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Pool Table Cues

Pool Cue Stick (or simply cue, or more specifically pool cue, snooker cue, or billiards cue), is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the cue ball. Cues are tapered sticks, typically about 1.5 m (58 in) and 510–600 g (18–21 oz). Most cues are made of wood, but occasionally the wood is covered or bonded with other materials including carbon fiber, fiberglass and/or aluminum.
Construction Aspects
Pool and snooker cues average around 57 inches in length (148 cms) and are of three major types. One type is a one piece cue; these are generally stocked in pool halls for communal use. They have a uniform taper, meaning they decrease in diameter evenly from the end or butt to the tip. The other type is the two piece cue, divided in the middle for ease of transport, usually in a cue case. The third is another two piece cue where the joint is located three-quarters down the cue (usually 12 or 16 inches away from the butt), known as a three quarter two piece, used mainly by snooker players. There are also cues that have up to five sections. They are usually for specialist purposes, such as breaking or jumping. Weights can be added between the cue sections, and extension can be added to the butt of the cue to increase reach.
It is common for a competitive league player to use a heavier cue with a special (phenolic resin) tip as a break cue, to avoid excessive wear-and-tear on the tip of his or her main shooting cue.

Joints

The heavy lower piece of the cue is the cue butt, and the smaller, narrower end is the shaft. The two cue pieces are attached at the joint; normally a screw rising from butt end's joint (male) is threaded into a receptacle on the shaft (female), or vice versa. The joints are made of various materials, most frequently a plastic, brass, stainless steel, or wood outer layer, but some custom cues are made of bone, antlers, or other more expensive materials that are less common, but serve the same effect. Most snooker cues have brass-to-brass joints. The internal male and female connection points are almost always brass or steel because they respond less to temperature changes and thus expand and contract less than other materials, preserving the life of the cue. Joints have different sizes as well as different male and female ends on the shaft and butts of the cues. Traditional designs employ a fully threaded connection, while newer versions such as Uni-loc, Accu-loc, or Tru-loc employ half-threaded "Quick pin release" connections that allow players to assemble and disassemble their cues faster. The classic brass-to-brass joint is most reliable; the newer quick type joints can fail and are virtually impossible to get repaired.
Parts of the Shaft
Shafts are made with various tapers, the two most common being the Pro taper and the European taper. The Pro taper has the same diameter from the tip to 30-35 cm (12-14 inches) down. The European taper is conical and widens towards the joint.
Ferrule
The end of the shaft has a cuff known as the ferrule which is used to hold the cue tip in place and to bear the brunt of impact with the cue ball so that the less resilient shaft wood does not split. Ferrules are predominantly made of ivory (in case of billiards and pool), carbon fiber, or a plastic such as melamine resin, aegis or phenolic resin which are extremely durable, high-impact materials that are resistant to cracking, chipping, and breaking. Brass is mostly used for snooker cues, although you might come across a Canadian snooker cue with a non-metal ferrule.
Butt
The bulk of the weight of the cue is usually distributed in the cue butt portion. Whether the weight be 16 oz. or 22 oz., the weight change is mainly in the butt (usually in the core, under the wrap A good cue will have this weight from the hardwood used, not added weight. Butts have varying constructions, from 3-piece to one-piece, as well as other custom versions that people have developed. These translate into different "feels" because of the distribution of weight as well as the balance point of the cue. Traditionally, players want the balance point of a cue near the top end of the wrap or around 7 inches from where they grip the butt. The cue butt is often inlaid with exotic woods such as cocobolo and bocote as well as other materials such as ebony and ivory. Usually parts of the butt are sectioned off with decorative rings. The use of various types of wraps on the cue butt, such as Irish linen or leather, provide a player with a better grip as well as absorbing moisture. Cheaper cues usually feature a nylon wrap which is considered not as good a "feel" as Irish Linen. Fiberglass and Graphite cues usually have a "Veltex" grip that is made of fiberglass/graphite, but is smoother and not glossy. Some people also prefer a cue with no wrap, and thus just a glossed finish on wood. Sometimes these no-wrap cues are more decorated because of the increased area for design and imagination. The butt of cheaper cues are usually spliced hardwood and a plastic covering while more high-end cues use solid rosewood or ebony.

