Old pics of Steve Davis' cue being worked on

[Dave Walton]

I remember seeing that cue and I thought it looked really bad.

Last i seen him using it the cue looked as though it needed a refurb, chalk on the tip end of the shaft and the joint needed realigned to match the splices back up.

I'm not sure after it being cut that the splices ever lined up properly.

[narl]

I'm not sure after it being cut that the splices ever lined up properly.

At one point they did, any cue with a brass joint after a while the faces of the joint wear down some and the butt and shaft get slightly offset. It's not as noticeable on a regular 3/4 cue, but it's very noticeable with the joint through the splices as they start not to line up.

[vmax]

At one point they did, any cue with a brass joint after a while the faces of the joint wear down some and the butt and shaft get slightly offset. It's not as noticeable on a regular 3/4 cue, but it's very noticeable with the joint through the splices as they start not to line up.

My cue has the joint just above the splices yet the grain matches as perfectly now as it did ten years ago when the cue was jointed. I have never seen pics of that cue (Davis') with perfectly lined up splices after it was jointed so unless Davis wanted the mace flat moved a tad, which I doubt as he always had it facing up, it was a poor job by Parris.

My guess is that although the holes are drilled to a size that meant the brass joint was tight in the wood making it a good job to ensure that nothing would come loose, it's then only a case of a nought point something of a millimetre taken off the the face of the female joint to then match it up and that wasn't done.
You can even take a nought point something off the male joint with the right tool to keep it all even, I can do that on my little lathe and I'm sure Parris has something bigger and better than me.

[mick farrell]

I'm puzzled. The cheque in the picture says September 1986 but the work was done on the cue in October/November 1987. In the 1987 Grand Prix it was a one piece and in the 1987 UK it was a two piece.

[narl]

My cue has the joint just above the splices yet the grain matches as perfectly now as it did ten years ago when the cue was jointed. I have never seen pics of that cue (Davis') with perfectly lined up splices after it was jointed so unless Davis wanted the mace flat moved a tad, which I doubt as he always had it facing up, it was a poor job by Parris.

My guess is that although the holes are drilled to a size that meant the brass joint was tight in the wood making it a good job to ensure that nothing would come loose, it's then only a case of a nought point something of a millimetre taken off the the face of the female joint to then match it up and that wasn't done.
You can even take a nought point something off the male joint with the right tool to keep it all even, I can do that on my little lathe and I'm sure Parris has something bigger and better than me.

Pros obviously play and practice much more than we do so it stands to reason their cues would be assembled and disassembled more frequently creating more wear on the joint. Brass does bed in after a while, my old 3/4 classic i sold in 02 to a guy in the club who still has it shows signs of it having shifted a bit to the right as well. The flat is slightly off line to the grain now, when it was new they were perfectly inline. Any cue maker I've asked about having a joint through the splices have told me the same thing, after a while they will go out of alignment due to wear on the brass with screwing and unscrewing the cue.


The work on Davis cue was pretty much John Parris getting his foot in the door with the pros, I seriously doubt he would hand at the time the best player in the world back his cue with wonky splices. In the last pic of that collage the cue appears to have aligned splices as well.

[throtts]

Cool pics indeed..

Thanks for sharing.