of cut, so I could choose the best for the job.









Once chosen I attach it to a maple handle, which will eventually get a leather wrap. Rings are also made & sliced to be installed between all jointed components.

















Next shows a few steps of making the butt sleeve to get similar shadowy effect as the forearm.

























Now the sleeve gets attached to the back of the handle & it's time to cap off the ends.









The ends get capped with elephant ivory (pre-ban before 1972) and a piece of leather is chosen for the handle wrap. Joe insisted on elephant ear leather which is very textured & grippy. Nice stuff.









The cue gets weighted, balanced, joint pin installed & lastly the wrap installed.

























Cue is completed & Joe is a very happy dude, orders another one and gives my wife & me floor tickets for any fight we want to attend. And he beats me at a game of pool with the cue I just built for him LOL. I normally don't have many pictures of how I do my work but Joe asked that I photo document the build so he could make an album. These were just a few pics. Hope you all enjoy. I know it's not exactly the wood turning work you all do with pens & bowls & such, but it's a still wood cut on a lathe. And sorry about the picture size.


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## Mr Mac (May 31, 2010)

I have thought about turning our own cues when our new table hits the floor this week but, now I don't think my plan was even close to being worthy! 
I planned to use some of the tricks used in pen making...we'll see now that you are arming me with more info! Great job on the cues dude!

Mac


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## davesplane (Apr 26, 2010)

Wow that's pretty cool....I could see a lot of pen guys incorporating your work into their stuff.
any chance of a pictorial?


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## Rodman57 (Dec 6, 2012)

Very,very nice to say the least some careful thought and techniques went into the making of the cue and thanks for the photos they were great.Thanks again awesome job.


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## oldmacnut (Dec 27, 2010)

wow, you sir are the segmenting Jedi Master. Very impressive by all means.


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## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

Don't sell yourself short, that's damn nice work. :thumbsup:


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## J Thomas (Aug 14, 2012)

Phew!! I wish I was half as good at playing pool as you are at making cues!
That's some fine craftsmanship my friend.. 
A good pictorial of the segmenting & layup for the shadow effect would be appreciated.
BTW.. Welcome to the forums!
..Jon..


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## john lucas (Sep 18, 2007)

Excellent work. Next time make your images smaller so we don't have to scroll the screen around to see them. I do enjoy seeing good work.


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## nblasa (Nov 29, 2011)

That's truly awesome! Any chance Rogan will get you some front row seats to the next fight now? Very nice job.


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## JTTHECLOCKMAN (Dec 31, 2011)

This is a 2010 posting in case no has looked at the date. Don't know what happen to the gentleman and his cue. :yes:


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## Joescroller (Dec 4, 2012)

Just plain AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## IN-WondeR (Nov 10, 2008)

*That's sooooo awesome*

I would love to be able to do work like this.
I would love to be able to do my own Carom cue, with techniques like this, and more. Still looking to learn a bit more on techniques, measurements and so on, for all the parts of a billard cue..


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## jomarra (Nov 7, 2012)

IN-WondeR said:


> I would love to be able to do work like this.
> I would love to be able to do my own Carom cue, with techniques like this, and more. Still looking to learn a bit more on techniques, measurements and so on, for all the parts of a billard cue..


Where do you live? I'm working on my new billiard room, putting a new Gabriels carom table in.


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## IN-WondeR (Nov 10, 2008)

jomarra said:


> Where do you live? I'm working on my new billiard room, putting a new Gabriels carom table in.


I'm living in Denmark, so quite a bit away... 

Sadly I do not have room for my own Carom table, even though I would love to... And here in Denmark, such a table cost a fortune... :/


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## jomarra (Nov 7, 2012)

IN-WondeR said:


> I'm living in Denmark, so quite a bit away...
> 
> Sadly I do not have room for my own Carom table, even though I would love to... And here in Denmark, such a table cost a fortune... :/


Sorry you don't live closer, but your still welcome.


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## Muzzy17is (Sep 14, 2014)

Beautiful work. That's true craftsmanship and passion right there!


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