TIPS

Leather tips of varying degrees of shapes and hardness are affixed to the ferrule, often by means of glue or a wafer. The standard shapes for a tip are nickel and dime, determined by shaping a tip so that when one puts a nickel or dime to it, they are the same curvature. Quarter-shaped tips are less common, though are usually used for breaking cues because less curvature means less accidental spin and more accuracy for a straight shot such as the break.
Rounder tips impart spin to the cue ball more easily since the point of contact between the tip and the ball requires less distance from the center hit to impart same amount of spin, due to the increased tangential contact. Tips are sometimes made of harder materials such as phenolic resin because it is favored upon for a break cue (Breaks usually require less spin, thus less round harder tips preserve the shape of the tip longer without sacrificing the effectiveness of the break).
With a new tip one should take care, and break in first. Typically this might take 500 to a thousand shots, and power shots to be avoided. The less you maipulate the tip, the longer it will last.
The tip end of the cue will vary in diameter but is typically in the 11 to 14 millimeter ('mm') range with 13 mm for pool cues being most common and 10 mm for Snooker cues being most common.
A leather tip naturally compresses and hardens with subsequent shots. Without proper care, the surface of the tip can develop an undesired smoothness or glossiness which can significantly reduce the desired friction between the tip and the cue ball. Cue chalk is applied to the tip of the cue, ideally after every other shot or so, to help achieve the desired friction and minimize the chance of a miscue. This is especially important when the cue tip does not hit the cue ball in its center and thereby imparts spin to the cue ball.
There are different grades of hardness for tips, ranging from very soft to very hard. Softer tips like "Elk Master" hold chalk better, but tend to degrade faster from abrasion (from chalk and scuffers), shaping (from cue tip shapers/tackers/picks), and mushrooming (from normal use or hard hits that compact the tip from all directions), so try to minimise sanding down, scuffing etc. Harder tips like "Blue diamond plus" "Triangle" and "Le Professional" ("Le Pro") maintain their shape much better, but because of their hardness, chalk tends to not hold as well as it does on softer tips. The hardness of a leather tip is determined from its compression and tanning during the manufacturing process.
All cue tips once were of a one-piece construction, like "LePro" or "Triangle". More recently some tips are made of layers that are laminated together, like "Moori" and "Talisman". Harder tips and laminated tips hold their shape better than softer tips and one-piece tips. Laminated tips generally cost more than one-piece tips due to their more extensive manufacturing process. A potential problem with laminated tips is delamination, where a layer begins to separate from another or completely comes apart. Delamination is not common and usually results from improper installation, misuse of tip tools, or high impact masse' shots. One-piece tips are not subject to this problem, but they do tend to mushroom more easily, which is when the sides of the tip bulge out.
Some players make their own (layered) tips by glueing an old tip on a new leather base. Contact glue such as by Pattex(tm) works well.

Materials and design
The choice of materials used in the construction of the cue butt and the artistry of the design can lead to cues of great beauty and high price. Good quality pool cues are customarily made from straight grained hard rock maple wood, especially the shaft. Snooker cues, by contrast, are almost always made of ash wood, although you might come across one with a maple shaft. Maple is stiffer than ash, and cheaper. Cues are not always for play, some are purely collectible and can reach prices of tens of thousands of dollars for the materials they are made of and their exquisite craftsmanship. There have been a number of famous cue makers over the years. Among the most famous are George Balabushka, Herman Rambow, John Parris (Church Vale, London), Hunt & O'Byrne (Butler's Wharf, London), Palmer, Longoni, Samsara, Southwest, and Szamboti whose cues are often very valuable to collectors. A good B-brand for a snooker cue might be an Adam (made in Hong Kong) or an SM, which stands for snooker master.[citations needed] These "collector" cues often have ornate inlays with precious metals and stones, and varying woods to display designs and works of art, but mainly fine workmanship and top quality materials.[3] The woods can be stained to be absorbed into the wood and transparent or painted upon. These cues are also valued because of how well they perform. Competitors of custom cue makers and mass-production manufacturers usually try to make cues look like they are made of expensive materials by using overlays and decals. Although these deter the cost of the cues, they do not degrade the cue's effectiveness in gameplay. Another mark of quality is the precision that inlays are set in the wood. High quality inlays are set perfectly in the wood without any extra space to be filled; they are also perfectly symmetrical on all sides as well as clean cut so that the points are sharp and not rounded. The use of machines has aided much in the production of high quality inlays as well as other ornaments.

Bumper
The final part a cue is the bumper, made of rubber (pool) or leather (snooker). Though often considered less important than other parts of a cue, this part is essential for protecting a cue and preserving its "feel". The bumper protects the cue when it rests on the ground or hits a wall, person, or table. Without it, the vibrations might cause a crack in the butt-end over an extended period of time. The vibrationsalso play a role in the "feel" of the cue. Without the bumper, the resonance of the cue hitting the cueball vibrates differently than in a cue with a properly screwed on and tight bumper. Though minuscule, the bumper also adds some weight on the end of the cue, preserving a balance that also impacts the feel of a cue.

CusZoom Custom Pool Cues
The very best custom made pool cue is what every serious pool player deserves. If you are the pool player… think about it. Pocket billiards is your passion. Don’t you deserve the best quality two piece cue stick you can afford? CusZoom Cues are built to the highest standards. "You'll be raving about your CusZoom Pool Cue."

A well made pool cue, snooker cue or billiards cue will last several lifetimes if it is cared for properly. Proper care of cue sticks along with how to choose the custom features that are appropriate for you are but two of the many different aspects of pool cues that are covered in this billiards website.

Pool cue sticks, billiards cues or snooker cues don't necessarily have to be expensive to be good. To be sure, there are some good pool cues for sale, even very good pool cues for sale, which are made by major manufacturers like Schon, Viking, Mcdermott, Joss, Predator, Meucci, and others. One of those cues, while quite playable, will always be limited in its value because it is one of hundreds or thousands of an identical model. There is nothing wrong with that, but most of us would rather have something special, something that is unique and ours alone.

A professionally made custom cue is just very different from a production pool cue. To begin with a custom billiards cue is usually built by a single craftsman. Typically it is a one-of-a-kind creation or a very limited run of a similar style. Unlike most production cues, the value of a custom made cue will often exceed its original purchase price by many times. Even though a custom cue is often more affordable than people tend to think it can be considered an investment rather than a purchase.

The inception of a custom made cue is usually something quite personal. It is most often either the cuemaker’s inspiration or that of his / her client. It can be the resulting collaboration of craftsman and client that creates a unique work of functional art. That result is a pool cue that fulfills the needs and requirements of its owner and displays the talent and craftsmanship of its creator. If you are considering a pool cue as a gift for someone else you have made a fine choice.